The FLSA hurts women? Heather Owen, partner in our Jacksonville Office and proprietor of FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, begins a three-part series on how the Fair Labor Standards Act, with its lack of flexibility, is unfair to women (non-exempt women, anyway), who continue to assume more responsibility for child care, elder care, and other domestic duties, in addition to their ...

Effect of Election 2016 on labor and employment law. We asked our practice group heads and some thought leaders to tell us how they think employers will be affected by a Trump Administration on specific labor and employment law issues. This client bulletin is packed with prognostication about what we may see in the areas of affirmative action and OFCCP compliance, litigation and ...

Federal contractors, will asking applicants to voluntarily self-identify by race -- a request that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs requires you to make -- be used against you in a hiring-discrimination lawsuit?

A recent decision from a federal court in New Jersey indicates that the answer is NO, as long as you handle the information correctly.

In Dougboh v. Cisco ...

Me and my nerdy mind.

It's too soon for me to have an opinion about who's right and who's wrong in the Gretchen Carlson-Roger Ailes sexual harassment case. Some very disturbing allegations have been made about Mr. Ailes' (long before Fox) having a "casting couch" for prospective female talent. If that's true, then it's disgusting.

On the other hand, a number of current and former ...

The Millville, New Jersey, Rescue Squad is apparently quite the Peyton Place, but it's now a legal legend, too, because it was the impetus for the New Jersey Supreme Court to decide that "marital status discrimination" prohibited by the state Law Against Discrimination also includes separation and divorce. If you're an employer with operations in New Jersey, you won't want to miss ...

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 ...

The Spring 2016 edition features (in order of appearance) Naveen Kabir on the Supreme Court's Tyson Foods decision, Anna Rothschild on the Supreme Court after Justice Scalia and Merrick Garland's record on labor and employment cases, Mallory Schneider Ricci on the Supreme Court's CRST Van Expedited v. EEOC decision (if you haven't already, please check out Marcia McShane's very ...

Our Winston-Salem, North Carolina, office will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this evening (we actually opened on February 8, 1991, but we're celebrating tonight). Neil Wasser, chair of our Executive Committee, is coming in from Atlanta to join us for dinner. I can't let the day pass without wishing a very happy silver anniversary to my Winston-Salem colleagues:

Our fearless ...

If Joe tells co-worker Mary a dirty joke, Joe is probably in violation of the employer's no-harassment policy, right? And he risks being disciplined, or even fired, right?

Right.

But if Mary sues Joe for sexual harassment based on this one joke, her lawsuit will in all likelihood be thrown out of court, right?

Right.

That's because you can't sue over just any old thing, even if it's annoying ...

Do you believe Chris Christie?

I thought the Governor did pretty well in his press conference yesterday, apologizing forthrightly for the George Washington Bridge debacle*, and taking decisive action against the allegedly guilty parties who had not already tendered their resignations.

*The Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, allegedly conspired with New Jersey ...