Well, maybe not light reading, but good reading about good news that you won't want to miss! Here are our bulletins and other publications from the last week, in case you missed them:

*Heather Owen is already shooting off Fourth of July fireworks at the FOCUS women's leadership blog because our firm was named this week by the National Law Journal as the fourth best law firm in the ...

I was on vacation last week, and so we have a lot of catching up to do. Here's what's been going on, from most to least recent:

*David Phippen has been keeping us up to date on the U.S. Department of Labor's Persuader Rule and what that will mean for employers. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Minnesota refused to preliminarily block enforcement of the rule. There are two other challenges ...

Heather Owen of our Jacksonville Office and FOCUS blog editor, has a nice meditation on Mother's Day and what it means for professional women.

You won't want to miss "The 'Mores' of Professional Moms."

Today marks the launch of FOCUS, our firm's new blog for women leaders in the workplace (and their friends and supporters). The inaugural edition features posts by Sarah Phaff of our Macon Office on Women's History Month, and Heidi Wilbur of our Denver Office on Overcoming Stereotype Threats (and Butterflies).

In addition to Sarah and Heidi, other editors and regular contributors ...

"I like it when the judge calls me 'honey' - that means he's going to grant my motion." -- Quote from real female attorney I know, circa 1990.

Does the court system discriminate against women lawyers? Could be!!!!

Anyway, that's what a couple of women litigators assume, based on their study showing that men were lead counsel in a sampling of federal cases in northern Illinois from ...

As promised on Monday, here is my magnum opus regarding the EEOC's new Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues. (Next week, I'll try to get back to spurious sexual harassment lawsuits against Yahoo executives and gift cards to employees who don't go to the bathroom during the work day . . . all that really important stuff.)

This past Monday, July 14, a divided ...

Many, many years ago, as an associate, I got to help defend the worst harassment investigation of my career. The entire investigation went essentially like this: MANAGER: "Lucy [not her real name] says you sexually harassed her. Is that true?" ACCUSED: "I ain't crazy." *End of investigation.* Oh. Except that the manager documented it, too. *Head slap* .

 In this manager's defense, he was ...

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Now that we are into the nasty, brutish and short days of January (and especially for our friends suffering through Winter Storm Hercules), I will try to warm things up with a couple of weird-but-instructive sexual harassment cases.

The weather outside is frightful, but the fire's so delightful!

Our first case involves a type of harassment ...

Constangy came out Friday (the 13th! for good luck!) with a new, free iPhone app that is intended for Human Resources professionals and attorneys, and is really nice. (Android version will be coming soon.) If you haven't already downloaded it, you should.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am completely biased. I was a member of the committee that decided what would go into the app, and some of the content ...