Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Our guest today is Zack DeMeola, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), a not-for-profit organization with the goal of advancing law and justice by promoting access, equity, and fairness in law school admission and supporting learning journeys from prelaw through practice. A former corporate litigation attorney, Zack left practice after several years to join the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System…

Seyfarth Synopsis: A pending bill in New Jersey’s legislature would significantly lower the standard for establishing harassment claims and require employers to implement anti-harassment training and policies and report complaint data to a government agency. Earlier this year, New Jersey legislators introduced Assembly Bill 2443 (“AB 2443” or the “Bill”), which if passed, would significantly reduce the standard for harassment claims under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) and…

By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Patrick D. Joyce, A. Scott Hecker,  Daniel R. Birnbaum, Melissa A. Ortega and Taylor Iaculla Seyfarth Synopsis: This week we are attending the ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The meeting includes representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Review Commission, the MSHA Review Commission, OSHA and MSHA Judges, and the Solicitor’s Office, as well as management, labor, and safety…

International Women’s Day for 2024 has the important theme of Count Her In: Invest in Women. The UN talks about the importance of empowering women and investing in women in a range of ways. This includes accelerating women’s economic empowerment by recognising that when women entrepreneurs are successful, this can lead to more benefits. The topic of investing in women has been in the headlines in Australia, following the first…

Seyfarth’s Commercial Litigation practice group is pleased to present the fourth annual installment of the Commercial Litigation Outlook, which provides insights on litigation issues and trends to expect in 2024. Since its inaugural publication in 2020, Seyfarth’s Commercial Litigation Outlook has served as a beacon for legal professionals, providing invaluable insights and forecasting emerging trends.  2024 promises to be one for the history books — a vastly more robust regulatory…

By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Patrick D. Joyce, A. Scott Hecker, Daniel R. Birnbaum, Melissa A. Ortega and Taylor Iaculla Seyfarth Synopsis: This week we are attending the ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The meeting includes representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Review Commission, the MSHA Review Commission, OSHA and MSHA Judges, and the Solicitor’s Office, as well as management, labor, and safety professionals. Day 2 started…

This blog has been cross-posted from Seyfarth’s The Blunt Truth site. Federal trademark registration is typically unavailable for goods and services related to the sale of cannabis.  But a combination of federal copyright registration and state trademark registration for these goods and services may provide an opportunity for cannabis companies to protect the substantial investments made in their brands and offerings.  A recent case in California, The Holding Company LLC v.…

By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Patrick D. Joyce, A. Scott Hecker, Daniel R. Birnbaum, Melissa A. Ortega and Taylor Iaculla Seyfarth Synopsis: This week we are attending the ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The meeting includes representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Review Commission, the MSHA Review Commission, OSHA and MSHA Judges, and the Solicitor’s Office, as well as management, labor, and safety professionals. Tuesday, March…

Seyfarth Synopsis: With each passing year, the country’s patchwork of mandatory state paid family and paid family medical leave (collectively, “PFML” or “PFL”) laws continues to evolve and expand. Why is this existing patchwork so challenging for employers? Look no further than how varied these laws are in terms of their substantive and procedural components. The below graphic illustrates this complexity by highlighting four key PFML substantive areas – (1)…

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Tracee Davis and Grayson Moronta will Speak on Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law Panel on the State of DE&I in Law Firms and Companies | Employment Law Lookout Skip to content

Seyfarth Synopsis: With DOL’s overtime exemption rule currently under White House review, we could see its publication sooner rather than later. We previously reported on the Biden Administration’s April 2024 target date to publish the DOL Wage and Hour Division’s (“WHD”) final rule on increasing the minimum salary level for white-collar exemptions, “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees.” An April release now…

Wednesday, March 13, 202412:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Central10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Mountain9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Pacific About the Program Today’s polarized environment presents many challenges for employers.  One such challenge is how to respond to reports of employees’ off-duty conduct.  Off-duty conduct – particularly when captured or reported online -- may affect the workplace and other employees, threaten the company’s reputation, or…

As the FLSA landscape continues to evolve, Seyfarth’s national Wage and Hour Litigation practice group is pleased to share our observations and analysis of the 2023 FLSA litigation trends as well as our forward-looking predictions for 2024. Wage and hour litigation and enforcement actions continued as a hot-button concern in 2023, as plaintiffs’ lawyers advanced novel and creative claims and Supreme Court and appellate-level battles took place over long-accepted standards—for…

By Adam R. Young, A. Scott Hecker, Patrick D. Joyce, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is shifting its COVID-19 isolation guidance, advising that COVID-positive individuals no longer need to isolate once they have been fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms are mild or improving. After weeks of rumors, the CDC revised its COVID-19 guidance to eliminate its five-day isolation recommendation and…

Please note:  while we address certain country-specific updates, this Alert contains information regarding global requirements, policies, and procedures as they stand as of the date of publication. We highly recommend reviewing any global mobility inquiries on a case-by-case basis, including any consulate-specific or immigration authority resources, in “real-time” before traveling internationally. Please reach out to our Global Mobility Team in advance of any international travel. Brazil – Tourist and Business…

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we check on the retail market legislation in Virginia. New Hampshire’s House of Representatives passed an adult-use cannabis bill. Arkansas’ Attorney General gives the go-ahead for advocates to start collecting signatures for a ballot initiative. Nevada opens its first cannabis consumption lounges. And finally, what have those teachers at…

Seyfarth Synopsis: While New York State failed to pass a non-compete ban last year, a new bill in the New York City Council would eliminate non-compete agreements entirely, presenting new challenges and considerations for employers in the Big Apple. On December 12, 2023, the New York State Legislature delivered a bill for the Governor’s signature that would have banned “any agreement, or clause contained in any agreement, between an employer…

  Employers looking to enhance their suite of employee benefit programs, and focused on lessons learned during the pandemic on wellbeing, are interested in providing greater access to wellness tools. And, the vendors who support those tools are more than happy to provide them. Global spend in the health and wellness market would be around $24.8 billion in 2023 according to a study by Kilo Health. Wellness apps and wearables…

A new executive order signed by President Biden in August 2023 restricts outbound investment to China in several critical cutting-edge technologies.

New York State’s law on pay transparency in job advertisements went into effect on September 17, 2023.  A few days before the law’s effective date, the state’s Department of Labor published proposed rule making that would clarify key points of the law, while also leaving some questions unanswered. Public comment on the proposed regulations will be received until November 12, 2023. Overview of New York State Law On March 3,…

Anything but casual… In the first of our series examining the Closing Loopholes Bill introduced into Parliament yesterday, we look at the new measures for casual employment. The Orwellian title of the Closing Loopholes Bill foreshadows its intentions: casual employment is double-plus-ungood. Premised on the doublethink notion that casual employment is a bad moon on the rise, the Bill proposes wholesale changes to the casual employment test, including measures to…

Almost precisely a year after the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its intent to begin the rulemaking process to enact website accessibility regulations applicable to state and local governments under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the DOJ has published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register for publication today, August 4, 2023. We will follow up with another post with more substantive analysis, but here…

Several U.S. courts are addressing lawsuits brought by artists alleging that AI-generated art infringes on copyrights held by the artists for their artwork. In one of those cases, a California federal judge recently indicated that he would dismiss the bulk of the plaintiffs’ complaint, while giving them a chance to re-plead their claims. A written decision from the court is forthcoming, and that decision could be an important one for…

As the cannabis industry matures, there will be winners and losers.  Losers lack access to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  Marijuana related assets cannot be sold free and clear of liens and encumbrances via the tried and true bankruptcy section 363 sale, which leaves the loser’s creditors without the best tool to maximize the value of the loser’s assets, and deprives acquirers of a federal court order conveying assets.  What’s the…

At the beginning of the pandemic, concerns were raised that trade secret misappropriation might take a new form. Indeed, with large swaths of the workforce working from home, spouses, roommates, or others living in the same area had an increased opportunity to purloin confidential information that might not have been available to them previously. But a recent case in Massachusetts highlights that this is not unique to pandemic-era work-from-home setups.…

  Seyfarth Synopsis: The COVID-19 pandemic and wildfire smoke shrouding the skies over the East Coast this summer have drawn more attention to indoor air quality, leading the New York City Council to propose indoor air quality resolutions.  Indoor air quality has long been a source of employee health complaints. While the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) offers industry consensus standards on ventilation rates and federal OSHA…

2023 has brought several states into the privacy limelight. On June 18, Governor Abbott signed the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (“TDPSA”) into law, making the Lone Star state the eleventh in the U.S. to pass a comprehensive data privacy and security law. The Act provides Texas consumers with the ability to submit requests to exercise privacy rights and extends to parents the ability to exercise rights on behalf…

Seyfarth Synopsis: Effective June 7, 2023, New York State employers are required to comply with expanded obligations under recent amendments to New York Labor Law § 206-c, including the provision of a designated pumping location and the adoption of a lactation policy. The New York Department of Labor issued model materials for employers to consider and adopt to ensure compliance with these newly-effective requirements. As previously reported here, Governor Hochul…

Eight individuals, which included seven women and one man, sued their former employer, S&S Activewear, L.L.C. (S&S), an apparel manufacturer, for sexual harassment under Title VII. The employees alleged that S&S permitted its managers and employees to routinely play “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music throughout its warehouse, which, in turn, fostered abusive conduct by some male employees. The Trial Court Decision In December 2021, the federal District Court for Nevada…

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we check in on the move to put adult use on the ballot in Florida. We see that Maryland is working on regulations, as July 1 draws nearer. We note that the FDA is looking at a regulatory framework for CBD. And finally, we note that the Kansas City…

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the Ninth Circuit’s opinion that a poop-themed dog toy should be protected as a parody under the First Amendment. SCOTUS ruled today in Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products, Inc. that the right to free expression does not excuse “trademark law’s cardinal sin”—use of another’s trademark “as a trademark.” Although the Court declined to take Jack Daniel’s suggestion that it should completely…

Seyfarth Synopsis: As Canadian wildfire smoke spreads across the Northern United States, employers should review the CDC/NIOSH guidance on occupational exposure to wildfire smoke and implement effective measures to protect employees.  Canadian forests continue to burn, with about 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) burned at the time of this writing, roughly 15 times the annual average.  At least 100 million Americans have been affected by air quality alerts from the…

Already stretched HR, ER, WHS and Legal teams are about to confront a (seemingly) never-ending stream of law changes that will require cross-team collaboration to operationalise. At a time when there are already broader economic and market challenges for businesses, leading employers will need to have sufficient resourcing and planning to confront the changes we know are coming. To take some simple examples: 1 April 2023 – Commonwealth and Queensland…

Seyfarth Synopsis: Companies have been following with interest the Harvard and UNC cases that address affirmative action in the context of higher education.  Both cases were argued before the Supreme Court on October 31, 2022 and rulings are expected very soon. In anticipation of the Court’s decisions, Seyfarth is highlighting key areas of interest for employers. Overview of the UNC and Harvard Cases The two cases are Students for Fair…

  On June 1, 2023, in a resounding 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court granted employers an important victory by holding that the National Labor Relations Act and prior precedent did not preempt a state court tort action against a labor organization that sanctioned a work stoppage that was timed deliberately to destroy the employer’s property. By allowing the state court action to proceed, the Supreme Court in Glacier…

The FTC is not alone in taking aim at non-competes. Yesterday, the NLRB’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo to all regional directors, officers-in-charge, and resident officers at the NLRB stating that non-competes in employment agreements and severance agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act except in rare circumstances. Specifically, Ms. Abruzzo claims that such covenants interfere with workers’ rights under Section 7 of the Act, which protects employees’…

Many in our readership will have embarked (or are embarking) upon a compliance audit of workplace entitlements. Anyone who has done so will appreciate the difficulties associated with what becomes a massive and complex task. The future will see monthly pay reviews as a matter of course rather than large and costly remediation processes. Indeed, a whole industry has been built crunching the numbers on wage/time and attendance compliance. With…

Seyfarth Synopsis: Like the New York City Council, the New York State legislature is considering a bill to effectively abolish at-will employment. If passed, the State bill would prohibit employers from discharging employees absent good cause if the termination occurs after a mandatory probationary period.  As we discussed previously, the New York City Council is considering a bill that would prohibit employers from discharging employees absent just cause or a…