Brian J. MacDonough quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly article on a recent ruling regarding implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing

Brian J. MacDonough, co-chair of the firm’s Employment Department, was quoted in the December 12th issue of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. The article, “Exec not discharged in bad faith, says 1st Circuit,” explores a recent ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding a biotech VP’s alleged firing to avoid incentive award. In this case, however, the court held that Keisuke Suzuki’s termination by Abiomed did not violate the implied covenant under the “Fortune/Gram doctrine” laid out in the Supreme Judicial Court’s 1977 Fortune v. Nat’l Cash Register Co. decision and its 1981 Gram v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. decision.

Read the full article on Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (subscriber content).

From the article:

“Boston employment attorney Brian J. MacDonough said the chief takeaway from Suzuki is that employees who rely on the goodwill of their employers or on the common law to protect them do so at their peril.

‘The 1st Circuit is treating employment as a business relationship and employees as businesspeople and, by and large, businesspeople will be held to their contracts,’ he said.”