This will be the first in a series of blog entries discussing, at a high level, contract dos and don’ts for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Small business owners and entrepreneurs can expect to sign contracts with service providers, customers, and [...]
On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals–which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin–held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, [...]
The Sixth Circuit issued an opinion late last week that should give a municipality pause before it removes a regulatory takings case to federal court. Siding with the Second and Fourth Circuits, the Court held that by removing a regulatory takings [...]
Since May, employers have been scrambling to identify employees who will no longer qualify as overtime exempt under the Department of Labor’s new rules, scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2016. On November 22, 2016, however, Texas District [...]
Your company may find itself one day peering down the barrel of a corporate crisis—and you may be asked to lead the company’s response. No one can really be prepared for this. But I thought it could be helpful to [...]
On May 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor published a new final overtime rule that will take effect on December 1, 2016, and which is expected to extend overtime pay eligibility to approximately one in five U.S. workers who [...]
The Society for Human Resource Management and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology recently published a helpful white paper on the topic of using applicants' criminal and credit history in employment decision making. The white paper discusses not only the legality of background [...]
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employers from discriminating against any “qualified individual on the basis of a disability.” But a person is not a “qualified individual” under the ADA if he or she “poses a ‘direct threat’ to [...]
We've all heard the stories. Was he a productive employee? Not particularly. Did he meet his supervisor's expectations? Only some of the time. Does his personnel file reflect his below-standard job performance? No. It is critical that employers avoid this cycle. [...]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, No. 14-1146, a wage-and-hour dispute brought by a class of employees at a meat processing plant. Tyson appealed from the jury verdict in favor of the [...]
