Hot dawg! Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete has been named by Vault.com as the best law firm in the country for women lawyers and the best law firm in the country for minority lawyers. Heather Owen has the whole wonderful story at FOCUS, our women's leadership blog. This latest honor comes on the heels of our having been named by the National Law Journal as fourth best law firm for women attorneys, and having been named by Law360 as being in the top 10 for African-American attorneys, top 25 for women partners, and top 100 for women attorneys and minority attorneys, all of which which Heather wrote about in June. Woo-hoo!

The Summer 2016 Retailer is out, and this edition is dedicated to the impact on retail employers of the Fair Labor Standards Act white-collar exemption rule that will take effect on December 1. Our Wage and Hour Practice Group co-chair Jim Coleman discusses exactly what retail employers think about this rule and what they need to do to prepare. We also have graphics contrasting the rosy outlook of the U.S. Department of Labor with the decidedly less-rosy outlook of the National Retail Federation. And a ton of other good stuff. There's a lot to do - don't wait until Black Friday to get ready!

Employers, do you think you can contract away your WARN obligations? (Answer below.) Tamara Jones of our Dallas Office, featured in this month's Appellate Spotlight, analyzes the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Day v. Celadon Trucking, interpreting an employer's obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act in the context of the sale of a business. (Answer: You can try, but if the other party defaults, you'll be left holding the bag.)