Business Services

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on April 23, 2024 issued a rule banning future non-compete agreements with limited exceptions. The FTC rule bans virtually all non-compete agreements for employees and independent contractors. Pre-existing non-compete agreements with senior executives remain enforceable, but new non-competes with senior executives are not. Likewise, non-competes entered into pursuant to a sale of a business or person’s ownership stake in a business are exempt from the FTC rule. Pat Torre takes a look at the rule in this Stites & Harbison Client

It is a little under two weeks until the July 1, 2024, effective date for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Final Rule (the “Final Rule”) raising the minimum salary level requirement for exempt white-collar employees to $43,888 annually. Now is the time to check in on the status of any legal challenges which might effect that deadline and employment attorney Shannon Hamilton takes a look at those challenges in this Stites & Harbison Client

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Chambers USA selected 25 Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee for inclusion in their 2024 guide. The Chambers USA guide ranks the top law firms and leading attorneys in the United States.

Privacy and Data Security attorney Sarah Cronan Spurlock will be a speaker at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the IADC July 6-11.

Chad McTighe and Sarah Spurlock will be the speakers for The Knowledge Group's Webinar on June 14, 2024 discussing the costs associated with unforeseen security risks.

Stites & Harbison, PLLC welcomes attorney Nicholas J. Lococo (Nick) to the firm’s Louisville, Ky., office. He is a Member (Partner) in the Business & Finance Service Group.

Stites & Harbison, PLLC welcomes attorney Jessie A. Smith to the firm based in the Lexington, Ky., office. He joins the Construction Service Group.

On April 23, 2024, the FTC issued its final rule banning employers’ use of non-compete agreements. The rule is broad, applying nationwide and to all non-compete agreements, with a few narrow exceptions. The ban has not gone into effect—it’s scheduled to go into effect 120 days after being published in the Federal Register—and legal challenges have already been filed. Robin McGuffin and Zac Losey take a look at the new rule in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was enacted last year with the purpose of protecting pregnant workers from discrimination and providing them with a right to reasonable accommodations in the workplace. On April 15, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its Final Rule setting forth expansive regulations implementing the law. The Final Rule becomes effective June 18, 2024. Robin McGuffin and Harlee Havens take a look at what this means in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

Attorneys Shannon Sprinkle and Matt Gass will be moderating and participating on a panel focused on Litigation Trends in Privacy and Data Protection on April 17, 2024 presented by the Atlanta Bar Association.

Many companies struggle with how to best compensate and incentivize their key employees. Salary and short-term bonuses alone may not be sufficient. Many key employees seek to be rewarded for their long-term efforts and to share in any increase in value of the company. Andy Jacobs takes a look at the most common means adopted by companies in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

Alison Zeitlin will be a speaker at this webinar that will examine the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its impact on construction entities, including who is considered a "reporting company" subject to new beneficial ownership information reporting requirements and the information that must be reported.

In recent years, we have seen more and more ERISA class action claims against retirement plan sponsors and committees for breach of fiduciary duty. In the past, such claims were generally only made against very large plans but we are starting to see claims against smaller plans. The primary allegation is often that the fiduciaries failed to seek the lowest fees available or put another way the fiduciaries were “asleep at the wheel.” By one report, 463 lawsuits have been filed over the last eight years claiming fiduciaries failed to obtain the lowest available fees. Lexington office attorney Andy Jacobs takes a look at the issues in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

An extraordinary performance-based stock option plan (the “Grant”) awarded by Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) to Elon Musk (“Musk”) was invalidated by the Delaware Court of Chancery last week, despite the fact that over 70% of Tesla’s disinterested stockholders approved it at a 2018 special meeting. Attorney Brian Cromer takes a look at the decision in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The 2024 edition of Kentucky Super Lawyers® recently honored 49 Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorneys in the Covington, Frankfort, Lexington and Louisville, Ky., offices. The publication named 35 attorneys to the Super Lawyers® list and 14 attorneys to the Rising Stars® list.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Stites & Harbison, PLLC announced today that three attorneys have been promoted to Member (Partner). The promotions are effective January 1, 2024. The new Members (Partners) are Katie M. Glass, Mary Lucille (Mary Lu) Noah, and Drake W. Staples.