On March 17, 2020, the City of Austin issued an order concerning community gatherings, effectively limiting the number of people that can be in any one room at a given time in an effort to combat the COVID-19 virus. The restrictions on community gatherings take effect at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, and will continue until at least May 1, 2020.
As of March 4th, 2020, the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) first detected in China has now been detected in almost 70 locations internationally, including the United States. Many of these locations have subsequently reported community spread of the illness by person-to-person contact, as opposed to earlier infections involving animal-to-person spread. While the severity of the illness remains unclear, current data indicates that nearly 3000 have died worldwide, while in the United States, 9 deaths have been confirmed.
On January 31, 2020, the International Trade Association’s Privacy Shield Team issued guidance concerning changes to Privacy Shield Framework in the wake of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. For those wondering how Brexit will impact cross-border data transfers, here are a couple items to note.
Wittliff Cutter is pleased to announce that Partner Karen Vladeck has been appointed as a Board Member of Code2College. Code2College is a non-profit origination based in Austin, TX whose mission is to increase the number of minority and low-income high school students who enter and excel in STEM undergraduate majors and careers. By partnering with a wide-range of companies in Central Texas, Code2College places local high school students in a multi-year, career prep and college access program that leverages local volunteer technical talent to teach coding and web development skills to traditionally underrepresented students.
Partner María Amelia Calaf filed an amicus brief in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Software and Information Industry (SIIA) and five other entities in St. Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. The issue before the Federal Circuit is whether a corporate entity can assign a patent to a Native American tribe for the sole purpose of allowing the tribe to invoke its sovereign immunity to avoid inter partes review (IPR). An IPR is a post-grant proceeding before the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) where the PTAB reviews the patentability of one or more claims of a previously granted patent.
Curious to learn more about Texas’s Anti-SLAPP statute? Or wanting to get an update on recent important decisions by the Texas Supreme Court? Read the summary paper authored by WCA partners María Amelia Calaf and Ryan Botkin and Jennifer Hopgood of the Office of the Texas Attorney General on Texas Citizens Participation Act: Current and Future Boundaries of “Anti-SLAPP” for a thorough overview of the law and practical tips for state law practitioners.
Partner Reid Wittliff recently taught two classes focused on technology law. On April 5, Reid taught an eDiscovery and Digital Forensics lecture to the University of Texas School of Law Technology in Litigation class. The presentation focused on the effective use of discovery to obtain digital evidence and the process digital forensics examiners use to identify, capture, preserver and present digital evidence in litigation.
Partners Ryan Botkin and Karen Vladeck will present at the Austin Bar Association’s Annual Bench Bar Conference on April 13, 2018. The Bench Bar Conference is one of the bar’s biggest annual events, which will be held at the Eilan Hotel in San Antonio.
As an employment lawyer, I often see provisions in employee handbooks that say something along the lines of: “Discussing pay and other confidential terms of employment with your co-workers is prohibited.” This type of clause — or anything that prohibits your employees from discussing the terms and conditions of their employment — is prohibited under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Wittliff Cutter Austin is pleased to announce that Partner Karen Vladeck has been named a Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2018.