It’s 1990. You’re living in Houston, and about to join Vinson & Elkins as the firm’s first openly gay attorney. Take us into your world then.
Well, 1990 feels like ancient history, and for LGBTQ+ lawyers, in many ways it...more
On October 25, 2022, a federal jury in Houston awarded a woman $365,000,000 in punitive damages and over $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, after finding that her employer had terminated her in retaliation for complaining...more
Consider the following scenario: Your company uses a contractor staffing company to perform cleaning and maintenance tasks at one of its facilities. The contract with the staffing company allows your company to terminate the...more
In our April 28, 2022 post, we discussed New York City’s new salary transparency law that would require all New York City employers with more than four employees to state the minimum and maximum salaries whenever they...more
Beginning on May 15, 2022, New York City employers with more than four employees must state the minimum and maximum salary whenever they “advertise” a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity. ...more
As more companies are struggling to hire and retain talent in the midst of the “Great Resignation,” I am beginning to get more questions from clients who have never considered sponsoring an applicant for a visa about the...more
In May 2019, Mexico’s Congress passed a new law to ensure that Mexican labor standards conformed with those of the International Labour Organization Convention, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the new North...more
As someone who has tried more than his share of cases, I have come to the conclusion that retaliation claims are often more difficult to defend than plain discrimination claims. It’s not unusual for a jury to find that an...more
A federal contractor and/or subcontractor that has at least 50 employees, and a federal contract of $50,000 or more, is required to develop, update annually, and maintain a written Affirmative Action Plan (“AAP”)...more
While employers throughout the country are waiting on the Sixth Circuit to consider OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard requiring private employers with more than 100 employees to implement mandatory vaccination or testing...more
As employers consider plans to have their workforces return to the office, they are faced with the daunting task of creating a return-to-work program that balances powerful safety, legal, and social considerations under a...more
10/27/2021
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Policies ,
Masks ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Webinars ,
Workplace Safety
Join Vinson & Elkins for our eleventh annual seminar focusing on what you need to know about the most important evolving topics and the changing regulatory environment surrounding unconventional oil and gas...more
9/30/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Hydraulic Fracturing Study ,
Oil & Gas ,
Upstream Contracts ,
Webinars
Perhaps I should not have been surprised that my clients who have mandated COVID-19 vaccines have seen far more objections to their mandates based on religious grounds than on medical conditions or disabilities. While there...more
9/16/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
While many service, retail and factory workers returned to work several months ago, many employers with white-collar workers have been less inclined to mandate that employees return to the office. A good number of these...more
The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) has officially discontinued use of the Loan Necessity Questionnaire previously required for forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans of $2 million or more...more
A few weeks ago, the most common question that employers were asking was whether they could (or should) require employees to get vaccinated. Most of my employment colleagues agreed that employers could mandate vaccines as...more
5/26/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Health Insurance ,
Masks ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Based on discussions that I have had with many of my clients in the last few weeks, most hope that their employees will be vaccinated for COVID-19. At the same time, most are reluctant to mandate vaccines. While the EEOC has...more
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. This legislation provides additional pandemic relief for small businesses, adds grants for restaurants, increases funding for grants for...more
3/17/2021
/ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Biden Administration ,
CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Entertainment Industry ,
Entertainment Venues ,
Federal Grants ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Restaurant Industry ,
SAM ,
SBA ,
Small Business
On March 2, as I was waiting in line in the parking lot of NRG Stadium in Houston to get my first COVID jab, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that, effective March 10, there would no longer be any COVID-19 operating...more
3/5/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Entertainment Venues ,
Executive Orders ,
Governor Abbott ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Masks ,
OSHA ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Public Health ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Social Distancing ,
Texas ,
Workplace Safety
I was recently asked to speak to a Human Resources Management class at a local university about how American employment law is different from employment laws in other countries. While there are many things that distinguish...more
When I first started advising employers in the early 1990s, a common problem was the terminated employee who demanded to be paid for a large amount of unused vacation time. In recent years, employers have gotten much smarter...more
On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, a consolidated government spending and coronavirus relief bill. The coronavirus relief provisions — including important changes to the Paycheck...more
In this program, a panel of Vinson & Elkins’ Labor & Employment attorneys discuss potential changes to workplace laws that employers may expect to see under the Biden administration, including requirements related to labor,...more
12/10/2020
/ Biden Administration ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
OSHA ,
Wage and Hour ,
Webinars ,
Workplace Safety
One of the parlor games that labor and employment specialists engage in is to try to guess what a new and incoming administration will mean for our area of practice. And no doubt, we will be doing that during the next couple...more
One question that employers have been asking since the onset of the pandemic is whether they could be sued by employees who get sick as a result of being exposed to an infected coworker. Plaintiffs’ and defendants’ lawyers...more
11/11/2020
/ Amazon ,
Best Practices ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Occupational Exposure ,
OSHA ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety