Back in April 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule that would have banned non-compete agreements nationwide as of September 4, 2024. (You can read our alert on the FTC’s final rule here.) However, on...more
9/18/2024
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
In Tesla Inc., the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) recently reversed a 2019 decision in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that gave employers leeway when adopting neutral non-discriminatory dress codes. Instead, the Board applied...more
9/7/2022
/ Dress Codes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Tesla ,
Union Insignia ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions ,
Wal-Mart
Big change is here. Governor Pritzker signed the Student-Athlete Endorsement Rights Act, meaning effective today, Illinois student-athletes at both public and private universities, no matter the sport or division, have the...more
Student-athletes are gaining headway in their fight for additional compensation in exchange for the benefit they provide to the NCAA and its membership institutions. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a...more
Recently, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation significantly amending the Illinois Freedom to Work Act, which governs the legality and enforceability of non-compete agreements and other post-employment restrictive...more
In a recent Illinois case, the Second District Appellate Court affirmed a school board’s termination of a tenured teacher who sexually harassed students on the girls’ track team he coached. The students alleged that the...more
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) released an opinion letter addressing whether certain overtime payments based on an expected number of hours may be credited towards the amount of overtime pay owed under the Fair Labor...more
As reported in Education Week, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition to hear an appeal brought by Cook County Treasurer’s office, the Assessor’s office and others challenging a 7th Circuit decision allowing Illinois...more
A presidential election like no other in history, a global pandemic causing an unprecedented economic and emotional toll on our communities, and a remote learning environment where virtual communication reigns, whether in the...more
Whether your students are learning in a remote or a hybrid model, there is no doubt that they are online much more frequently these days than in the past—sometimes, it seems like they are online all the time. All of that time...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC”) has updated its technical assistance document, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” to include additional...more
9/25/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Guidance ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Workplace Safety
On August 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor added to its list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding leave under the FFCRA, tackling questions related to FFCRA leave for children’s remote learning programs....more
The EEOC recently updated its COVID-19-related Q & A’s to assist employers in navigating “the new world” post-COVID-19 while complying with the federal anti-discrimination laws as employees return to work....more
6/22/2020
/ ADEA ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
High Risk Covid Employees ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
The Illinois Appellate Court recently affirmed the dismissal of a tenured fifth-grade teacher accused of intentionally breaking the seals on standardized test booklets to help students cheat on the test....more
As you may have heard already, as part of the legislation (HB2455) signed by Governor Pritzker on June 5, 2020, certain non-instructional, non-administrative school term employees (commonly referred to as 10-month employees)...more
The Fifth District recently upheld the dismissal of a complaint filed by 22 Illinois school districts against Governor Pritzker and the State of Illinois challenging the constitutionality of the state’s public education...more
City Council approved an amendment to the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance to temporarily protect employers from lawsuits. Although the substantive requirements of the Ordinance will still go into effect on July 1, 2020 as...more
This week, the Chicago City Council approved an Ordinance ensuring that “Covered Employees” can remain at home for COVID-19 related reasons without fear of being fired, even if they have exhausted any legally-mandated or...more
In what some are calling a “bombshell” decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recently held in Bryant v. Compass Group USA, Inc. that federal courts can now hear cases involving alleged violations of the Illinois...more
5/20/2020
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Standing
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) published two separate guidance documents, Unemployment Insurance Program Letters (UIPLs) 15-20 and 16-20, which provide information related to two separate programs...more
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) was signed into law on March 27, 2020. Among other things, the Act provides relief programs for employers, including loans, grants and tax incentives.
...more
The Paycheck Protection Program is one of the key relief provisions included in the $2 trillion relief package under the CARES Act. This program provides forgivable loans to small businesses and nonprofit organizations to...more
4/2/2020
/ Business Interruption ,
CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Economic Injury Disaster Loans ,
Federal Loans ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Relief Measures ,
SBA ,
SBA Lending Programs ,
Small Business ,
Tax Relief
Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act prohibits intentional race discrimination in all forms of contracting including employment. Lower courts have split as to whether a § 1981 plaintiff must prove that race was only one...more
3/30/2020
/ 42 U. S. C. § 1981 ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
But For Causation ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Comcast ,
Comcast Corp. v National Association of African American-Owned Media ,
Commercial Contracts ,
Dismissals ,
Employment Contract ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Race Discrimination ,
Racial Bias ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Substantial Motivating Factor Test ,
Television Broadcast Stations ,
Title VII
School districts across the country are facing uncertainty when it comes to the legal rights of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students. A lawsuit in Connecticut and a bill in Arizona, for instance, aim to...more
3/11/2020
/ Binary Options ,
Educational Institutions ,
Federal Agency Taskforce ,
Gender Identity ,
ISBE ,
LGBTQ ,
School Districts ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
State and Local Government ,
Students ,
Transgender
Last week, nine Cook County school districts and Calumet City filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of rehearing in the case A.F. Moore & Associates Inc. v....more
2/26/2020
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Class Action ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
County Assessors ,
Lack of Jurisdiction ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Municipalities ,
Petition For Rehearing ,
Property Tax ,
Property Valuation ,
School Districts ,
State and Local Government ,
Tax Appeals ,
Tax Assessment ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Refunds ,
Tax Revenues