NOTE FROM ROBIN: A portion of Jill's remarks below appeared Tuesday morning in Law360 (paid subscription required).

Notwithstanding what might happen over the next four (or eight) years, there is no question that President Barack Obama has left his mark on labor and employment law in some very important ways. Even if President-Elect Trump’s administration and the ...

Congratulations to President-Elect Donald J. Trump, and to everyone who was elected or reelected to office yesterday. With a President Trump and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, employers may see some changes in the form of less aggressive regulatory agencies, a National Labor Relations Board that is more employer-friendly, and some relatively conservative ...

BREAKING NEWS:  CALIFORNIA FALLS INTO THE SEA!

Well, not exactly.  But some natural phenomena occur only once or twice in a lifetime—like Halley’s Comet, or the turn of the Millennium, or the Mets winning the pennant.  Another one happened today:  the FLSA has become more protective or workers than California law, which is ordinarily the nation’s statistical outlier in the ...

*President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act into law on Wednesday afternoon. Billy Hammel, Bill McMahon, and Anna Rothschild have provided outstanding analysis of the law and what it means for employers in this Client Bulletin.

*And, speaking of Billy Hammel, he had a great blog post this week on the White House Report on Non-Compete Agreements. (Preview: The White House isn't ...

Last Thursday, the White House issued a report titled “Non-Compete Agreements: Analysis of the Usage, Potential Issues, and State Responses” and an accompanying blog post. Relying heavily on a report earlier this year from the U.S. Treasury, the White House report criticizes the perceived misuse of non-competes, highlights their negative impact on the ...

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 ...

NOTE (3/16/16): This post has been corrected since it was originally posted. 

President Obama has nominated Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Judge Garland, age 63, had bipartisan support when he was nominated to the D.C. Circuit (in 1995, by President ...

UPDATE (2/26/16): Cara Crotty's full analysis of the proposed rule -- plus video! -- is here. Read Cara instead of me.

The U.S. Department of Labor released today a proposed rule that would require federal contractors to provide at least seven paid sick days per year to their employees. The leave could be used for the employee's own illness, or for family care.

The proposed rule, which ...

I just learned today that earlier this week, Jacqueline Berrien, the first Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appointed by President Obama, died of cancer at the age of 53.

Ms. Berrien stepped down from the EEOC in 2014. The agency's current Chair is Jenny Yang.

I did not always agree with Ms. Berrien, and I've given her what I hope she took as some good-natured ...

As you know, I strongly disapprove of use of the "N" word in the workplace. I don't think African-Americans should say it, and I really, really don't think people who aren't African-American should use it.

Well, this weekend President Obama used the "N" word, and he didn't say "the 'N' word." In a podcast interview with comedian Marc Maron, the President was quoted as saying,

Racism ...