On September 9, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced settled charges against seven public companies for violations of certain whistleblower protections provided by Rule 21F-17 under the Securities...more
9/19/2024
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Rule 21F ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
In an eagerly awaited decision, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Ada Brown issued yesterday a nationwide injunction striking down the Federal Trade Commission’s Noncompete Clause Rule,...more
On June 28, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overruling Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. In its 1984 Chevron decision, the Court held that...more
7/9/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Government Agencies ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Judicial Review ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 5 ,
Statutory Interpretation
In the year since the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (SFFA), effectively eliminating race-conscious...more
On June 3, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit authorized a preliminary injunction in American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund Management, LLC et al., ruling that a grant contest that awards funding and mentorship...more
6/11/2024
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Early Stage Companies ,
Entrepreneurs ,
First Amendment ,
Grants ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Minority-Owned Businesses ,
Startups ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Venture Capital ,
Women-Owned Businesses
As we previously reported, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on April 23, 2024, its Non-Compete Clause Rule (Final Rule), which aims to ban all new post-employment non-competition restrictions and invalidate most...more
On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its much-anticipated final rule raising the salary threshold for employees to be exempt from federal overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
4/30/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in a highly anticipated vote, passed the Non-Compete Clause Rule, 16 CFR § 910 (the Rule), which purports to bar all non-competes in the United States, subject to limited...more
4/26/2024
/ Chamber of Commerce ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
On April 17, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, Missouri that an employee challenging a job transfer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, must show only that the...more
Venture capital financing activity in 2023 contracted for the second consecutive year in the face of rising interest rates, concerns regarding the trajectory of the economy and continued geopolitical tension.
VC-backed...more
2023 has seen its fair share of headlines with respect to developments in non-competition law: in January, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule that would ban most non-competes; in May, the National Labor Relations...more
In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) temporarily granted employers operating remotely due to the pandemic the flexibility to inspect employee I-9 documentation...more
As described in our Client Alert of July 6, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed on June 27, 2023, a massive overhaul of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) pre-merger notification...more
7/19/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Notice Requirements ,
NPRM ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Private Equity ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Required Forms
Coming on the heels of the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rule banning employee non-competes and one week before the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel published a memo taking the position that...more
New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) is expected to begin enforcing the City’s novel artificial intelligence (AI) bias audit law on July 5, 2023. This law prohibits the use of automated decision...more
On March 22, 2023, the NLRB's General Counsel issued a Memorandum (the “Memo”) providing guidance on the scope and effect of the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “NLRB”) decision in McLaren Macomb, which found overbroad...more
3/29/2023
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Guidance Update ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Retroactive Application ,
Section 7 ,
Severance Agreements ,
Unfair Labor Practices
On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) issued a decision restricting the use of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in severance agreements with departing employees....more
3/6/2023
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Section 7 ,
Separation Agreement ,
Severance Agreements ,
Termination
Over the next three months, recently passed laws requiring employers to include wage and salary ranges in job postings will take effect in California and New York City. These two jurisdictions join a growing number of states...more
On August 19, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) within the US Department of Labor published a notice in the Federal Register alerting federal contractors that the agency had received a Freedom...more
Overturning nearly 20 years of lower-court precedent, on April 4, 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a landmark decision holding that an employer is strictly liable for treble damages for any late...more
Following a rare showing of bipartisan support, yesterday President Biden signed into law a landmark bill making it easier for individuals to pursue workplace sexual harassment claims in court and striking a blow to...more
Federal supply and service contractors and subcontractors that have 50 or more employees and one or more federal contracts or subcontracts of $50,000 or more (“Covered Contractors”) are required to have in place (within 120...more
Yesterday the Supreme Court stayed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), resolving months of legal uncertainty over its fate. In blocking the...more
On November 5th, 2021, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency regulation that assigns US employers a central role in the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response. Several...more
11/9/2021
/ Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Comment Period ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Employer Mandates ,
Motion for Relief ,
OSHA ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Preemption ,
Public Comment ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Stays ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Tenth Amendment ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
On October 7, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 331 (S.B. 331), which prohibits employers from including in settlement agreements or separation agreements certain provisions that bar employees...more