Employment Law Strategist

Law firms must be diligent about their information security — not just via protection through technology, but by training staff on what to look for and how to react to cybersecurity threats. Most security breaches arise out of human error or negligence. Educating users is one of the best defenses.

The Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) puts Pennsylvania among the growing number of states permitting the use of marijuana for prescribed medicinal purposes. The MMA, like all state laws purporting to "legalize" marijuana use, squarely conflicts with federal law, which still considers marijuana to be a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, with no legitimate medical uses.

The more we understand about how data breach incidents originate and propagate, the more likely we are to shift focus from outsider hackers to insider (employee) threats. Insider threats can be malicious, but often they are accidental.

If one follows the recent onslaught of articles and blogs, Donald Trump's election to the presidency has placed a target squarely on the back of a DOL rule that imposes a fiduciary standard on those who provide investment advice in connection with employer retirement plans and IRAs. Yet reports of the rule's demise may be premature.

The ability to hire and retain a competent, responsible workforce distinguishes the great human resources managers from the merely mediocre ones. Retention is highly valued in most successful businesses because hiring on limited information often comes down to more luck than skill, and nobody wants to engage in hiring more often than absolutely necessary.

Did you know that your employment practices could violate antitrust law? This is the message to be gleaned from joint guidance recently issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

The Supreme Court's decision in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. is likely to have a significant impact on federal workplace discrimination laws, despite the fact that the case does not implicate the employment relationship, or involve employment law.

Is the Department of Labor's overtime rule now dead? Will the overtime rule be modified to a more modest version? Much uncertainty remains regarding the recently announced overtime rule in both the legal and the political sphere.