Legal Spring Cleaning

As nicer and warmer weather has arrived in Montréal, I started thinking about how and – more importantly why – the concept of Spring Cleaning arose.  So, of course, I asked ChatGPT and  I was interested to learn that this tradition has religious, cultural, and practical roots. 🌸

From a religious perspective, at Passover, Jewish families would traditionally clean their homes to remove chametz (unleavened bread). ❌🥖 Also, for those who celebrate Easter, it is time of renewal when one may wish to refreshen their homes. ⛪️

Culturally, Persian New Year, which occurs on the Spring Equinox, involves a practice called khaneh tekani (“shaking the house”) where people refresh their homes for the New Year. This also became a cultural tradition in early America where, after the habitual use of woodstoves over winter months, soot and ash would accumulate and it became necessary to clean before everything became too dusty and warm in Summer. 🧹🧽  

Practically speaking, for those of us who live in colder climates, as the warmer weather arrives, it is finally the time when we can open the windows and let fresh air into the room and remove the dust and accumulations from the months spent inside.  🪟💨

From a legal perspective, there are reasons why in-house attorneys may wish to do a little Spring Cleaning of their own. Below are a few recommendations for Legal Spring Cleaning, which – as always – we can help with!

✅ Has the trademark notice on your website been updated to the current year?

✅ Has your employee handbook been updated as required by all applicable states?

✅ For companies with remote workforces, have do you have a good sense of where your employees are living and working?  Have you registered your company to do business in those states and complied with applicable state and local laws?

✅ If you are conducting business in a state that requires annual sexual harassment training, like the State of New York, have you scheduled trainings and set up a compliance tracking system?

✅ Have you run an annual analysis on the classification status for your independent contractors?  Are there any risks of reclassification to employee status?

✅ Do you have plans to provide regulatory compliance training for your employees and independent contractors to review your Code of Conduct and other compliance policies?  Have you conducted a risk assessment and provided special training to those working in higher risk areas?

✅ Are you complying with your corporate governance obligations and best practices?  Are there systems you can put in place to tighten up this compliance?

✅ Do you understand where your personal and departmental goals stand after Q1? This is a good time to revisit your annual goals and assess your progress.

✅ Do you know what your larger organizational goals are for the year?  This is a good time to talk to your business team counterparts to get a better understanding of what their goals are for the year and how the Legal Department will need to be involved. Set up a plan now to avoid the end of year crunch.

We can help.