The 30th anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA,” for short) was July 26, 2020. To commemorate this milestone, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a separate webpage with links to useful resources for workers and employees (as well as proactive, responsible employers). One particularly useful page lists what the EEOC considers important agency guidance on the ADA. An Introduction to the ADA This anniversary also presents a good opportunity to give a brief…

It is a pretty safe bet that, until there is a workable, widely distributed vaccine, better treatments for COVID-19, or both, our lives—including our work lives—will not go back to any semblance of normalcy. It also doesn’t take much imagination to predict that remote or teleworking (for office-type jobs) will remain widely available after the pandemic. These changes to the workplace may usher in significant changes in our employment laws, including in workers’ rights to…

To state the obvious: yes, sexual harassment is not limited to men harassing women and yes, same sex harassment exists. Perhaps it is rarer, but it does happen. What almost certainly happens less often in 2020 than in prior decades—given the prevalence of corporate anti-discrimination policies, trainings, HR personnel and an increased cultural awareness—is brazen, unapologetic harassment, compounded by retaliatory termination. But that is what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleges occurred in a…

Can a School District’s Policy to Allow Transgender Students to Access Bathrooms Consistent With Their Gender Identity Be a Basis for a Sexual Harassment Claim? The Transgender Student Paul is a 17-year-old junior high school student in Louisville, Kentucky whose sex was female at birth, but who, since at least the age of five, has had a lasting, persistent male gender identity. Because Paul’s birth-determined sex is different from his gender identity, Paul experienced relentless…

Federal law not only protects you from workplace discrimination during pregnancy, but also from discrimination after pregnancy. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) of 1978 amended the Civil Rights Act to include discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k). Some federal courts have held that breastfeeding or pumping milk at work constitutes a “related medical condition” protected from discrimination. In the recent case of Mercado v. Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, L.P.…

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in O’Daniel v. Industrial Service Solutions, released on April 19, 2019, affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed harassment and discrimination based on her heterosexual orientation. The Fifth Circuit held that there were no protections for sexual orientation employment discrimination under the law. Bonnie O’Daniel worked at Plant-N-Power Services under Cindy Huber, who became president when the company was involved in a merger with…

Inmediatamente después de graduarse de la escuela de leyes, Carl comenzó a trabajar como asistente del juez Jorge Martinez.  A Carl le encantaba su trabajo, el cual le permitía presenciar juicios civiles y criminales, hacer búsquedas legales, redactar opiniones legales para el juez, hacer recomendaciones legales, y conocer a otros jueces, asistentes legales, y abogados prominentes de la comunidad.  Después de varios meses de trabajar con el juez Martinez, él le presentó a su colega,…