Labor & Employment

Federal court officials can be sued for alleged failure to protect public defender from sex bias, 4th Circuit rules

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a former assistant federal public defender in North Carolina can sue court officials for constitutional violations stemming from an alleged faulty investigation of sexual harassment.

Apr 27, 2022 10:48 AM CDT

Restaurants can’t recover COVID-19 losses through ‘business interruption’ insurance, 2 top state courts rule

The top state courts in Iowa and Massachusetts have ruled that restaurants can’t recover COVID-19 shutdown losses from "business interruption" policies.

Apr 25, 2022 10:01 AM CDT

Weekly Briefs: Prof gets $400K settlement in pronoun case; panic-attack firing leads to $450K verdict

Prof who refused to use preferred pronouns gets $400K settlement Shawnee State University in Ohio has agreed to pay philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether $400,000 and to rescind a written warning that he received for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns. The settlement was reached more than a year…

Apr 22, 2022 2:23 PM CDT

2Civility’s new executive director speaks out against workplace bullying

As the new executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, or 2Civility, attorney Erika Harold wants to use her platform to shine a light on workplace bullying.

Apr 20, 2022 3:02 PM CDT

Refugee lawyer describes harrowing invasion of Ukraine

A Ukrainian lawyer described the harrowing scenes she witnessed after the Russian invasion, telling an ABA panel on April 7 that she was forced to flee her country with her three young children and leave behind her husband.

Apr 14, 2022 12:54 PM CDT

Lawyers have an obligation to ensure employees don’t solicit clients, new ABA ethics opinion says

Attorneys not only must refrain from engaging in improper direct solicitation of potential clients, but there is also an ethical responsibility to ensure that employees or others hired by the lawyers do not engage in such misconduct.

Apr 13, 2022 12:33 PM CDT

5th Circuit tells lawyer it is ‘often advisable to read the court’s orders,’ upholds $1,250 sanction

A federal appeals court has upheld a $1,250 sanction against a Dallas lawyer for the attorney fees incurred by his litigation opponent when he misread a federal judge’s ruling.

Apr 11, 2022 10:05 AM CDT

5th Circuit revives Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers over jurisdictional issue

A federal appeals court on Thursday revived the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers when it ruled a federal judge had no jurisdiction to block the requirement.

Apr 8, 2022 10:30 AM CDT

Vaccine refusal leads New York courts to fire 103 workers, ban 4 judges from courthouses

The New York state court system has fired 103 employees and banned four judges from courthouses for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Apr 7, 2022 9:33 AM CDT

I Spy: As more companies surveil workers at home, do laws do enough to protect privacy?

When demand for employee monitoring technology soared as millions moved from the office to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic, class action lawyer Benjamin F. Johns took note. “When everyone went remote, it heightened the concerns about privacy. And while employees do have to give up some of their rights, just by virtue of the employer-employee relationship, they don’t give up all their privacy rights,” Johns says.

Apr 1, 2022 2:20 AM CDT

April 17, 1905: New York’s bakeshop labor law overturned

In October 1901, Joseph Lochner, who owned a bakery on South Street in Utica, New York, was indicted and subsequently convicted on two criminal counts of working his employees beyond the hourly limits of the Bakeshop Act, a relatively new state law that limited the working hours of bakery employees to 10 hours per day and 60 hours per week.

Apr 1, 2022 12:10 AM CDT

‘No Equal Justice’ shares Detroit lawyer’s civil rights legacy

Detroit has been the site of many civil rights and labor rights battles, and many notable Black attorneys have called the city home. The first Black president of the ABA, Dennis Archer, came from the Detroit legal community, as does the current ABA president, Reginald Turner. But the full story of one of the city's pioneering legal figures has not been told—until now.

Mar 30, 2022 8:37 AM CDT

SCOTUS will consider war powers in case of ailing veteran claiming employment discrimination

Le Roy Torres’ U.S. Supreme Court case began, in a sense, thousands of miles away from his home in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a military base in Iraq during the heart of the U.S.-Iraq war.

Mar 24, 2022 9:03 AM CDT

Supreme Court nominee Jackson rarely ruled for plaintiffs in bias cases

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled in favor of plaintiffs in only three of 25 race bias cases reviewed by Reuters. One of the cases, however, was a constitutional challenge to a law that gives preferences in government contracts to socially disadvantaged individuals, according to the Reuters…

Mar 18, 2022 10:10 AM CDT

Ex-law clerk accuses federal judge of pregnancy bias in House testimony; judiciary group backs changes

A former law clerk for a federal judge in Georgia told a U.S. House of Representatives panel Thursday that she thinks that she was fired because of her pregnancy. The former clerk said in written testimony her pregnancy was “treated as a burden.”

Mar 17, 2022 3:14 PM CDT