Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) authorizes the award of attorneys’ fees to a party who prevails in a discrimination or retaliation claim brought under that statute. Although this fee shifting provision...more
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act which had been overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 27, 2016, after having previously been passed by the Senate. The Act...more
5/16/2016
/ Asset Seizure ,
Confidential Information ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Ex Parte ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
New Legislation ,
Private Right of Action ,
Trade Secrets ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has reinstated the four game suspension imposed by the NFL on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his role in the infamous “Deflategate” scandal. This...more
In recent years, one tactic for attempting to defeat wage and hour class and collective action lawsuits class action lawsuits has been to offer the named plaintiffs full relief for their individual claims in the case. Even if...more
The end of the federal government fiscal year (September 30) always produces a flurry of activity from the EEOC, and this year was no different. Of the 157 lawsuits filed by the EEOC in fiscal year 2015, approximately 62 of...more
10/22/2015
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Genetic Discrimination ,
GINA ,
LGBTQ ,
Medical Records ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Young Lawyers
With the NFL season just beginning, and Tom Brady leading the New England Patriots to victory over the Steelers, we decided to provide you with a bit of football-inspired labor law. On September 3, 2015, Judge Robert Berman...more
9/14/2015
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Awards ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Deflategate ,
ESPN ,
Football ,
New England Patriots ,
NFL ,
Tom Brady ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions ,
Willful Misconduct ,
Work Suspensions
This week, a federal district court ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) made sufficient factual allegations of intentional discrimination against a local farming company to survive a motion to...more
Wednesday, the Supreme Court held that courts have the authority to review whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has fulfilled its statutory duty to attempt to conciliate charges of discrimination prior...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has become the latest federal agency to challenge the legality of employee confidentiality requirements. Earlier this month, the SEC instituted its first administrative proceeding...more
Courts have repeatedly recognized that “regular job attendance” is an essential function of most jobs that need not be altered in order to reasonably accommodate a disabled employee. This common sense notion, however, has...more
Last week, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a district court’s decision granting summary judgment to an employer accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of racial bias in its...more
Last Friday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against CVS Pharmacy in the Northern District of Illinois alleging that standard separation agreements used by CVS unlawfully deter employees, who sign these...more
Breaking ranks with every other federal appellate court to address the issue, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that an employer cannot defend a lawsuit brought by the EEOC by contending that the...more
A federal court in the Northern District of Illinois recently ruled that language in an employee handbook providing that employees would be paid overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week potentially created an...more
In the latest of a long line of decisions favoring arbitration, the United States Supreme Court has overturned a decision of the Oklahoma Supreme Court invalidating a non-compete agreement that contained a binding arbitration...more