Category Archives: Business

Standard Disclaimer: Vidar provides posts in this blog as general information. This is not meant to be specific advice and your business should always talk directly with a lawyer about your individual business needs. You started a business. You survived your first year. You started to make money and hire employees. You continue to expand. Congratulations! You have beaten the odds. Until ... you suddenly find your business involved in...

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Standard Disclaimer: Vidar provides posts in this blog as general information. This is not meant to be specific advice and your business should always talk directly with a lawyer about your individual business needs. Anyone remember the old game show Press Your Luck? It ran for about three years in the late 1980s. It wasn’t a big hit, but variations of it have appeared worldwide and the show itself was...

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Standard Disclaimer: Vidar provides posts in this blog as general information. This is not meant to be specific advice and your business should always talk directly with a lawyer about your individual business needs. This week, a former unpaid intern filed a class-action lawsuit against Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's company Dualstar Entertainment Group. One of my clients sent me the story and thanked me for helping them design an internship program that...

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Standard Disclaimer: Vidar provides posts in this blog as general information. This is not meant to be specific advice and your business should always talk directly with a lawyer about your individual business needs. Running a promotion, such as a contest or a sweepstakes, can be a great way to generate interest for your business. Even better, most promotions don't require an expensive giveaway in order to be successful. Both new businesses,...

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One common question I get asked by clients is to look over a contract and tell them if it is “good” or “any good” or “works for me.” So here’s the thing… I don’t know. In many cases, I have no idea if a contract is a good thing for a client. It’s not really what I do. Whether or not a contract is "good" for a client is largely...

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Anyone who follows tech, startups, or privacy issues has probably seen, by now, the firestorm surrounding Uber this week. I will not go into extensive detail, but in brief, a senior executive at Uber apparently suggested that it might be acceptable to dig up dirt on individual journalists and their families if those journalists were critical of Uber. It seems generally understood that this was directed against one particular journalist (you can read her reaction here). Read more »

This week, the Huffington Post reported that sandwich maker Jimmy John’s requires even its lowest paid workers to sign oppressive non-compete agreements. The Jimmy John’s non-compete language is incredibly broad and is completely unjustified, especially when used with low-level employees. According to its terms, the non-compete prevents a low-level employee from taking a job at any business that get more than 10% of its revenue from selling “submarine, hero-type, deli-style, pita and/or wrapped or rolled sandwiches” for two years after leaving Jimmy John’s. It also says that the worker can’t take a job at this type of “competitor” if the new employer is located within 3 miles of the particular Jimmy John’s shop or within 3 miles of any other Jimmy John’s. Read more »