United States of America

Contributor

Bierce & Kenerson, P.C.

Demographics

Intellectual Property

Employment Law

This summary is subject to change without notice and does not cover all applicable laws. It sets a framework for enterprises considering becoming a user or provider of outsourced services. “Hot and emerging issues” are described at the end of this article.

Jurisdictional Competence. The U.S. federal Constitution permits multiple jurisdictions to enact and enforce laws governing employment.  Thus, the Federal Department of Labor (“DOL”) administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and implementing regulations. These mandates cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.   Each state, each county and each city has competence to enact labor laws as well.  This summary is based primarily on federal law, which generally will cover most general situations…for more, click here.

Data Protection and Privacy

Outsourcing service providers and their enterprise customers have a joint duty to ensure that their business relationship does not violate applicable laws and regulations on privacy and data protection. Consumer fraud, identity theft, brand damage, remediation costs and damages hang in the balance.

The United States has a web of rules guaranteeing the privacy rights of individuals, juridical entities and governmental operations. This outline highlights basic rules, which are constantly under judicial, legislative and regulatory review…for more, click here.

Dispute Resolution

Under the American federal Constitution, disputes may be litigated in either federal or state courts. Arbitration and mediation are also permitted.

Enterprise customers and service providers have substantial flexibility and legal autonomy in the selection of dispute resolution procedures. The following summary invites a further discussion with your outsourcing lawyer on risk allocation and risk management strategies and techniques generally, the structure of relationship governance, choice of law, choice of forum and contractual and non-contractual remedies for breach…for more, click here.

Local Development Incentives

Most state and local governments have identified industries and business types that are targets for job creation, local development and international business promotion.  The commitments and conditions of such development are generally negotiated and tailored to individual company profiles and operations.