About Nancy Henderson
Nancy Henderson is an award-winning journalist who has published hundreds of articles in Smithsonian, The New York Times, Parade, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. The author of Sewing Hope and Able! How One Company’s Extraordinary Workforce Changed the Way We Look at Disability Today, she enjoys breaking stereotypes and often writes about people who are making a difference through their work. Over the years, she’s enjoyed listening to family stories about her grandfather, who prosecuted cases as a solicitor general in North Carolina long before she was born.
Articles written by Nancy Henderson
What Should You Look for in an Employment Contract?
Look for clarity about your base salary, signing bonus, restrictive covenants, and termination clauses in your employment contract. An employment contract should describe your job duties, the scope of employment, compensation structure, non-compete clauses, benefits package, and separation agreement. Workers without a contract have at-will employment with no term of employment or severance pay rights. Employers often have confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure terms to protect …
Point of Fact
Daniel Gomez marries facts with storytelling as counsel for his Native American clientsDaniel Gomez had only been out of law school a few years when his skills were put to the test in one of the most complex cases of his career. He and his colleagues filed a breach of trust lawsuit on behalf of the Quapaw Nation of Oklahoma in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims alleging the U.S. government had mismanaged the tribe’s assets, leaving an environmental disaster on the reservation from indiscriminate lead and zinc mining. At one point during discovery, opposing counsel scheduled what …
The Fine Print
How to avoid a software licensing nightmareWhile counseling a client who was considering acquiring another company, Nicholas Hasenfus, an attorney with Holland & Knight, discovered a big problem: The about-to-be-purchased business believed it owned key business software, which it paid about $2 million to develop. “We looked at the contract with that developer, and it said, No. 1, the developer owns everything and No. 2, the provider is not permitted to sublicense or use the software except for internal business purposes,” …
The Rights and Wrongs of Termination
Employment attorneys discuss what wrongful termination means and how to avoid itWhen clients call Renee Inomata for advice, the No. 1 question she hears is: “I need to let somebody go. What are the risks involved?” Says Inomata, a former litigator who now focuses on helping employers avert mistakes as an employment defense attorney at Casner & Edwards, “A lot of what I deal with is trying to avoid a wrongful termination claim.” Simply put, wrongful termination takes place when a worker is fired for an illegal reason—violation of a state or national …
How Employers Can Avoid a Wrongful Termination Lawsuit
Employers can avoid a wrongful termination lawsuit with documentation to show progressive discipline for poor performance reviews and by following policies outlined in employee handbooks and employment contracts. Employers have the right to fire workers under at-will employment unless it is wrongful termination or retaliation motivated by discrimination against a protected class. HR policies should follow legal compliance, show just cause for disciplinary action, and conduct exit interviews. …
How To Prevent Software License Disputes: Upfront Legal Review
While counseling a client who was considering acquiring another company, Nicholas Hasenfus, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Boston, discovered a big problem: The about-to-be-purchased business believed it owned key business software, which it paid about $2 million to develop. “We looked at the contract with that developer, and it said, No. 1, the developer owns everything and No. 2, the provider is not permitted to sublicense or use the software except for internal business …
Vote of Confidence
Your rights as a voter and what to do if they’re violatedIn her early days as a volunteer poll watcher, Caitlyn Silhan witnessed a number of voters being turned away from their polling station. Even though they had updated their registration at the same time as their driver’s licenses, poll workers could find no record of it. Silhan, a civil litigation attorney at Waters Kraus & Paul in Dallas, went on to successfully sue the state of Texas for noncompliance with federal law in 2016 and 2020. “Now, if a Texan goes to update their driver’s …
The Labyrinthine Process and the Waiting Line
Attorneys dispel myths about the immigration processAs a Chinese-born U.S. citizen studying law in the 1970s, Gordon Quan admits he was a bit naïve when he assumed getting a green card for his new wife, a Hong Kong resident attending the University of Houston on a student visa, would be relatively easy. More than once, she waited for hours at the local immigration office to check the status of her application, only to be told, curtly, “Yeah, it’s pending. Next!” “It was very frustrating,” says Quan, an immigration attorney in Houston. …
Immigrating to the US: A Labyrinthine Process and Long Waits
As a Chinese-born U.S. citizen studying law in the 1970s, Gordon Quan admits he was a bit naïve when he assumed getting a green card for his new wife, a Hong Kong resident attending the University of Houston on a student visa, would be relatively easy. More than once, she waited for hours at the local immigration office to check her application status, only to be told, curtly, “Yeah, it’s pending. Next!” “It was very frustrating,” says Quan, an immigration attorney in Houston. …
From Cop Car to Courtroom
Tim Brooks traded a law enforcement career for a legal oneAn old maxim attributed to baseball player Yogi Berra states, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” For Hamburg criminal defense attorney Tim Brooks, life has been all about taking those forks. It started when Brooks’ dad, chief of detectives at the Lackawanna Police Department, encouraged his son to take the civil service exam. Brooks, then 21, was studying business administration and marketing at the University at Buffalo when the opportunity arose. “Consumer product …
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