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Hostile Environment

Fisher Phillips

Texas Attorney General Targets DEI in the Workplace: Answers to Key Questions for Texas Employers

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Texas’s Attorney General recently issued a 74-page Opinion questioning the legality of various Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the state in both public and private sectors, and employers are sure to...more

Offit Kurman

Power, Proof, and Perception in the Blake Lively–Justin Baldoni Litigation

Offit Kurman on

This blog provides an update on the ongoing litigation involving Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. If the original blog explored how this case began, this chapter is about what it has become....more

Whiteford

Employment Law Update: Tra-La-La-La-Lawsuit: Is Your Anti-Harassment Training Unlawful?

Whiteford on

Holiday-season anti-harassment trainings can backfire. A recent Second Circuit (which covers New York, Vermont and Connecticut) decision underscores that when workplace training content crosses the line into essentialist,...more

Venable LLP

Is "Ozempic Face" a Disability?

Venable LLP on

Imagine the hiring manager for Company A is interviewing a highly qualified candidate (let's call him Jack). During the interview, they observe that, because of his weight and size, Jack struggles to walk at a typical pace...more

Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires &...

Ordinary Magic, Extraordinary Risk: The Feedback Loops Behind Hostile Work Claims

By the time you’re defending your company against an employment discrimination lawsuit, you may realize too late that what was invisible to your C-suite could wreak calamitous (and public) consequences for your company. In...more

Hinckley Allen

Employment Practices to Brush Up Before the End of the Year

Hinckley Allen on

As the new year approaches, we recommend employers take the time to review some key employment policies that can mitigate litigation risk. Two areas in particular to review are diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”)...more

Verrill

Twelve Drummers Drumming… and Keeping Lyrics from Hitting the Wrong Note at Work

Verrill on

Welcome to the last day of our 12 Days of HR. Holiday music may be everywhere this time of year—stores, elevators, offices, breakrooms—and by Day 12, you are probably sick of our song. But the music employees play at work can...more

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Five employment law fumbles by U-M's Sherrone Moore

Foul, man, foul. The facts keep trickling out about Sherrone Moore, former head football coach for the University of Michigan, and his relationship with his executive assistant. (The assistant’s name has been disclosed...more

TNG Consulting

Severity, Persistence, and the Art of SPOO

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We recently received a question on ATIXA’s Listserv about how to assess severity in a specific Title IX complaint. Below, I’ve shared the example along with a detailed explanation for the benefit of the broader Title IX...more

Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP

California Court Clarifies When Off-Duty Harassment by Coworker Can Lead to Employer Liability

Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP on

A recent California appellate decision offers new guidance on when an employer may be held responsible for harassment that occurs away from the workplace—and specifically when the alleged harasser is a coworker rather than a...more

Littler

Littler Lightbulb – November 2025 Employment Appellate Roundup

Littler on

Eighth Circuit Vacates NLRB Ruling and Allows Company Prohibition of BLM Logo on Company Uniform - Home Depot v. NLRB, ___ F.4th ___ (8th Cir. Nov. 6, 2025), involved an appeal of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)...more

American Conference Institute (ACI)

When Power Protects Predators: Why Workplace Hierarchies Let Harassment Persist

It happens in every industry, from boardrooms to breakrooms, from corporate towers to creative studios. A boss makes a sexual comment that isn’t funny. A supervisor lingers too long. A powerful executive crosses boundaries...more

BakerHostetler

Sixth Circuit Says ‘That’s a Wrap’ to Hostile Work Environment Claims

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There’s a story in Hollywood that when George Lucas was making the original Star Wars in the 1970s, he had a very minimalist directing style. According to Carrie Fisher and Anthony Daniels, after finishing a take, Lucas would...more

TNG Consulting

When is it Title IX Harassment to Label Someone a Rapist?

TNG Consulting on

We see a fair number of reports where one student or employee uses a sexualized label to describe another, sometimes in the heat of conflict, sometimes as gossip, and sometimes to create deliberate exclusion. These labels...more

TNG Consulting

Defining the Boundaries of Hostile Environments

TNG Consulting on

As civil rights law practitioners, we often find ourselves tracing the edges of complex issues, trying to determine where protected expression ends and discriminatory conduct begins. Nowhere is this more evident than in the...more

Lathrop GPM

Maryland Federal Court Grants Franchisor’s Motion to Dismiss Joint Employer Claims

Lathrop GPM on

A federal court in Maryland recently dismissed a former franchisee employee’s joint-employer-based claims against the franchisor and discrimination and retaliation claims against her franchisee employers. Sharp v. Arthur...more

Lewitt Hackman

Franchisor 101: Waltzing Around Joint Employer Issues

Lewitt Hackman on

A district court in Maryland granted a franchisor’s motion to dismiss against an employee in a discrimination and wrongful termination case. The court concluded the employee failed to show that she was an employee of the...more

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Can DEI Training Create a Hostile Environment?

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP on

The Second Circuit’s recent reversal of summary judgment, reviving a claim by a Caucasian educator that mandatory DEI training created a hostile work environment at the New York City Department of Education, adds to the...more

Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP

Can (Implicit) Bias Training Itself Be Biased? A Recent Second Circuit Decision Yields Cautionary Guidance

It is wise for employers to carefully re-evaluate employee training materials on an annual basis, as well as following court decisions and new employment legislation. This may be such a time, given a recent decision from the...more

Oppenheimer Investigations Group

A Case Study Analysis of Alleged C-Suite Abusive Conduct

Most would agree that workplace interactions should be professional and respectful. And few would dispute that a C-suite executive berating their subordinates with expletives, publicly mocking them, or subjecting them to...more

Jackson Walker

Second Circuit Clarifies When DEI/Implicit Bias Training Can Create a Hostile Work Environment—And What Texas Employers Should Do

Jackson Walker on

On September 25, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a significant decision in Chislett v. New York City Department of Education et al, partially reversing summary judgment and allowing a hostile...more

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Implicit bias training created hostile environment, court finds

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently ruled that mandatory anti-bias training can support a claim for a racially hostile work environment if it repeatedly portrays a specific race in negative or...more

ArentFox Schiff

Massachusetts Court Expands the Temporal Scope of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act

ArentFox Schiff on

The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Monteiro v. RAC Acceptance East, LLC issued an early federal interpretation of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), which...more

Fisher Phillips

Snapshot for Hospitality Employers: Appeals Courts Split on Liability Standard for Workplace Harassment by Non-Employees

Fisher Phillips on

Welcome to this edition of FP Snapshot for Hospitality Employers, where we take a quick snapshot look at a recent significant workplace law development with an emphasis on how it impacts employers in the hospitality industry....more

Cozen O'Connor

Challenge to Implicit Bias Training Survives Summary Judgment

Cozen O'Connor on

Mandatory implicit bias training carries significant legal risk, as further highlighted by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’s recent decision in the matter of Chislett v. New York City Department of Education, No. 24-972...more

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