James Johnston Quotations

Since the first call for papers went out in January, we received over150 proposals, virtually all of which represented intriguing sources of meaningful information. Only the limits of time and space prohibited our reviewers from adding more papers to the schedule.

Reynolds Tobacco does not spike its products with nicotine, ... In fact, our process results in the loss of nicotine.

If they're very marketable and they know they can go to another job just as easily as this one, then I tell them to push for the max. On the other hand, if the person isn't at that standpoint, I counsel them to feel out the situation and kind of bring up the subject if they feel comfortable.

The people were not ready for that kind of impact -- not that anybody could be, ... It was far larger than they ever dreamed it would be. It wiped out virtually all their infrastructure.

It also limits their right to discovery, or information-gathering. Probably the biggest problem is that most of them require the cost of the arbitrator be split by the parties. A lot of these arbitrators charge a lot of money. It could be thousands and thousands of dollars. That puts an employee sometimes in a position where they can't afford to arbitrate their claims.

I think Landco will come up with something that's very palatable in an environmental sense, but to me any form of development is out of the question.

Even on a relatively low level, some provisions for a substantial severance package can be included.

Put yourself in the arbitrator's position. Odds that the plaintiff employee is ever going to need your services again are almost zero. But if you're a large, multistate or multinational corporation, you figure, 'If I give a good ruling on this case, they're going to keep shooting me these cases and I can make a lot of money.' That's a built-in bias in the arbitration procedure.

They're becoming more common, especially in the dot-com industry.

The more they need you, the more likely it is you're going to get clauses that you want in the agreement.

It was really weird, like asking someone for dinner and presenting them with an empty plate,

The non-compete clause, depending on how it's worded, could be the most potentially damaging from a practical standpoint. Especially today, when people move from job to job. Try to negotiate so it's taken out or limited so it's not a tremendous burden on you.

That's a real problem area for us lawyers, ... because depending on how important it is for a company to get rid of someone, they can go through a whole sham of pretending to restructure a company to justify a termination.

This is my 14th (store). Most have been in the Midwest. This one I think I like a little bit better, because I've had so much support locally. It's a combination of everybody working together on this one. It's a total community thing.

The employee wasn't stealing. Over 10 years, he had opportunities to take thousands and thousands of parts and he never did any of that, and he had no intention of doing that,