Imagine arriving at the office to find 20 bankers' boxes full of 20,000+ individual arbitration demands. The claims appear identical and non-meritorious. But to even get a chance to make an argument, it will cost you nearly...more
At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows Of Harvard College, Nos. 20-1199 & 21-707, 2023 WL 4239254 (U.S. June 29, 2023), outlawed race-based...more
7/13/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Discipline ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Termination ,
Title VII
In a blog earlier this year, we discussed the Delaware Chancery Court’s refusal to enforce a sale of business non-compete in Kodiak Building Partners, LLC v Adams. We wondered then whether Kodiak represented a one-off...more
In a victory for the plaintiffs’ bar, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that all claims under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), 740 ILCS 14/1, et seq., are subject to a five-year statute of...more
2/3/2023
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Data Collection ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Stays ,
Written Consent
Courts and state legislatures continue to take aim at post-employment non-competes. In a companion blog, we recently detailed the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rule banning post-employment non-competes. However, for...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a broad proposed rule that would ban employers from imposing noncompete clauses on their workers. The FTC press release announcing the proposed rule states...more
1/9/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
The United States Supreme Court is currently considering two cases concerning whether race-conscious admissions programs are permissible under federal law. While these cases are limited to the relatively narrow universe of...more
A recent decision from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals highlights some of the pitfalls of entering into commercial transactions without conducting thorough employment diligence – even in the asset purchase context....more
9/2/2022
/ Appeals ,
Business Litigation ,
Discrimination ,
Due Diligence ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Investigations ,
Liability ,
Purchase Agreement ,
Title VII
On August 10, 2022, Colorado House Bill 22-1317 became law. Following the national trend of limiting employer use of non-compete and non-solicit covenants, Colorado now prohibits the use of non-competes and non-solicits...more
9/2/2022
/ Choice-of-Law ,
Choice-of-Venue ,
Colorado ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
Since President Biden’s July 2021 direction to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to “curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may unfairly limit worker mobility,” the FTC has...more
Over the past two years, employee mobility seems to be at an all-time high. In fact, the labor market is so fluid that pundits and experts often refer to it as the “Great Resignation.” Although employee mobility can be a...more
In a recent decision regarding an employee’s claims for violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit asked the Illinois Supreme Court to...more
Continuing the trend of recognizing Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) as a muscular privacy-protective statute, the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District has ruled that the most common statutory...more
On September 9, 2021, the White House released a memorandum titled “Path Out of the Pandemic,” which detailed President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan. The memorandum contains six priorities for combatting the COVID-19...more
9/13/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Healthcare Workers ,
OSHA ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
On August 13, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed into law a bill amending the Illinois Freedom to Work Act governing restrictive covenants and non-competition agreements. On May 30, 2021, the Illinois General Assembly passed a...more
8/27/2021
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforceability ,
Governor Pritzker ,
Illinois ,
Misappropriation ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Noncompliance ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State and Local Government ,
Trade Secrets
In January 2020, Illinois legalized the use of recreational marijuana through the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (“the Act”). Two months later, many employees began working remotely because of the pandemic. Today,...more
7/29/2021
/ Cannabis Products ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Labor Regulations ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Remote Working ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Van Buren v. United States, — S. Ct. —-, 2021 WL 2229206 (2021) resolved a longstanding Circuit split regarding the scope of liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986...more
Following a nationwide trend, Illinois has proposed significant legislation affecting employee restrictive covenants, such as non-compete agreements. While the proposed law does not dramatically change most aspects of the...more
Illinois’s Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed Senate Bill 1480 into law, establishing new employer certification and reporting requirements, making sweeping changes to Illinois’s anti-retaliation law, and curtailing...more
5/12/2021
/ Amended Legislation ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Certifications ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Governor Pritzker ,
Human Rights Act ,
New Legislation ,
Reporting Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
From due diligence to post-acquisition, there are various labor and employment issues that businesses should pay attention to in order to ensure smooth corporate transactions and integrations. Employee classifications and...more
Because nearly every company has a workforce, labor and employment issues permeate nearly every transaction. Employment-law successor liability presents a substantial risk in transactions even when purchase agreements...more
Whether under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) or under state law uniform trade secrets acts (“UTSA”), assessing monetary damages in trade secret misappropriation cases is rarely easy. By definition, trade...more
A recent decision by a New York federal district court illustrates significant potential pitfalls for sellers in leveraged buyouts and similarly structured transactions. In particular, it highlights the potential risks under...more
In a decision of considerable significance in the world of wage and hour litigation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit significantly departed from conventional standards for assessing conditional...more
Employers operating, even on a limited basis, in Colorado should be aware of Colorado’s recent wage disparity and discrimination bill, which takes effect in 2021 and imposes widespread requirements related to record-keeping,...more
12/10/2020
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
New Legislation ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Transparency ,
Salary/Wage History ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour