Upcoming Webinar! 2019 Year in Review: What You Need to Know About the Recent Cases and Developments in Trade Secrets, Non-Competes, and Computer Fraud for 2020

Upcoming Webinar! 2019 Year in Review: What You Need to Know About the Recent Cases and Developments in Trade Secrets, Non-Competes, and Computer Fraud for 2020

January 17, 2020

By Michael Wexler, Robert B. Milligan, and Daniel Joshua Salinas Seyfarth Synopsis: On Tuesday, January 28 at 12:00 p.m. Central, in the first installment of the 2020 Trade Secrets Webinar Series, Seyfarth attorneys will review noteworthy legislation, cases and other legal developments from across the nation over the last year in the area of trade secrets and data theft, non-competes and other restrictive covenants, and computer fraud. Plus, they will provide predictions for…

Beneficially Yours

Supreme Court Remands Case Back Seeking Clarification of the Dudenhoeffer Pleading Standard

January 15, 2020

By: Jim Goodfellow and Kathleen Cahill Slaught In Retirement Plans Committee of IBM v. Jander, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, clarified the its opinion in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, 573 U.S. 409 (2014), which set forth the duties that administrators of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (“ESOP”) owe to participants, and when they are required to act on inside information. In this case, plaintiffs alleged that the IBM’s ESOP fiduciaries violated their duty…

ADA Title III Litigation: A 2019 Review and Hot Trends for 2020

January 15, 2020

By Minh N. Vu Seyfarth Synopsis: ADA Title III lawsuits flooded federal courts in 2019 and will likely continue to do so in 2020 with new theories for the courts to consider. We are still tallying up the end-of-year numbers, but the number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal courts by the end of November 2019 (10,206) exceeded the number of such lawsuits filed in all of 2018 (10,163). California courts continue to…

It’s All About Those Rates (Part I): Basic Rate of Pay

January 14, 2020

By: Alex Passantino Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 15, 2020, the Department of Labor’s Final Rule on regular and basic rates of pay will take effect. This series will explore the various issues implicated by the Department’s changes. Part I addresses the Department’s changes to Part 548 of the regulations, Authorization of Established Basic Rates for Computing Overtime Pay. In December, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division announced its revisions to certain provisions…

DOL Announces Rule Clarifying Joint Employment Under FLSA

January 12, 2020

By: Alex Passantino, Brett Bartlett, and Noah Finkel Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 12, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor announced its Final Rule clarifying the issue of joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Final Rule adopts a four-factor balancing test and rejects various factors that have fueled recent litigation, e.g., a worker’s economic dependence on a potential joint employer, the potential employer’s business model, and its unexercised power over the worker. Despite being…

Nuclear Power Company Avoids ADA Discrimination Claim Meltdown

January 9, 2020

By Lennon B. Haas and Kevin M. Young Seyfarth Synopsis: In Flaherty v. Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., ___ F.3d ___, No. 18-1759, 2019 WL 7046367, at *1 (1st Cir. Dec. 23, 2019), the First Circuit struck a terminated nuclear plant security officer’s self-serving affidavit opposing summary judgment and held that he was not qualified for his position, and thus could not establish a prima facie case of disability discrimination, because his failure to disclose…

WHD Issues Its First Opinion Letters of the. . . Decade

January 8, 2020

By: Alex Passantino Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division recently issued two opinion letters providing clarity to employers in determining (1) the proper overtime rate of pay for non-discretionary, multi-week bonuses; and (2) whether certain per-project payments are sufficient to satisfy the salary basis test required for the FLSA’s white-collar exemption. WHD has been issuing a steady stream of opinion letters on a wide variety of issues–by its own count,…

Pay Equity Litigation Update: The Second Circuit Clarifies A Key Difference Between Title VII And Equal Pay Act Wage Discrimination Claims

January 2, 2020

By Matthew Gagnon and Alexandra Oxyer Seyfarth Synopsis: In an unusual opinion considering an issue raised by the plaintiff for the first time on appeal, the Second Circuit clarifies that unlike under the Equal Pay Act, Title VII plaintiffs need not show “equal work for unequal pay” to succeed on a pay discrimination claim. This case demonstrates that plaintiffs have options when bringing such claims and underscores the different challenges employers face under the different statutory…

Employer Labor Relations

NLRB Issues a Flurry of Decisions, Revealing Several Anticipated Gifts for Employers Just in Time for the Holidays

December 23, 2019

By: John Telford and Rachel Reed Seyfarth Synopsis: The National Labor Relations Board, pushed out a number of noteworthy decisions early this week. The Board’s holiday rush coincided with the departure of its sole Democratic member, Lauren McFerran, who ended her term on December 16, 2019. The National Labor Relations Board, pushed out a number of noteworthy decisions last week. The Board’s holiday rush coincided with the departure of its sole Democratic member, Lauren McFerran,…

Frosty, the Gig Worker Performing Work Outside the Usual Course of the Hiring Entity’s Business: 2019 Year in Review