Professor Maureen Weston Speaks on "How Should the Law Regulate Nondisclosure Agreements?" -- Widener Law Review Symposium

Professor Maureen Arellano Weston presented her work on "Buying Secrecy: Nondisclosure Agreements, Arbitration, and Professional Ethics" (SSRN), at Widener University's Law Review Symposium. The symposium, titled "Silence for Sale: The Uses and Abuses of Non-Disclosure Agreements, Non-Disparagement Clauses, and Secret Settlements, " was held at Widener University Delaware Law School on March 20. Professor Weston spoke on the panel "How Should the Law Regulate NDAs?" with professor David Hoffman of University of Pennsylvania Law, professor Miriam Cherry of St. Louis University School of Law, and associate dean Stephen Friedman of Widener University Delaware Law.

From the Widener Law Review Symposium program:

Promises not to disclose information—often called non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)—are widely used in employment contracts, litigation settlements, and other contexts. In recent years, these agreements have come under intense scrutiny because of mounting evidence that the agreements have been used to suppress information of public concern, including information about sexual predators, dangerously defective products, and compromising details about candidates for public office. At the same time, NDAs are routinely used for legitimate purposes such as protecting trade secrets or sensitive financial information. The challenge is coming up with a regulatory regime—either statutory or judge-made—that effectively separates the wheat of legitimate NDAs from the chaff of illegitimate ones. That is the topic of this symposium, which explores the uses and abuses of contracts that suppress speech.