I’m a company director. It’s not your company. You didn’t appoint me. So why should I owe you a duty of care? Recent case
Just another case on not asking for too much from your employees in their restrictive covenants
Patent Box: things to think about
Guest article: how catching a cold can hurt your pocket
In this series of legal briefings I update you about recent developments in corporate or commercial law. Some of these briefings will hopefully resonate with some of you some of the time. I explain some of the context and background law, and perhaps give some specific tips. And maybe ramble or even rant a bit.
I’m a company director. It’s not your company. You didn’t appoint me. So why should I owe you a duty of care? Recent case
This is the first case in which an appeal court has ruled on the potential duties owed by a director of a joint venture company directly to one of the contractual joint venture parties (one which is not even a shareholder in the joint venture company).
Rating system:
Reading time (1-10 minutes): 4 minutes
Sophistication level (1 (idiot) – 10 (expert)): 5
Entertainment value (1 (turgid) – 10 (side-splitting)): 5
Just another case on not asking for too much from your employees in their restrictive covenants
As an employer you don’t like training an employee up, giving him access to customers and confidential information, letting him develop relationships with other staff, and paying him a nice salary, only to see him leave you to set up a competing business, take some of your staff with him, solicit your customers using your customer lists and use your confidential information to help him compete with you. So you put restrictive covenants in his employment contract saying he can’t do any of this for a few years after he leaves. Seems fair enough?
Rating system:
Reading time (1-10 minutes): 3 minutes
Sophistication level (1 (idiot) – 10 (expert)): 5
Entertainment value (1 (turgid) – 10 (side-splitting)): 5
Patent Box: things to think about
Whilst I promised not to write too much about tax – it’s really not my specialist area – there are one or two things worth thinking about in relation to how you can go about business to take advantage of the new Patent Box regime.
Rating system:
Reading time (1-10 minutes): 1 minute
Sophistication level (1 (idiot) – 10 (expert)): 1
Entertainment value (1 (turgid) – 10 (side-splitting)): 9
All the best,
Andrew James
OnHand Counsel Limited
This newsletter is provided free of charge for information purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice (even if it looks like it does) and should not be relied on as such. No responsibility for the accuracy and/or correctness (I’m not sure what the difference is but that’s what my precedent says) of the information and commentary set out here, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed or accepted by OnHand Counsel Limited or by any solicitor, employee or agent of OnHand Counsel Limited, ie particularly me. You have not paid me to provide it to you and I do not owe you any duty of care whatsoever so why should I be liable to you if you go away and do something wrong relying on what I have said in it. If you want to do something and want to rely on my advice, give me some money! Thank you for reading this far.
