Farewell to ENET
We are now in our last weeks of summer, with vacations now over or ending, Labor Day and its cook-outs and other fun associated activities, all now past us, as we look forward to Autumn and a return to our usual routines. So, for most of us, the time for the beach and ocean swimming is now past, but still September is a great time for long walks, hikes and bike rides, and later this month, apple picking and the New England fall foliage season.
These are transition times for the Boston sports scene as we move from Red Sox summer to Patriots autumn. This past summer, the Boston Red Sox were in last place and written off in June and then went on an incredible 15-game winning streak that tied the 90-year old franchise record. After that the team cooled off in August and September, it still make the playoffs. Sadly as no. 2 out of 3 Wild card teams, the Sox did not get a home game at Fenway Park, in a three game series. They lost two games and the series to the Yankees by scores of 9-0 and 9-2.
Despite those one-sided run results, I think Boston still might have been won with better use of our team’s greatest strength: starting pitchers. After game 1, when my best friend an ardent Yankees fan called me to gloat, I still voiced optimism and bet the Red Sox. Down 1-0 in a best 2 out of 3 series, I asked for and got 2 to 1 odds. Hell my friend would have offered me 10 to 1. Either way I still lost my $5.00 bet on Boston. My big beef: I question Chad Tracy’s decision to pull Sonny Gray after just 70 pitches over 4 2/3 innings. The Sox were then behind 1-0 in game #2 when Tracy took out Sonny Gray. Boston eventually got 2 runs and if Gray had been left to pitch further into the game, perhaps 18-game winner Gray might have lasted to the 8th to closer Aroldis Chapman and the Sox might have made 2-1 standup for a win. If they had. I very much liked Ranger Suarez, our starter for game 3. He’d been red hot in September 3 wins and 1.09 ERA. But as they say “coulda, woulda” “shoulda”. and now we say “Wait til next year”. In any case, I certainly can thank Chad Tracy for his great managing in June and July to bring the Sox back from the dead and make for an interesting baseball summer.
Now we are in full spectator sports transition, as we move our focus to the topsy turvy world of the New England Patriots. Three games into the season and the Pats complete collapse in a butt-whooping 35-6 to Jacksonville, it looked like a most difficult season ahead.
Yet, from the result of one game, the fortunes of the Patriots have risen. This past Sunday, the 1-2 Partiots went on the road to take on the 3-0 Bills in Orchard Park, NY. This time, Drake May stepped up big time. Aided By some amazing catches, May outplayed the formidable Josh Allen to take the Patriots to a last minute come-from behind victory 29-26 over the Buffalo. Now we are back in the thick of it, the Bills lead 3-2, the Pats 2-2. It is a long NFL season ahead and unlike last year, it is a much harder Patriots schedule. But last Sunday gives us all hope. Perhaps just as they did last year, Drake Maye, Mike Vrable and Josh McDaniels will find a way to lead the Pats into the NFL Playoffs. So, fingers crossed that this positive trend will continue.
As for Newsletter items, I have provided links to items that I hope might be of interest. Item #1 is about the Farewell to ENET – The Boston Entrepreneurs Network that voted a week ago to dissolve and transfer assets to IEEE Boston Section. In this post, I go well beyond just the vote to dissolve ENET and transfer its assets, as I try to recapture a bit of what ENET had achieved and was delivering for entrepreneurs by 2020 just before the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll. In this extended post, I provide to those interested in the world of entrepreneurship links to slide decks from 24 different ENET expert speakers whom as meetings’ organizer I recruited to speak in presentation during the 2017 to 2020 period. Those 24 different slide decks are still today accessible on the ENET website. Those slides remain relevant today to offer valuable insights to aid today’s entrepreneurs in numerous challenging areas.
This newsletter also has links, in items #2, #4 and #5, to three articles of mine to aid C-level and senior executives. The first link item #2 is to my most recent article published ten weeks ago in July on the promissory estoppel / detrimental reliance remedy if a job offer is withdrawn or other promise in employment is denied after you had relied on it. Item #4 offers a link to my article discusses the advantages of RSUs an important form of equity to consider as part of your executive compensation package. The third link, #5 is to another CEOWORLD article of mine on a bold self-help remedy that I have, under the right circumstances, been able to use to aid executive clients when the company owner reneged on the promise of significant equity.
There is also a special offer as item #6, an Executive Equity Law Diagnostic. I hope some of these items might be of benefit… and my best wishes to all for the rest of August!
1. Farewell to ENET: 35 years’ service to Entrepreneurs, 1991 – 2026
A week ago on September 29, the Boston Entrepreneurs Network (ENET), by Executive Committee vote, determined to dissolve and transfer its assets to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Boston Section. ENET has been a Waltham and Cambridge based non-profit group, affiliated with IEEE, to aid founders, entrepreneurs, small and early stage companies, and people who invest or work in those companies in tech and life science and other areas of New England’s innovation economy. The group offered as many as 20 meetings per year, plus our annual cruise of Boston Harbor to end the program year. Each meeting typically had three speakers on a subject of interest to entrepreneurs and company founders, refreshments and networking time before and after the presentations to allow entrepreneurs to meet each other and later meet with the speakers. With the pandemic that began in 2020, networking and attendance sharply dropped. The group never recovered. Hence our final demise a week ago. In this post, I go much further than my brief chronical of the demise. Instead, I tell more of what ENET was on the eve of the pandemic and provide information on 33 ENET meetings I organized over a 15 years period. This includes links to slide decks from 24 ENET speakers which slide decks remain relevant and can offer a valuable resource and insights to aid today’s entrepreneurs in numerous challenging areas. More Details Here .
2. Promissory Estoppel Remedy to Executives for Broken Promises
Has a new employer rescinded your C-level executive job offer due to an economic downtown, a change in leadership or for other reasons? Has the new employer broken other promises you relied upon to take the new position? My most recent article, published ten weeks ago on July 27 by the IvyExec career advancement website, discusses how the legal doctrine of promissory estoppel or detrimental reliance, recognized by courts in many states, can give C-level or senior executives a remedy for redress when the employer does not live up to its side of the bargain. Read the Article Here
3. Work with CEOs, C-Suite and Senior Executives, exclusively.
Robert Adelson is an attorney specialized in the representation of CEOs, C-level and senior executives. He no longer represents companies or employers. Learn about Robert Adelson’s work with CEOs, C-level and senior executives to advise on and improve job offers, employment contracts, stock, RSUs, options, bonuses and other executive compensation matters, plus advice and aid on issues of wrongful termination, severance, exit terms, retention, change of control, other executive issues and more … More Details Here
4. Advantage of RSUs in Your Compensation Package
My article published in CEOWORLD magazine, a few years ago but still relevant today, describes how RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) differ from stock and options, how RSUs offer important advantages to CEOs and senior executives, and key terms to negotiate in your RSU grant agreement. Read the Article Here
5. Forming a competing company to own the business you built
Are you a CEO or C-level executive recruited to turnaround or add significant value to a company, and now that you did your job and are near success, find that the owner is moving the goal posts or otherwise reneging on the offer of significant equity that enticed you to join the company? My article published by CEOWORLD in March 2023 but still relevant today, sets out a bold self-help strategy that, under the right circumstances, could make you whole (and more than that!) for all the equity you were promised and denied after you had made important contributions to the company. Read the Article Here
6. 10/2026 Offer: Good until Oct. 20th
This 3-plus weeks value-packed offer, is as a way to get introduced to my law work: an Executive Employee Equity Law Diagnostic – this offer is good through 10/20/2026. More Details Here
It’s always a pleasure to get back in touch with you and other clients, friends, and colleagues. I hope the links and information provided will be useful to you and that there will be an opportunity for me to work with you on legal matters in the near future.
Let’s keep in touch!
Best regards,
Rob
Robert Adelson
*Adelson & Associates, LLC
Executive Employment Attorney
101 Federal Street, 19th Floor Boston, MA 02110
(617) 204-5601 Law Firm
(617) 204-5602 Direct
(617) 204-5604 Fax
E-mail : rob@attorneyadelson.com
Website: www.executiveemploymentattorney.com
Note on Adelson & Associates, LLC: * Robert A. Adelson is the Principal of Adelson & Associates, LLC. For fifteen (15) years, from October 2004 through December 2019, Robert Adelson practiced law and referred legal work to associates of his, trusted and experienced colleagues, as a partner of Engel & Schultz, LLP. In December 2019, the lead partners of the firm announced they would go into semi-retirement, go their separate ways, and the office lease would expire in January 2020. In response, Robert Adelson formed Adelson & Associates, LLC in December 2019 and commenced the new firm’s operations on January 1, 2020, with the new firm taking over, on that date and going forward, all current Robert Adelson clients, matters and operations, as well as all referral of legal work to associates of Robert Adelson. Since 1/1/2020, the firm’s offices have been and remain at 101 Federal Street, 19th Floor, across the street from the pre-2020 offices at One Federal Street, 21st Floor, in Boston’s Financial District.
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