To an audience of about 80 at the HESS Club, Mr. Williams gave a one-hour workshop titled, "Engineering Ethical Issues" that was designed to fulfill the Texas Board of Professional Engineers' yearly one-hour ethics requirement in order to maintain a PE license.
Some highlights from his presentation:
Texas now allows provisional PE licenses that are much quicker to obtain for out of state engineers. This was enacted to help out with the recent hurricane investigations and repairs.
Non-compete employment clauses will likely not stick in Texas unless the employer limits the non-compete period to one year, pays 75-100% of the salary during that period and limits the non-compete geographical area to the employer's county and perhaps surrounding counties.
Texas has a trade secret statute.
Expert witnesses should have a written contract, a defined scope of work, established pay rate, preferably with a retainer, a limitation of liability to the fees received, and an arbitration clause, to be tried under Texas laws.
Be careful with email, don't say anything in email you don't mind seeing on a billboard.
To download Mr. Williams' slide presentation, click here