Dallas Employment Attorneys & Lawyers

Updated June 24, 2020:

How Many Shares Does a Company Have?

Typically a startup company has 10,000,000 authorized shares of Common Stock, but as the company grows, it may increase the total number of shares as it issues shares to investors and employees. The number also changes often, which makes it hard to get an exact count.

Shares, stocks, and equity are all the same thing. A share is one piece of ownership in a company. When you own shares, you are a shareholder. Owning shares in a company gives you the right to your part of the company's earnings and everything it owns. The more shares you own, the bigger the part of profits you're entitled to.

When a company starts up, owners must choose an amount of stocks to authorize. This is the total amount of stocks the company will i

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Updated July 10, 2020:

Non-Compete Clause: What Is It?

A non-compete clause prohibits any employee from using the skills and knowledge used or gained at your workplace for a set period of time after their employment, either by working for a competitor or by recruiting business from current clients. It is written into an employee's contract when they sign on with your company or when they leave your company.

Many employers add non-compete clauses to employee contracts. These clauses protect businesses but are controversial. Also, they may not be enforceable in all places.

Non-compete clauses are tradition

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Updated July 13, 2020:

Work for Hire: What Is It?

Work for hire is any created work that can be copyrighted like songs, stories, essays, sculptures, paintings, graphic designs, or computer programs. In the U.S., work for hire — shorthand for the term "a work made for hire" — applies if the created piece is part of a person's job or made by an independent contractor.

Instead of the creator keeping the copyrights, the copyright and publishing rights belong to their employer. For example, when a staff writer drafts a blog for his employer, the company becomes the author and assumes

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Learn More About the HIPAA Privacy Rule

Not only does the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protect workers and their families by requiring employers to limit preexisting medical condition exclusions, but it has also set the Privacy Rule in place to protect electronically stored patient healthcare information.

History of the Privacy Rule

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Updated July 2, 2020:

Vesting Schedule: What Is It?

A vesting schedule is an incentive program set up by an employer which, when it is fully "vested," gives the employee full ownership of certain assets — usually retirement funds or stock options. It is an employer's way of giving employees a reason to stay with the company. To be 100 percent vested means that you are able to take all of your retirement benefits with you if you leave or have been fired.

Example: You are given 5,000 stock options or shares of restricted stock. Your vesting schedule is four years, and 25 percent of the grant vests each year. At the first anniversary of your grant date and on the same date over the subsequent three years, 25 percent of the options or restricted stock "vests," or becomes available to you. Once each p

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