Can an outside attorney defending an employer in a lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act be liable for retaliation against the plaintiff-employee based on litigation tactics? One court answered that question "yes" last week.

Are these judges crazy? You decide.

In Arias v. Raimondo, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed dismissal of ...

I have to admit, I was afraid that I might need to go into hiding after I expressed doubts last week about that study claiming that female lawyers don't do well when their bosses are male Republicans. But the reader feedback has been positive, with the possible exception of an ambiguous comment on LinkedIn (more on that below):

From Commenter Oaktown Coug

This is a study you ...

Above The Law is, for the most part, a trash legal-gossip blog with the funniest, nastiest bunch of commenters anywhere. I read the comments it every business day.

But whatever you do, be careful if you read it for the blog posts, especially if you just got out of law school and need help getting your career started.

Here's Exhibit A, from "Shannon Achimalbe" (a pseudonym):

Men ...

Last week, we talked about 20 things an employer should ask itself before terminating an employee. In the interests of fairness, here are 10 things that an employee should ask before suing an employer. You should know that I generally don't believe that lawsuits are the best way to resolve problems. (I realize that there are exceptions.)

BEFORE YOU GO ON, PLEASE READ THIS!!!! I ...

Uh-oh. Lawyers who do document review may not be exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a court decision issued yesterday.

Large law firms and legal services vendors often hire stables of contract lawyers to do document review in big cases. Sometimes, the lawyers who do the review are actually reading and analyzing the documents in light of ...

"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 ...

Male attorneys, it's not a good idea to use the "V" word when referring to your female adversaries, and you might even be sanctioned for it.

(Chill! I'm not talking about that "V" word.)

Have you ever heard of the word "virilism"? Neither had I. But apparently it's a real thing: the appearance of male secondary sex characteristics in a female. (Males can have the condition, too, but it's ...

This has not been a good week for lawyers. First, we heard about the married Minnesota lawyer who had a sexual relationship with a client (a major ethical violation in itself) and then had the nerve to bill her for his time! Whether a special billing rate applied to criminal conversation is not disclosed. Hey, by the way, which task code would this fall under?  "Appear for/Attend ...

A cornucopia of random employment law issues for your long weekend.

Lessons for employers from the Natalie Wood investigation. (OK, I admit this is a shameless tie-in designed to get you to read a legal blog over a holiday weekend.) But the reopening of the Natalie Wood drowning investigation after 30 years does contain a good lesson for employers -- to wit, that no matter how much time has ...