Employment Law Strategist

Former employees of Heller Ehrman sued at least 179 former partners in April, demanding they fork over $32 million for the largest group of creditors in the defunct firm's bankruptcy. This article discusses the suit.

With an unemployment rate of 8.5% and an underemployment rate exceeding 14%, the workplace can be a very stressful environment. This article presents a discussion on how to manage these stressed employees.

Over the past several months, law firms have discharged both lawyers and staff in unprecedented numbers. Although it may be too early to assess whether these layoffs will result in significant legal fallout, law firms may make particularly attractive targets for lawsuits.

Laptops, thumb drives, data sticks, e-mails, and USB ports make it easy for employees to walk out of a company with valuable information, customer lists, and trade secrets. An employer's remedies are often limited.

Recent statutory and regulatory enactments have been widely debated and publicized. Equally important, but without any of the public comment and debate, have been four U.S. Supreme Court decisions issued since June 2006, which have significantly expanded the scope of the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and 42 U.S.C. ' 1981

In 14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett, the Supreme Court clearly stated that a union-negotiated arbitration agreement can bind individual employees to arbitrate statutory discrimination claims. Accordingly, employers and unions should consider taking advantage of the benefits of arbitration ...

Employment lawyers across the San Francisco Bay Area are in awe of the ferocity of the economic slide, which for many has already translated into more work. Many Bay Area partners at firms big and small say their employment work really surged in the fourth quarter of 2008, and many expect the increase to continue.

The last decade has marked a dramatic rise in the number of executives, supervisors and managers who are being sued in their personal capacity for their work-related actions. This rise is largely the result of the expansion of many state discrimination laws to allow for lawsuits against not only the corporate employer, but also individual supervisors.