Author Archives: Joe Ahmad

Non-compete breach in business contract nets client $25.6M 

My colleagues at AZA and I won a $25.6 million breach of contract jury verdict in Houston court this week in a non-compete case pitting AZA client doctors’ group Fondren Orthopedic Ltd. against healthcare giant HCA Healthcare.   While the Federal … Continue reading

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Northern District of Texas temporarily enjoins FTC from enforcing its non-compete ban

It’s not surprising that a federal court enjoined the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) non-compete ban. Many non-compete lawyers, including me, predicted that the FTC ban on worker non-compete agreements would be struck down.  And the first court to rule on … Continue reading

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Whistleblower client helps government settle $15 million Baylor heart surgery Medicare fraud case 

Working in concert with the federal government for five years, my law firm colleagues and I saw our whistleblower client receive $3 million of the $15 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging that Houston surgeons were letting unqualified trainees perform … Continue reading

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Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch acquitted of defrauding HP; he was smart to testify 

A San Francisco jury that heard three months of testimony unanimously acquitted Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch of 15 criminal charges of conspiracy and wire fraud over the 2011 sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard. The government charged that Lynch misrepresented … Continue reading

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Boeing CEO resigns – the top must drop in crises like these 

Davd Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, announced he is resigning from the troubled airlines at the end of the year. This is inevitable and the right thing to do. Just like in pro sports, an organization with major problems needs to … Continue reading

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Paxton and Succession – What if you are the coup target?

Though politics, in the more formal political party sense of the word, had a leading role in the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, there were definite similarities between that attempted takeover and what happens in the hit … Continue reading

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FTC Non-Compete Rule Change Could Boost Wages and Innovation

In April, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) closed comments on a proposed rule change that would drastically limit employers’ uses and abuses of non-compete agreements in employee contracts.  When the FTC announced the proposed rule change its press release suggested … Continue reading

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Can CEO’s learn something from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’s problems with the NFL?

Earlier this week, multibillionaire and longtime Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was found to have violated the league’s tampering rules in a scheme described as “unprecedented in scope and severity” by commissioner Roger Goodell. It’s hard for someone like me … Continue reading

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Despite Two Closely Watched Trial Losses, DOJ Pressing on with Controversial Criminal No-Poaching, Price-Fixing Antitrust Enforcement

Is the DOJ going too far by aggressively pursuing criminal no-poach and price-fixing charges as per se violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act? In two recent trials testing these enforcement theories for the first time, jurors thought the government’s cases … Continue reading

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Covid-19’s Latest Side Effect: A Stampede of Whistleblowers at the SEC

It seems every day we find new ways the pandemic has upended the way we live and work. Just ask anyone in HR, data security and compliance. It’s no secret that housebound and hybrid workers have been keeping them awake … Continue reading

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