Barry O’Neil – Featured Video Transcripts

Barry O’Neil has featured three videos on his bio page which contain the following text.


 

Video Transcript:
What issues come up most in employment law litigation?
Probably the most frequent one is involving the termination of an employee. If we’re representing an employer, they may come to us and outline what they think an employee has done and ask, “Can I terminate ’em?” But any time you have an employee who might be in a protected class, minority, gender, you have to be very specific and careful about how you may terminate an employee. Another area is non-compete cases. There are some common law things that employees can’t do when they leave a company. But a general prohibition on not competing isn’t something that the law recognizes. But lots of companies employ non-compete agreements, and they often come to us if an employee leaves to ask if something the employee may be doing at the new employer violates a non-compete agreement.

Video Transcript:
What rights do minority shareholders have in a shareholder dispute?
Minnesota law has protections in 302A. It’s a statute. And there’s a 751 section that provides that you have a right as a minority shareholder to not have the majority shareholders disadvantageously treat you or unfairly treat you. So there’s all sorts of rights in a closed corporation for…Minnesota law actually provides that you have a right to participate in management, you have a right to a salary, and a right to, really, have your interests treated fairly. So those are the general rights that a minority shareholder has.

Video Transcript:
What is the first thing a business should do if served with a commercial litigation lawsuit?
Well, a big issue these days is all of the electronic communications that go on, and emails and all sorts of files and servers and things like that. You really initially, and I advise all my clients, once they are served with a complaint to put what’s called a litigation hold in place and make sure that they’re maintaining all their electronic files, which are called ESI, so that they’re…they don’t destroy anything that might be needed in the lawsuit that apparently has just been started.