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Adjunct Law Prof Blog 
Post Frequency: 7.5/day Last Entry: November 21, 2009 at 01:01:04 Recent Entries: 2344
By Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Eric A. Lustig, and Gail Levin Richmond
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Recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages for purposes of public employee health insurance coverage and other benefits ruled lawful
Posted on November 21, 2009Godfrey v Spano, 2009 NY Slip Op 08474, Decided on November 19, 2009, Court of Appeals [Decided with Lewis v New York State Department of Civil Service] Plaintiffs in this action are taxpayers challenging directives recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages for...
New York Law Student Fails In His Challenge To Reverse His Legal Writing Grade
Posted on November 20, 2009Keefe v. New York Law School, ___Misc. 3d___(N.Y. Co. Nov. 17, 2009), is an interesting case. A transfer student to New York Law School from Hofstra Law School was unhappy with being placed in Legal Writing II. As I understand...
2d Circuit Upholds Attorney Stewart Criminal Conviction For Supporting Terrorism
Posted on November 20, 2009Disbarred defense attorney Lynne Stewart's conviction was affirmed by the 2d Circuit, but the court was very critical of the short prison sentence she was ordered to serve for providing material support to a terror conspiracy. A divided appellate court...
5th Holds Confederate Flag Ban Does Not Violate Student 1st A Rights
Posted on November 20, 2009A.M. v. Cash, ___F.3d___, (5th Cir. Oct. 9, 2009), is an important decision to be aware of. The 5th Circuit held that a school district policy prohibiting the display of the Confederate flag on school property does not violate students?...
Law Professor Blog Rankings
Posted on November 20, 2009TaxProf Blog complied its annual list of the top 35 Law Prof Blogs, here. No, we are not on that list-yet, but we are getting close. Congrats to Jim Levy, our contributing editor who also writes at Legal Writing Prof...
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Beta Available With A Free Download
Posted on November 19, 2009Hurray and get it while you can. Microsoft Office Professional 2010 is available now with a free download. It could take over an hour to download-depending upon your computer's speed. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Google Scholar Adds Free Legal Research
Posted on November 19, 2009Google Scholar just added free journal and case law legal research to its search engine. I tried it and it works! It is, of course, not as comprehensive as Lexis or Westlaw, but it may be a way to get...
Pay Cuts And The Economy
Posted on November 19, 2009When people think of the poor economy and jobs many think of unemployment. While there are scores of people out of work, large numbers of employees also took significant pay cuts in order to remain employed. That important fact is...
If the issue involves pure statutory reading and analysis, courts need not defer to the agency?s expertise in adjudicating its administrative decision
Posted on November 19, 2009Matter of Raganella v New York City Civ. Serv. Commn., 2009 NY Slip Op 07206, Decided on October 8, 2009, Appellate Division, First Department Anthony J. Raganella filed an Article 78 petition challenging the New York Civil Service Commission?s dismissal...
How to make better PowerPoint slides for the classroom
Posted on November 19, 2009This one goes out to all the teachers who follow this blog. It's an article from Inside Higher Ed discussing advice for making effective PowerPoint slides in connection with undergraduate courses but the lessons apply equally well to the law...
Rare Injunction Granted In Public Sector Labor Law Case To Enjoin Improper Practice
Posted on November 18, 2009Matter of PERB v. County of Monroe,___Misc.3d____(Albany Co. 2009), is a rare case where a state court judge issued an injunction pending the outcome of an Improper Practice that had been filed with PERB. The IP concerns an alleged effort...
NLRB: Successor employer unlawfully refused to hire unionized employees
Posted on November 18, 2009The Parksite Group, 354 NLRB No 90, (September 30 2009), is an interesting case. A building materials wholesaler unlawfully refused to hire back the unionized drivers and warehouse workers of a predecessor employer after terminating the predecessor's outsourcing contract at...
School's refusal to reassign rooms to accommodate teacher violated ADA
Posted on November 18, 2009Ekstrand v School District of Somerset, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. October 6, 2009), is an interesting case. A Wisconsin school district that was made aware of the medical necessity of natural light for one of its elementary teachers who was diagnosed with....
Striking grad students reach a tentative deal
Posted on November 18, 2009We reported earlier this week about grad students who were striking U. of Illinois over tuition waivers. Today, Inside Higher Ed is reporting that the parties have reached a tentative agreement: Graduate teaching assistants at the University of Illinois at...
Why adjuncts need to be tech-savvy in the classroom
Posted on November 18, 2009According to this column from Inside Higher Ed, adjuncts may need to be more tech-savvy than their tenured colleagues because of the inverse relationship between job security and the need to prove oneself in the classroom. (Personally, I think being....
Title VII Case Dismissed As Time-Barred Bars 1981 Case
Posted on November 17, 2009Elkadrawy v Vanguard Group, Inc, ___F.3d___(3d Cir. October 6, 2009), is an important case. I am just not sure if it was correctly decided. In a case of first impression, the 3rd holds that the doctrine of res judicata barred...
2d Holds That Failure To Specify Accommodation Is Fatal To ADA Case
Posted on November 17, 2009McBride v BIC Consumer Prods Mfg Co, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. October 5, 2009). This is an interesting ADA case concerning the duty to provide a reasonable accommodation. Plaintiff, an employee failed to demonstrate either that she could have performed the essential...
Obama Pledges To End Don't Ask Don't Tell
Posted on November 17, 2009As everyone has heard by now, President Obama has pledged to end Don't Ask Don't Tell with respect top the military. A NY Times article discussing this issue is available here. While this is certainly welcomed news, does this mean...
Donning Time Does Not Count Towards 1250 Hours Requirement Under FMLA
Posted on November 17, 2009The Supremes have declined to grant certiorari in a case in which the Seventh Circuit held that an employee could not count towards the 1,250-hour minimum for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligibility the three to five minutes she...
National Council of Teachers of English has survey for writing prof adjuncts
Posted on November 17, 2009Relevant to adjunct legal writing profs is this announcement from the NCTE: "Adjunct and Contingent Faculty - we want your stories! The NCTE Newsletter is collecting data about the material conditions of compositionists who teach off the tenure track...
Excellent advice for anyone considering law school
Posted on November 17, 2009From this month's National Jurist, a magazine targeted at law students, comes this column that encourages potential applicants to consider carefully their reasons for attending law school: I?ve said this many times before in my books and articles: there are...
Textual Harassment
Posted on November 16, 2009Trouble Investigating 'Textual Harassment' is an interesting Nov. 3, 2009 article from the Texas Lawyer. It is about sexual comments that may arise in text messages and the fact that some of those messages may be written after hours. What...
Neutrality Agreement Together With Card Check Election Agreement is Upheld
Posted on November 16, 2009Adcock v. Feightliner___F.3d___(4th Cir. 2008) was recently denied cert. by the Supremes. DenyiThe Fourth Circuit held that concessions made by an employer to a union in a card check did not constitute a "thing of value," and that, thus, neither...
Recent 2d Circuit Decision On Witness Advocate Rule
Posted on November 16, 2009Murray v. Met Life, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. Sept. 29, 2009), is an important case for litigators to be aware of. The court held that New York's witness-advocate rule did not require disqualification of law firm representing insurer. Even if that some...
Do you curve?
Posted on November 16, 2009Grading curves periodically become a hot topic at law schools. Faculties impose them to create a level playing field while students complain that a curve hurts their job prospects by unfairly lowering their GPA's. Having taught at some schools that...
Graduate Teaching Assistants strike at U. of Illinois over benefits
Posted on November 16, 2009According to the Chronicle of Higher Ed, about 1,000 graduate TA's represented by a union called the Graduate Employees Organization have signed up to picket the campus today over a dispute with the administration concerning tuition waivers. Graduate TA's at...
Compelling public employee to answer potentially incriminating questions without formal immunity grant -- Certiorari Denied
Posted on November 15, 2009Certiorari has been denied in a case in which the California Supreme Court held that a public employee may be compelled by threat of job discipline to answer potentially incriminating questions about the employee's job performance, at least where the...
Is there change coming to the "business" of legal education in light of changes in the industry it serves?
Posted on November 15, 2009No one knows for sure whether the current change in the legal marketplace, which the National Law Journal (free subscription required) said reflects the worst job losses among the NLJ Top 250 firms since it began keeping records three decades...
Supervisor Can Face Individual Liability Under Vermont Law For Employment Discrimination
Posted on November 14, 2009Payne v. US Airways, Inc., __Vt.__(Sept. 29, 2009 Vermont Supreme Court) is an interesting decision. The court holds that employer's agents may be held individually liable for violating Vermont Fair Employment Practices Act (VFEPA), which defines "employer" to include "any...
Convicted Murder Who Spent 18 Years In Prison Has His Conviction Overturned
Posted on November 13, 2009Man Jailed For 91 Murder Has Conviction Overturned is a very interesting Nov. 12, 2009 New York Times article. This case illustrates an important fact. Our criminal justice system is not perfect and mistakes are made. The article summarizes the...
Cyberbullying
Posted on November 13, 2009I did not even realize that there was such a thing as cyberbullying.However, as discussed in Better Laws Are Needed To Prosecute Cyberbullies, cyberbulling is real. (New York Law Journal Oct. 13, 2009)(registration required). What is it? As the article...
Marc Dreier Disbarred
Posted on November 13, 2009Marc S. Dreier, 59, the former sole equity partner of 250-lawyer Dreier LLP who in May pleaded guilty in federal court to selling more than $700 million in bogus real estate and pension plan notes, was recently disbarred. The case...
West Puts Law Books On Kindle
Posted on November 13, 2009West recently announced that it is releasing e-book editions of 29 of its most popular law books. The releases include the book co-authored by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia legal wordsmith Bryan Garner, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading....
WOMEN ON PACE TO BE MAJORITY OF UNION WORKERS
Posted on November 12, 2009Women are on track to become a majority of unionized workers in the next 10 years, signaling their growing clout in the labor movement. A NY Times article about this is available here. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Changes To EFCA On The Way??
Posted on November 12, 2009Workplace Prof Blog ran an interesting Oct 10, 2009 story about Senator Bayh's comments on possible EFCA changes. Most interesting is that Bayh does not support card check for first contract arbitration-but does support a form of arbitration involving last...
Recent Supreme Court Action In Education Law Cases
Posted on November 12, 2009Review denied Hudson Area Schools v. Patterson, 551 F.3d 438 (6th Cir.); Docket No. 09-143; Equity & Discrimination: peer on peer sexual harassment ? school district?s liability; Review denied 10/5/09. Jallali v. NOVA Southeastern Univ. Inc., 992 So.2d 338 (Fla...
Seattle to unveil new student assignment plan soon
Posted on November 12, 2009The Seattle School Board plans to roll out its new student assignment plan next month, says CrossCut.com. The board hopes to adopt a new plan, assigning students largely to neighborhood schools, with far fewer "escape valves." The Seattle School Board...
ADEA Complaints Decline By 7%
Posted on November 11, 2009In a November 6, 2009 National Law Journal article, it is reported that ADEA lawsuits filed with the EEOC were down 7%. As the article states: The EEOC said Friday that it is preparing to release statistics indicating that age...
50 Great Blogs For And By Law Professors
Posted on November 11, 2009Online Universities published a list of 50 great blogs by and for Law Professors and we made the cut! The top 23 are as follows: Legal News Follow the latest legal cases by visiting these news blogs. Law Blog: The...
State AG trying to intervene in autism dog case
Posted on November 11, 2009AG trying to intervene in autism dog case is an interesting article from the Oct. 6, 2009 Mt. Vernon Register. This high profile lawsuit seeks an injunction from the court permitting a child with autism to bring his service dog...
New Hampshire?s Pledge of Allegiance statute does not violate constitution?s religious clauses
Posted on November 11, 2009Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Hanover Sch. Dist., ___F.Supp. 2d___ (D. N.H. Sept. 30, 2009), is an interesting case that we are likely to hear more about. A federal district court ruled that a New Hamp. statute requiring the recitation...
Discharge To Prefer Your Paramour
Posted on November 10, 2009Alaska Employment Law Blog previewed an interesting case pending in the 9th Circuit. In the court below, a a federal jury returned a $200,000 verdict for a woman, Martha Johnson, who claimed that her supervisor had fired her in order...
: Dan Rather's breach of contract, tort claims against CBS dismissed
Posted on November 10, 2009Rather v CBS Corp, __Misc. 3d___(NY Co. September 29, 2009), is an interesting employment case involving famed newman Dan Rather. Approximatgely five years ago, CBS anchor Dan Rather was relieved of his duties after he aired a report questioning President...
Chicago alderman violated NLRA; city of Chicago vicariously liable
Posted on November 10, 2009520 S. Michigan Ave v Fioretti, ___F.Supp. 2d___(N.D. Ill September 28, 2009) is an important labor case.Municipalities and elected officials frequently inject themselves into local labor disputes. In this instance, the City of Chicago was vicariously responsible for a city...
Book Reivew Highlight Filipp and Castagnera Employment Law Answer Book (7th ed. 2010)
Posted on November 10, 2009Aspen just published Mark R. Filipp and James Ottavio Castagnera, Employment Law Answer Book (7th ed. 2010) and all I can say is Wow! For years, most labor and employment lawyers have purchased personal copies of The Developing Labor Law...
Swine Flu and Workplace Clinics
Posted on November 09, 2009The New York Times reported on Nov. 6, 2009 that an Obama Administration official stated that there was nothing wrong with having the Swine Flu shot distributed through workplace clinics. That article is available here. As the article states: The...
Unemployment Hits 10.2%
Posted on November 09, 2009The New York Times reported on November 6, 2009 that Unemployment hit 10.2%. That is the highest level in 26 years. The full article is available here. The article states: In the six decades since the government began compiling such...
2ndCir: Oral promise not enough to alter terms of ERISA plan
Posted on November 09, 2009Ladouceur v Credit Lyonnais, ___F.3d____(2d Cir. September 30, 2009), is an important ERISA decision to be aware of. The 2d held that an alleged oral representation made to employees about how their pension benefits would be calculated after a company...
Defamation Suit based Upon Online Criticism Is Protected Opinon
Posted on November 09, 2009In Intellect Art Multimedia Inc. v. Milewski, 117024/08 (N.Y. Co. 2009), the court dismissed a defamation suit brought against a former student for an online posting which was highly critical of the school. A N.Y. Law Journal article discussing this....
Law Schools To Cut Back Their PT Programs
Posted on November 08, 2009Clinicians Without Enough To Do reports via Brian Leiter's Law School Reports that some schools are cutting back on their part-time programs and that this was predictable. It sure was. The law schools are not dong this because of the...
New Legal Research Tool
Posted on November 08, 2009Above the Law reported that that Bloomberg is going to release a new online legal research tool, Bloomberg Law, that will compete with Lexis and Westlaw. It will be interesting to see how they compare. Hat Tip: Workplace Prof Blog...
ENDA A Top Priority For Obama Administration??
Posted on November 07, 2009Workplace Prof Blog cited to a an article from the National Law Journal yesterday to state that ENDA, the Bill that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a top priority of the Obama Administration. Frankly, seeing...
Education Law Jobs
Posted on November 07, 2009School Law Jobs Job Title Employer Job Location General Counsel Oxnard School District Oxnard, California School Attorney Harbottle Law Group Orange County, California General Education / Labor & Employment Attorney Lozano Smith Los Angeles, California Special Education Attorney Lozano Smith...
Legal Issues Arising Out of Employees' Use of Social Network Web Sites
Posted on November 06, 2009Legal Issues Arising Out of Employees' Use of Social Network Sites is an excellent Oct. 5, 2009 article from the New York Law Journal (registration required). The article states the 45% of employers use social networking sites to screen job...
PAID SICK LEAVE LEGISLATION PROPOSED TO DEAL WITH FLU PANDEMIC
Posted on November 05, 2009Workers sent home sick with the swine flu or another contagious illness would be guaranteed up to five days' paid sick leave annually under congressional legislation proposed on November 3, 2009. A news article in the Democrat Chronicle about this...
NMB Proposes A Major Change In Voting Rules Under RLA
Posted on November 05, 2009Workplace Prof Blog reported on November 4, 2009, that the NMB voted to change a major election rule under the Railway Labor Act. The new rule would, except in extraordinary circumstances, allow a union to be elected by a majority...
So You Want To Be A U.S. Supreme Court Clerk
Posted on November 05, 2009The Oct. 2009 ABA Journal has a very interesting article entitled Shedding Tiers. It describes how the job of Supreme Court Clerk is usually limited to graduates of the top 5 law schools. Justice Scalia was even quoted as such....
Smart Phone Apps
Posted on November 05, 2009Well this is not exactly a law-related post, but it may be very helpful to lawyers, law students and scholars. The Oct. 2009 ABA has an interesting article entitled Sizzing Apps. It is about apps that can be downloaded (many...
Vt Supreme Court Holds Individual Supervisors Have Liablity For Discrimination Under State Law
Posted on November 04, 2009Payne v. U.S. Airways, 2009 Vt. 90 (Vermont Supreme Court, Sept. 25, 2009), demonstrates once again the importance of state anti-discrimination law. In a lengthly decision, the Vermont Supreme Court rejects Title VII case law and holds that supervisors can...
Furlough Fridays and Special Education
Posted on November 04, 2009Hawaii is planning to not have school on Fridays to avoid layoffs. However, that is not such a simple to do because of the needs of special education students who, for example, might need to receive therapy every day. This...
Title VII Does Not Apply To The Armed Forces
Posted on November 04, 2009I bring Gabryluk v. U.S. Army, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. Oct. 1, 2009), because it involves an issue that we do not see very often. Title VII does not extend to protect military personnel. As the court states: Gabryluk submits that he...
Right To Control Test Of Employee Status Applied In Unemployment Case
Posted on November 04, 2009Matter of Viig, ___A.D.3d___(3d Dep't. Oct. 1, 2009), is an interesting case. The issue concerned the employee status and eligibility for unemployment. The court applied the right to control test to distinguish between employees and independent contractors and held that...
Supremes Grant Cert In 2 Member NLRB Case
Posted on November 03, 2009The Supreme Court just granted cert in NLRB v. New Process Steel. In that case, the 7th upheld the authority of the NLRB to issue 2 Member decisions.You can follow our coverage here. There have been hundreds and hundreds of...
Proposed Affordable Health Care for America Act (The Health Care Bill)
Posted on November 03, 2009Source: The House of Representative, Committee on Education and Labor The text of the proposed Affordable Health Care for America Act is available on the Internet. Click here: H.R. 3962 to view a copy of this 1,990 page document. Also...
Recent New York State Labor Laws, Including Protection For Victims Of Domestic Violence
Posted on November 03, 2009New York Employment Law Update is an excellent Oct. 2, 2009 New York Law Journal (registration required) which summarizes several recent New York employment laws, some of which are quite significant. The article states the describes the new laws as...
Clerical error in recording an educator?s tenure area does not vest educator with tenure in the tenure area recorded
Posted on November 03, 2009Appeal of Janice Walters from action of the Board of Education of the City School District of the City of Cortland, Superintendent Laurence Spring and Lydia Eberenz-Rosero regarding the appointment of an elementary principal, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education...
School Aides Granted Injunction Enjoining NYC Dept. of Education From Laying Off More Than 500 School Aides
Posted on November 02, 2009Matter of Montgomery-Costa v. City of New York, ___Misc. 3d___(N.Y. Co. Approx Oct. 30, 2009),(registration required) is an important case. You just do not see a court enjoy 500 layoffs everyday-but it happened here. In a nutshell, the court found...
Employment At Will, Public Policy Exception, Smoke-Free Workplace
Posted on November 02, 2009McNeil v. Charlevoix County, No. 134437 (Mich. Sup. Ct, July 21, 2009). The court upheld a local regulation prohibiting an employer from discharging, refusing to hire, or otherwise retaliating against an employee for exercising the right to a smoke-free work...
ADDA Amendments Not Retroactive
Posted on November 02, 2009Lytes v. DC Water & Sewer Auth, Case No. 08-7002 (D.C. Cir., July 21, 2009). The court ruled that the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), enacted to ?reinstate a broad scope of protection under the ADA,? does not apply...
Dismissal For Off Duty Misconduct Disqualifies Employee From Unemployment
Posted on November 02, 2009Matter of Carter, ___A.D. 3d___(3d Dep't. Sept. 22, 2009), illustrates an important point. Employees who are discharged for misconduct are not eligible for unemployment. What makes this case unusual was that the misconduct conduct occurred off-duty. However, the nature of...
Motorized La-Z-Boy seized in DWI arrest is now on eBay
Posted on November 02, 2009We'd previously told you about the bizarre case of a Minnesota man who was arrested for DWI after crashing his motorized (!) La-Z-Boy into a parked car. Apparently the "vehicle" has been forfeited to the Proctor, Minnesota police department which...
Plenary Action For Breach of CBA
Posted on November 01, 2009Nowadays most collective bargaining agreements have arbitration clauses and most disputes are arbitrated. However, some contracts do not have binding arbitration or the arbitration clause specifically excludes a certain subject from arbitration. These cases arise more frequently in the public...
Liza Minnelli forced to testify in her-ex chauffeur?s sex harass suit against her
Posted on November 01, 2009An entertainment newspaper is reporting that Liza Minnelli is being ordered to testify in a sexual harassment case brought by her chauffeur. That article is available here. As the article states: LIZA MINNELLI has been ordered to a New York...
Yale Sued By Employer For Confirming Non-Degree
Posted on October 31, 2009Here is a new one. A major university (Yale) is being sued for falsely confirming that a student obtained a P.hd degree. A New York Times article about this suit, which involves a Korean firm, is available here. This article...
Book Review Highlight Stone and Bales Arbitration Law
Posted on October 31, 2009Katherine Stone (UCLA Law School) and Richard Bales (Northern Kentucky Law School) just published Arbitration Law, 2d ed. (Foundation Press 2010). The book spans 795 wages and all I can say is wow!. Though it is designed as law school...
Adjunct resigns over university DNA testing policy.
Posted on October 30, 2009Inside Higher Ed. is reporting that adjunct professor Matt Williams of the University of Akron, and Vice President of The New Faculty Majority- an adjunct rights group, has resigned over that school's requirement that new employees submit to DNA testing...
State, Federal and Local Government Research
Posted on October 30, 2009Govengine.com is a commercial site that complies links to most of the important state, federal and local government sites. Readers may find this web site helpful. Mitchell Rubinstein
Substitute teacher ineligible for unemployment insurance based on assurance of reemployment
Posted on October 30, 2009Hammond v Commissioner of Labor, App. Div., 252 A.D.2d 638 The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board ruled that Sherry Hammond, an ?occasional per diem substitute teacher,? was ineligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits because she had a reasonable assurance of continued...
Classes Past Midnight
Posted on October 30, 2009The boom in student enrollment at community colleges has results in late night classes-real late classes. A Oct. 27, 2009 New York Times article about this is available here. As the article states: He is a typical part-time student, with...
Discharged Attorney Looses First Amendment Case
Posted on October 30, 2009Attorneys are employees just like anyone else. Thus, though we do not hear about it very often, they can have employment issues themselves. Ex-Disciplinary Attorney Lawsuit Is Rejected By Jury is an Oct. 30, 2009 New York Law Journal article...
Difficulty Older Workers Have In Finding Employment
Posted on October 29, 200965 and Up is another great New York Times article by Steven Greenhouse dated Oct. 23, 2009. I bring it to your attention because it reminds us just how difficult it is for older workers to find work. Now, because...
Supreme Court's 'Iqbal' Ruling to Get Congressional Hearing
Posted on October 29, 2009Supreme Court's 'Iqbal' Ruling to Get Congressional Hearing is an interesting Oct. 26, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. In Iqbal,the Court raised the pleading standard for most civil complaints, making it more difficult to keep cases from being...
2d Circuit Reviews Standard For DFR Cases
Posted on October 29, 2009Lindsay v. Association of Professional Flight Attendants, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. Sept. 21, 2009), is and interesting case. In a 31 page decision, the 2d held that the union did not breach its duty of fair representation by negotiating a restructing plan....
8thCir: Evidence showed desire to displace older workers
Posted on October 29, 2009Baker v Silver Oak Senior Living Mgmt Co, LC, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. September 14, 2009), is an interesting case. The 8th held that plaintiff, a discharged 53-year-old employee presented enough evidence of age-based discriminatory animus to get her ADEA and state...
EEOC Updates Employer Poster
Posted on October 28, 2009EEOC Form EEOC-P/E-1 (Revised 11/09) has been updated and is available here. It reflects the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (effective on January 1, 2009) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (effective November 21, 2009). The revised poster...
Unions Win Concessions On Health Care Reform
Posted on October 28, 2009There is an interesting article in the Oct. 26, 2009 edition of The Hill entitled "Unions Win Concessions But Fight On" which is about the health care debate. What are the "concessions" that organized labor wants? The article states as...
School district not required to provide for defense, nor provide for indemnification, in lawsuit it brought against former school board member
Posted on October 28, 2009Matter of Barkan v Roslyn Union Free School Dist., 2009 NY Slip Op 06541, decided on September 15, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Michael F. Barkan initiated two lawsuits; one named the Roslyn Union Free School District as the defendant,...
Lawyer Sanctioned For Cursing Ordered To Go To Dinner With Adversary
Posted on October 28, 2009What is the appropriate sanction for a lawyer calling his adversary an "ass hole" in open court? A civility class and a required dinner with your adversary. That is what a federal judge did in Huggins v. Coatesville Area School...
Call For Education Law Papers
Posted on October 27, 2009Call for Papers/Abstracts The Education Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools The 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) will be held January 6-10 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Education Law Section of...
How Not To Litigate A Case
Posted on October 27, 2009Tangled Discrimination Ends In $ 4.5 Million Malpractice Award is an interesting Sept. 17, 2009 National Law Journal article. In a nutshell, a major law firm waited over a year to tell a employment discrimination plaintiff that her case was...
Cause of Action Fraudulent Inducement to Marriage
Posted on October 27, 2009I admittedly do not practice family law, but found the case Rosensweig v. Givens, ____N.Y.3d___(Sept. 17, 2009), to be particularly interesting. New York's highest court recognized a cause of action for fraudulent inducement to marriage.What happened? The husband while still...
Disabled student, who won court order to bring service dog to school, placed in private school by district
Posted on October 27, 2009An autistic boy who won a temporary court order to bring his service dog to class in his hometown school district instead started at a new school nearly a half hour away, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Carter Kalbfleisch,...
A great book on how to deal with disruptive students
Posted on October 27, 2009Here's a book I thought I'd pass along to our readers some of whom may be looking for advice on how to handle disruptive or difficult students. No matter how good or experienced a teacher you are, you will eventually...
December workshops in Chicago and NYC for adjuncts interested in teaching legal writing
Posted on October 27, 2009The Legal Writing Institute will be holding One-Day Workshops for Adjunct Professors and New Legal Writing Professors. The workshops will take place on Friday, December 4, 2009, in two locations: Chicago and New York City. An updated brochure is attached...
Reason # 47 why teaching law is better than practicing it
Posted on October 27, 2009MSNBC is reporting the case of a criminal defendant on trial for robbery and home invasion, who sneaked a bag of feces (his own) into the courtroom. He then proceeded to smear the feces on his lawyer and throw some...
LLC Subject To Criminal Liability For Workers Actions
Posted on October 26, 2009Criminal convictions of corporations or corporate like organizations are very rare. Here, five health-care workers were criminal convicted of various crimes for failing to provide care to a patient in a persistent vegetative state. There criminal conviction were not at...
GAO issues 74 page comphrensive report on employee misclassification
Posted on October 26, 2009We have discussed the difficult legal issues in defining employee status often on this blog. Now, the Government Accountability Office has issued a report that includes various recommendations to DOL and IRS to enhance enforcement of proper worker classification, improve...
Rarely performed tasks may still constitute an essential job function
Posted on October 26, 2009Hennagir v Utah Dept of Corrections, ___F.3d___(10th Cir. September 10, 2009), is an important decision. The 10th holds that job functions that are rarely required may still be essential for purposes of the ADA, so long as the potential consequences....
Adjunct seeking career advice: "How do I handle a student complaint?"
Posted on October 26, 2009These can be sticky situations, especially for adjuncts who are the most vulnerable members of the faculty when it comes to sorting out a dispute between the tuition-paying student and a part-time teacher. Here's the advice from the Career Adviser...
Advice to new teachers and old, drop perfectionism and don't blame yourself for your students' failings
Posted on October 26, 2009That's the advice from Ms. Mentor (Professor Emily Toth author of "Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia"), of the Chronicle of Higher Ed to a new teacher who finds herself worrying too...
Faculty at the University of Oregon consider unionizing
Posted on October 26, 2009In a sign of the economic times, faculty at the University of Oregon are considering forming a union in response to low wages and the administration's "top-down" management style. The effort still is in the informational stage with meetings being...
Following an affirmative action plan may constitute direct evidence of unlawful discrimination
Posted on October 25, 2009Humphries v Pulaski County Special Sch Dist, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. September 3, 2009), is an important decision. The 8th held that "evidence that an employer followed an affirmative action plan in taking a challenged adverse employment action may constitute direct evidence...
3rdCir: Court reverses itself in pay bias case, cites Ledbetter Act
Posted on October 25, 2009Mikula v Allegheny County, Penn, ___F.3d___(3rd Cir. September 10, 2009), is an interesting case. the 3rd holds that under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a grants coordinator could proceed with her Title VII compensation discrimination action against her county...
EEOC Issues Guidelines On Pandemic Preparedness For Swine Flu
Posted on October 24, 2009Aside from whether an employer, has the authority to require that its employees take a mandatory flu shot, issues can arise under the ADA. On Oct. 9, 2009, the EEOC issued guidelines on pandemic preparedness, here. It is written in...
Judge Stays Mandatory Swine Flu Shots For Health Care Workers
Posted on October 24, 2009In New York, the Commissioner of Health mandated that all health care workers receive both swine flu and regular flu shots. The New York Times reported on Oct. 16, 2009, that a state judge has issued a TRO staying enforcement...
NLRB Nominee Becker's Response To Republican Questions
Posted on October 23, 2009Though the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions did not hold hearings on the NLRB nominations, nominee Becker, who is the most controversial, submitted a 105 page response to questions he has been asked. That document is available...
School Law Jobs
Posted on October 23, 2009School Law Jobs Job Title Employer Job Location General Counsel Oxnard School District Oxnard, California School Attorney Harbottle Law Group Orange County, California General Education / Labor & Employment Attorney Lozano Smith Los Angeles, California Special Education Attorney Lozano Smith...
White motor vehicle operator's race bias claim improperly dismissed
Posted on October 23, 2009(Aulicino v New York City Dept of Homeless Servs, ___F.3d___ (2d Cir. September 8, 2009), is an interesting case that readers might want to take note of. The 2d held that a white motor vehicle operator's failure-to-promote and hostile work...
Friday Fun - Man pleads guilty to DWI after crashing motorized La-Z-Boy into parked car
Posted on October 22, 2009File this under "I've got to get me one of these!" The Duluth News Tribune is reporting the case of a 62 year old man who recently pleaded guilty to drunk driving after he crashed his motorized (!) La-Z-Boy into...
An essay that urges universities to treat adjuncts with respect
Posted on October 22, 2009Apropos to Professor Rubinstein's earlier post about a series of articles in the Chronicle of Higher Ed profiling adjuncts, comes this essay, also from CHE, reminding us all that providing students with a good education means ensuring that adjuncts, who...
Seton Hall Law School Religious Theory Conference Nov. 12-13, 2009
Posted on October 22, 2009?Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field? Seton Hall University School of Law Newark, New Jersey Thursday-Friday, November 12-13, 2009 Seton Hall Law School will host Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field, a conference to assess the...
Survey asks adjuncts: "Why do you teach?"
Posted on October 22, 2009The Chronicle of Higher Education surveyed more than 600 adjuncts at 90 institutions in the Chicago area to find out why they teach despite the long hours and low pay. "They don't make much money, they don't have health benefits,...
Plagiarism Scanner
Posted on October 21, 2009Here is a new one. A company actually is marketing a plagiarism scanner. It can be used by students or profs. It only seems to scan the internet so it is of limited utility for lawyers and law professors. A...
Blogger Anonymity
Posted on October 21, 2009Julie Hilden wrote an excellent Sept. 15, 2009 article for Findlaw entitled Why a New York Court Unmasked the Blogger Who Wrote Harshly About a Model It is primarily about Cohen v. Google (N.Y. Co. 2009), which we blogged about...
NLRB Finds Exception To Its Blocking Charge Policy
Posted on October 21, 2009Sequoias Portola, 354 NLRB No. 74 (Aug. 31, 2009), reviews the NLRB's blocking charge policy. Normally, the NLRB will hold representation petitions in abeyance pending the resolution of a unfairl labor practice. The rationale is that a fair election cannot...
Late Opening of Poll Does Not Mean That Election Should Be Set Aside
Posted on October 21, 2009Colgate Scaffolding, 354 NLRB No. 76 (Sept. 9, 2009), does a nice job in summarizing applicable law concerning whether an election should be set aside because the polls opened late. Here, the polls opened 22 minutes late and the election...
NLRB Nominations Pass Senate Committee
Posted on October 21, 2009Workplace Prof Blog reported on Oct. 21, 2009 that President Obama's 3 NLRB nominations (Becker, Pearce and Hayes) passed a Senate Committee, but Senator McCain is objecting about the lack of formal hearings. Prof. Jeff Hirsch is guessing that this...
So You Want To Be An Adjunct
Posted on October 20, 2009The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a Special Report entitled "The State of Adjunct Professoriate". While directed at college adjuncts, much of it could be directed at law schools as well. Basically, adjuncts routinely are paid terribly and do not....
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions To Vote On NLRB Nominations
Posted on October 20, 2009Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and PensionsTo Vote On NLRB Nominations of Craig Becker, Mark Pearce, and Brian Hayes on Oct. 21, 2009. No hearings are scheduled. However, a full vote from the U.S. Senate is required for confirmation....
Rare 2d Circuit Decision Permantly Staying A Labor Arbitration
Posted on October 20, 2009As my students and readers to this blog all know, there is a strong preference for arbitration in this country. Whether a dispute is arbitrable is for the court to decide unless the parties clearly and unmistakeably provide otherwise. One...
Excellent Medical Information Site
Posted on October 20, 2009I recently came across a web site called HealthBase which provides medical and treatment information for various diseases. If you have a medical condition that you would like to learn more about, this site may be very helpful.The site pulls...
Balloon Boy's Family In Big Trouble Over What Now Appears To Be A Hoax
Posted on October 19, 2009The Balloon boys parents may face criminal and other charges now that it has been declared a hoax. A New York Times story about the case is available here. Adjunct Law Prof Blog predicted that criminal charges may be filed...
The Problem With Zero Tolerance Policies
Posted on October 19, 2009Suspended Boy Back in School is an important Oct. 14, 2009 article from the NY Times that demonstrates an important point. Whenever a policy, whether it relates to employment or schooling, is inflexible and wooden it is likely to lead...
D.C. Circuit Denies Petition For En Banc Rev in Fedex Employee Status Case
Posted on October 19, 2009On April 29, 2009, Adjunct Law Prof Blog reported on FedEx Home Delivery v. NLRB, ___F. 3d ___(D.C. Cir. April 21,2009), which appears to have established a new type of test for employee status under the NLRA. As you may...
U.S. Department of Education Issues Guidance On Swine Flu
Posted on October 19, 2009The US Department of Education has issued guidance that discusses waivers from federal education requirements that may provide state or local educational institutions with the operational flexibility necessary to efficiently close schools and otherwise respond to the administrative challenges presented...
Legal Issues Involving Balloon Boy
Posted on October 18, 2009Legal Blog Watch has an excellent posting about the Legal Issues Involving Balloon Boy as well as a link to a CNN Video. If it were all a gag, and I do not know if it was, there may indeed...
IDEA Guidance Issued By Dept of Education
Posted on October 18, 2009The U.S. Department of Education recently issued Guidance on the IDEA in the form of FAQ in the following areas: Discipline - Provides guidance on discipline policies enacted for school-age students to personnel in state educational agencies (SEAs) and local...
8th holds Employer?s use of affirmative action plan may constitute direct evidence of unlawful discrimination under Title VII
Posted on October 17, 2009Humphries v. Pulaski County Special Sch. Dist., __F.3d___(8th Cir. Sept. 3, 2009), is an interesting case. The 8th held that an Arkansas school district?s use of an affirmative action plan, even if it was promulgated in response to a court...
Excellent Management Oriented Article On Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on October 17, 2009Duane Morris attorneys Eve Klein, Bruce Kasten and Joanna Varon write an excellent point of view article entitled The Employee Free Choice Act-What's An Employer To Do?, 81 N.Y.S. Bar J. 38 (Sep't. 2009). Unfortunately, a copy is not freely...
Important Article on Special Education In A Charter School Dependent Educational System
Posted on October 16, 2009Professor Mark Weber, DePaul Law School just posted on SSRN an important article entitled Special Education from the (Damp) Ground Up: Children with Disabilities in a Charter School-Dependent Educational System, (Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law Forthcoming)...
Spotlight On The National Labor College
Posted on October 16, 2009Inside Higher Education ran an interesting story about the National Labor College in D.C. on Oct. 15, 2009. Yes, you can get a degree here and yes the focus is on labor studies. Interestingly, union member tuition is \ significantly...
Best College Undergraduate Degrees Ranked By Salary
Posted on October 16, 2009Payscale.com ranks college majors by starting salary. Here is their list: Best Undergrad College Degrees By Salary Starting Median Salary Mid-Career Median Salary Aerospace Engineering $59,600 $109,000 Chemical Engineering $65,700 $107,000 Computer Engineering $61,700 $105,000 Electrical Engineering $60,200 $102,000 Economics...
100 Useful Tools for Special Needs Students & Educators
Posted on October 16, 2009While not legal information per se, readers interested in the IDEA and Special Education may find some of the links helpful. The full posting is available here. The web sites mentioned are as follows: Evaluation Tools Teachers, school psychologists and...
Do lawyers like to talk too much? Take this quiz to find out how you rate
Posted on October 16, 2009The Snark, an occasional column by The Daily Reports' "anonymous associate" (subscription required) asks whether lawyers share the common trait of liking to talk way too much. Incroyable, you say? Well, here's a brief quiz that puts the theory to...
U. of Colorado seeks to recover $52k in legal expenses from Ward Churchill
Posted on October 16, 2009In a case watched closely by academics involving the firing of U. of Colorado's ethnic studies prof Ward Churchill allegedly over his "Little Eichmanns" comment following the 9/11 attacks, the school is now seeking more than $52k in litigation expenses...
More about the proposed uniform bar exam - what's the law prof perspective?
Posted on October 16, 2009The blog Best Practices for Legal Education weighs in on a story we carried the other day about growing support for a single, uniform bar exam. Law students and recent grads have expressed their support for a single bar (read...
$70,000 Per Year To Attend Law School! This is Real!
Posted on October 15, 2009Ever wonder how much it is to attend a top ranked law school in New York? Well, Columbia charges $48,004 which does not include $1638 for health insurance or a $95.00 transcript fee.The estimated living expense is $21, 263. That...
FLSA Continues To Be Hot Sub-Practice Area For Labor & Employment Lawyers
Posted on October 15, 2009Wage and Hour Complaints Head For A Company Near You is an important September 7, 2009 National Law Journal article which discusses a new report that highlights that employers are continuing to violate the FLSA. Among the report's findings: 76...
Students From Lower Tier Law Schools Are Happier At The Big Firms
Posted on October 15, 2009Legal Blog Watch has an excellent September 4, 2009 story which discusses a study by the American Bar Foundation, and which was reported on in the September 2009 American Lawyer. In a nutshell, the study demonstrates that lawyers from less...
New blog that chronicles experience of talented law grads caught in lay-offs sweeping the profession
Posted on October 15, 2009A new blog called the Jobless Lawyer: The tales of a young lawyer's futile job quest, authored by a N.Y. licensed attorney with "two ivy league degrees" who was practicing with a "top 10" law firm until he was laid...
Is Blogging Work???
Posted on October 14, 2009Is blogging employment? You ask how? Many bloggers, including the undersigned, receive advertising revenue. Why does it matter? Well, it may effect eligibility or the amount of unemployment someone might receive. There are also tax consequences. If a blogger is...
Upcoming conferences for new and aspiring law professors
Posted on October 01, 2009Readers of this blog may be interested in these two upcoming conferences courtesy of the Legal Scholars Blog: 1. The Southwest Junior Law Professors Workshop - Tempe, Arizona The Sandra Day O?Connor College of Law (Arizona State University) hosts the...
Columbia Medical Student Looses In His Bid To Challenge His 2 Year Suspension
Posted on October 01, 2009Zartoshiti v. Columbia Univ., ___Misc.3d___(N.Y. Co. Aug. 12, 2009), is about a medical student's challenge to his suspension due to poor grades. Students making such challenges almost never prevail because they have a tough burden to meet. The court described...
List of Law School Bloggers
Posted on October 01, 2009Evidence Prof Blog is putting together a list of law professors who blog, available here. Unlike some other lists, adjunct profs are included and therefore, this blog is included. Readers may find this posting of interest. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Supremes Grant Cert In Executive Compensation Case
Posted on October 01, 2009The N.Y. Times reported on August 17, 2009 that the Supremes granted cert. in an executive compensation case. Here. The case arises out of the 7th Circuit and generated a strong dissent from Judge Posner with regard to an application...
Appeals court finds plenty of evidence to support FMLA claim
Posted on October 01, 2009DeFreitas v Horizon Investment, ___F.3d___(10th Cir. August 14, 2009, is an interesting case. Plaintiff was discharged the day after telling her employer she needed a full six weeks off to recover from a hysterectomy (per doctor?s orders). The court held...
Supreme Court Oral Argument Preview-RAILWAY LABOR ACT, ARBITRATION, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, DUE PROCESS
Posted on September 30, 2009There is one major labor case scheduled for oral argument in the Supreme Court on Oct. 7, 2009. Five railroad employees filed claims through their union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (?Brotherhood?), contesting disciplinary charges imposed by the...
Supreme Court Term Preview: Business Issues in the Spotlight
Posted on September 30, 2009The First Monday in October is coming up and the National Law Journal has an excellent article previewing the major cases, available here. Though the article states that no employment cases were taken, that is only partially correct. There is...
NLRB backpay calculations were not arbitrary or unreasonable
Posted on September 30, 2009You don't see a case like NLRB v John T. Jones Construction Co, ___F.3d____(8th Cir. August 14, 2009), everyday. Affirming an NLRB supplemental decision, the Eighth Circuit held the Board did not err in failing to offset fringe-benefit contributions by...
No need to reinstate employee before discharging for cause under FMLA
Posted on September 30, 2009(Daugherty v Wabash Center, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. August 14, 2009), is an unusual FMLA case. Plaintiff contended that his employer was ?absolutely prohibited from terminating him? while he was out on FMLA leave. He also claimed an employer who discovers a...
The job market is really bad when unemployed lawyers start applying for unpaid jobs
Posted on September 30, 2009Above the Law is reporting on a Craigslist advertisement placed by a Menlo Park, California law firm seeking an attorney(s) willing to work for free in a 6 to 12 month "internship" with the possibility of a later shot at...
Adjunct critical of school's preferential treatment of athletes allegedly fired for her views
Posted on September 30, 2009The New York Times is reporting that a U. of Binghamton adjunct who taught human development for eleven years is alleging she was dismissed because of her criticism of the school's preferential treatment of athletes, including pressure to change grades,...
Does being a "character" make you a better teacher?
Posted on September 30, 2009That's the question being asked at the Chronicle of Higher Ed blog where readers are encouraged to post their opinions. For adjunct law profs, many of whom also practice, it might make it more difficult to maintain a professional persona...
Professor Insurance
Posted on September 29, 2009Peter Schmidt wrote an excellent Oct. 2, 2009 article for The Chronicle Of Higher Education entitled "Professors Are Pitched Lawsuit Protection." (registration required). It discusses an issue that professors do not like to talk about-being sued. Professors can be sued...
Facebook, Law Students and Professors
Posted on September 29, 2009On Sept. 28, 2009, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an interesting article entitled Facebook, The New Classroom Commons?(registration required for full article).The article highlights the pros and cons of friending students on Facebook. On the one hand, it crosses...
Complaint Thrown Out For Poor Stapling
Posted on September 29, 2009Contributing Editor Jim Levy posted an interesting story on Legal Writing Prof Blog about a case being thrown out for poor stapling. As Jim states: The New York Law Journal is reporting (subscription only) that a New York state judge...
Multiple nooses created hostile workplace, but no employer liability
Posted on September 29, 2009Porter v Erie Foods Int?l, Inc, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. August 7, 2009), is an important decision to be aware of. An African-American worker whose coworkers displayed nooses and threatened him experienced a racially-hostile workplace, but his employer was not liable for...
Mistake As A Defense In Employment Discrimination
Posted on September 27, 2009Upshaw v Ford Motor Co, ___F.3d___ (6th Cir. August 14, 2009), is an interesting decision. An employer admitted that it mistakenly promoted white candidates based on faulty performance ratings, but the mistake was a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for failing to...
On Call Duty and The FLSA
Posted on September 27, 2009The National Law Journal ran an interesting August 14, 2009 article about AT&T Trouble Shooters who brought a class action because they were not paid while on call, here. Unfortuntately, the article does not do a good job in outlining...
Employee terminated after making a false statement on his employment application
Posted on September 27, 2009Matter of Wilson v Town of Minerva Town Bd., 2009 NY Slip Op 06214, decided on August 13, 2009, Appellate Division, Third Department The Town of Minerva appointed Philip Wilson as a maintenance mechanic in 2001. When completing his employment...
For adjuncts, does teaching at a for-profit present special challenges?
Posted on September 25, 2009Here's an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed about the difference between teaching at a non-profit versus a for-profit university from an adjunct's perspective. There are already a few for-profit law schools, including Florida Coastal, California Western, and Phoenix, and...
Breaking News New ADA Proposed Regulations Published
Posted on September 24, 2009On Sept. 23, 2009, the EEOC published new ADA regulations under the amended statute. A copy of the Federal Register is available here. The regulations are significant for the following reasons: They interpret broadly the definition of ?disability?; Significantly lower...
Ravitch Regains Lieutenant Governor Job In New York
Posted on September 24, 2009The New York Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 that Governor David A. Paterson has the constitutional power to fill a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor. The Court reversed the rulings of two lower courts. "While there can be...
Women In Combat
Posted on September 24, 2009G.I Jane Breaks Combat Barrier is an interesting August 15, 2009 article from the New York Times. While women are technically barred from combat, many commanders are getting around that. As the article states: Before 2001, America?s military women had...
English Court System
Posted on September 24, 2009Her Majesty's Courts Service is English court systems web site. Readers as well as foreign researchers may find this web site of interest. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
America's First Muslim College
Posted on September 23, 2009The September 25, 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent article entitled Islamic Scholars Plan for America's First Muslim College. (registration required) It is about the work of two American Scholars of Islam who are building support for a...
EEOC To Issue Regs On ADA Amendments Act of 2008
Posted on September 23, 2009The EEOC has approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking revising its regulations to provide that an individual seeking protection under the ADA establish that he or she has a disability consistent with the original, expansive intent of Congress when it...
Seton Hall Law School Symposium is entitled "Securities Regulation and the Global Economic Crisis: What Does the Future Hold?"
Posted on September 23, 2009Seton Hall Law Review is holding an interesting symposium on Oct. 30, 2009. The Symposium is entitled "Securities Regulation and the Global Economic Crisis: What Does the Future Hold?", and will take place at Seton Hall University School of Law...
Federal Judge Ratings
Posted on September 23, 2009The Robbing Room is a site by lawyers which rates federal judges. Readers may find it of interest. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
According to one out-of-touch British academic, curvy students are a "perk of the job"
Posted on September 23, 2009If being stalked by students (see below) is an occupational hazard of being a prof, then enjoying female students who like to "flash their curves" is the upside according to one British academic. In a story that's burning up the...
U. Wisconsin Law School colloquium on "The Death of Big Law"
Posted on September 23, 2009As part of its fall "corporate governance" series, the University of Wisconsin is today hosting a talk by Professor Larry E. Ribstein, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, called "The...
EFCA Revisions On The Way
Posted on September 22, 2009Sen. Arlen Specter, long the most closely-watched man in America when it comes to labor law reform, embraced his latest role last week: as a passionate Democrat declaring that a revised Employee Free Choice Act will pass this year. The...
3rd Circuit Holds Contractor Could Bring Section 1981 Claim
Posted on September 22, 2009Brown v J. Kaz, Inc, ___F.3d____(3d Cir. September 11, 2009), is an interesting case of first impression in the Third Circuit. The Third joins the 1st, 7th, and 11th Circuits in holding that an independent contractor may bring a racial...
PDF Copies Of Bound U.S. Supreme Court Opinions Now Available
Posted on September 22, 2009The Supreme Court itself now has posted on its web site pdf copies of its bound decisions. Available here. Only decisions from 1991 and newer are available. Note, the file is actually the entire bound volume. It would have been...
Rent-A-Textbook
Posted on September 22, 2009You heard of rent a car, now there is rent a textbook. An August 13, 2009 New York Times article about one such company is available here. The story is about the nation?s largest textbook publishers, Cengage Learning, which recently...
Iqbal and Employment Law
Posted on September 21, 2009Plaintiffs Groups Mount Effort To Undo Supreme Court's Iqbal Ruling is an important Sept. 21, 2009 National Law Journal article that reminds us how important FRCP are to employment law and in particular employment discrimination law. Basically, a number of...
Workplace Violence at Yale
Posted on September 21, 2009Prawfs Blawg had an excellent September 19, 2009 posting about Annie Le's murder and I thought we could join in the discussion.Professor Simon's point is that the police are characterizing the crime as workplace crime to avoid any focus on...
NLRB: Discriminatee's remedy not affected by felony, quitting interim job, medical leave
Posted on September 21, 2009Jackson Hospital Corp dba Kentucky River Medical Center, 354 NLRB No 42, (July 9, 2009), is an interesting NLRB decision. A hospital's back pay and reinstatement obligations for unlawfully discharging an x-ray technician were not effected by the ex-employee's subsequent...
The 30-day suspension without pay limitation in Civil Service Law §75 controls unless the employee is the cause of a delay in the proceeding
Posted on September 21, 2009Matter of Ruggiero v McGrane, 2009 NY Slip Op 06026, Decided on July 28, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Jean-Ann McGrane, Poughkeepsie?s City Manager, sustained the finding that that Paul Ruggiero was guilty of certain charges of misconduct...
Are you being stalked by a student?
Posted on September 21, 2009If things weren't already difficult enough for adjunct faculty, now you can also start worrying about whether you'll be the victim of a stalking student. According to this psychology professor, academics face a higher than average risk of being stalked...
Strategies for getting class discussion back on track
Posted on September 21, 2009For those teachers looking for advice on how to recover when class discussion careens out of control (or at the very least wonders off course), here's an excellent column from Inside Higher Ed. As the author says in the beginning:...
100 Blog Posts About Going To Law School
Posted on September 20, 2009100 Blog Posts You Should Read Before Going to Law School is an interesting collection of articles written by Hannah Watson of Onlinecourses.org, a commercial web site. I reproduce their links with the hope that it may be helpful to...
4th Annual Colloquium On Legal Scholarship
Posted on September 20, 2009The 4th Annual Colloquium On Legal Scholarship is being held Sept. 25th and Sept. 26 at Seton Hall Law Center in Newark N.J. A copy of the full program is available by clicking Download Colloquium-Program_Sep-17-for-colloquium-site The conference web site is...
Washington 18 Day Teacher Strike Ends
Posted on September 19, 2009On Sept. 14, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Kent School District?s teachers have agreed to end a strike with a new contract. The new contract was approved by 94% of the teachers. It reduces class sizes, increases the time...
Chamber Releases Doomsday Report On Obama NLRB
Posted on September 18, 2009The NLRB in the Obama Administration What To Expect is a 79 page report written by the Ogeletree Deakins firm for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which every labor lawyer and scholar should read. The report starts out by stating...
Peer Review Main Stream Law Review Articles
Posted on September 18, 2009PRSM or Peer Reviewed Scholarship Marketplace is an important organization for professors and future scholars to be aware of. There are 4 members of this organization: Current Members: Mississippi Law Journal South Carolina Law Review Stanford Law Review Wake Forest...
E-Filing System Extended In New York
Posted on September 18, 2009Those of you who practice in federal court realize how civilized and professional the federal ECF system is. New York had a pilot system for some time called E-Filing. It is now going to be expanded throughout the state. An...
New Study On College Loan Student Debt
Posted on September 18, 2009Student debt is a fact of life for many college and law school students. This has important public policy implications because the amount of student debt will influence where a students goes to school, where he or she may live...
How to write a CV for an academic job
Posted on September 17, 2009Here's some very practical advice for those seeking an academic job courtesy of Inside Higher Ed. The format of a CV should be as clear and easy on the eyes as possible. Use white space and highlighting to mark divisions...
Johns Hopkins student kills intruder with samurai sword
Posted on September 17, 2009Ok, so there's no literal connection between this story and the normal beat covered by the Adjunct Law Prof Blog (to paraphrase Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski) but it's too bizarre not to share with all of you. According...
Obsese Employees and Workers Compensation
Posted on September 17, 2009Obese Employees and Workers Comp. Ever thought that they may be related to each other? Well, some courts have. The September 15, 2009, National Law Journal ran a story about two cases where an employer had to pay for lap...
Health Care Bill Released
Posted on September 17, 2009The Americans Healthy Future Act of 2009 has been released, here. Workplace Prof Blog has an excellent analysis of the Bill which appears here. The Bill spans 223 pages and is quite complicated. While I doubt that this is the...
Class Actions In Arbitration
Posted on September 17, 2009Whether To Allow Classwide Arbitration When Agreements are silent is another excellent NY Law Journal article from NYU Professor Sam Estreicher and attorney Steven Bennett dated August 12, 2009. It is about , Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp...
Law Schools of The Future
Posted on September 17, 2009Welcome To The Future: Law School 4.0 is an interesting American Lawyer Daily article. The author runs a collaborative web site, which has I understand it, puts lawyers together to come up with solutions to certain problems. In any event,...
Disabled Children More Likely To Be Victims Of Corporal Punishment
Posted on September 16, 2009Believe it or not, corporal punishment is still practiced in some parts of this country. A new study just came out that has some disturbing findings. Namely, that disabled children are more likely to be victims of corporal punishment than...
Adventures of An Adjunct
Posted on September 16, 2009The AFL-CIO ran an interesting posting about an adjunct at U. Mass., available here. The point of the story is that the Adjunct loved his job, but was underpaid and that about 70% of colleges classes are taught by adjuncts....
Employee who was not direct target of harassment may pursue claims
Posted on September 16, 2009Blizzard v Appliance Direct, Inc, __So.2d___(Fla.Ct.App. August 7, 2009), is an interesting Florida sexual harassment decision. The court held that an employee who alleged hostile work environment sexual harassment and retaliation could proceed to trial on her state-law claims even...
Limited use of hidden surveillance camera alleviated privacy concerns
Posted on September 15, 2009Hernandez v Hillsides, Inc, ___P.2d___(Cal Sup. Ct. August 3, 2009) is an interesting California state supreme court decision concernig the right of privacy. Although two employees of a residential facility for neglected and abused children may have had a reasonable...
Commissioner of Education lacks jurisdiction to consider appeals involving FOIL, the Open Meetings Law and allegations of defamation
Posted on September 15, 2009Appeal of P.S. from action of the Board of Education of the City School District of the City of Tonawanda regarding termination of employment, Commissioner of Education Decision No. 15,958, (July 29, 2009) P.S. served as clerk of the board...
Three ways to improve your teaching
Posted on September 15, 2009This is an informative article for both experienced and new teachers courtesy of he Chronicle of Higher Ed. The advice is based on the work of two psychology professors, Debra Poole and David Daniel, who argue that to gain real...
More stories about lawyers getting into hot water through improper use of social media
Posted on September 15, 2009Following up on this Sunday's New York Times article describing the ethical and professional pitfalls lawyers face as a result of the improper use of social media, the online ABA Journal is reporting today on further examples of the misuse...
2d Circuit Issue Major Decision Holding Employer Can Be Liable For Discriminatory Acts of Independent Contractors
Posted on September 14, 2009We cover important decisions concerning both employee and employer status often on this blog. Normally, an employer is not responsible for acts of independent contractors. What if the independent contractor, however, is acting as an agent with direct or apparent...
Washington State Court Reportedly Holds Teacher Strike Illegal
Posted on September 14, 2009Seattle Times, 9/3/09, By Donna Gordon Blankinship (Associated Press) reported on a teachers strike in Washington State. The article states that a state court ruled that a strike by Kent School District (KSD) teachers is illegal. Therefore, the Judge granted...
The mistreatment of adjuncts
Posted on September 14, 2009I'd previously posted here about a poignant essay from Inside Higher Ed describing the adjunct's wish for job security in an un-secure world. The essayist, writing under the nom de plume Oronte Chum, notes in a follow-up piece that his...
As job market for law students worsens, faculty supervised externships grow
Posted on September 14, 2009The National Law Journal is reporting that faculty supervised externships for law students, once thought to be helpful but not essential to landing a full-time job, are more popular than ever as students seek every advantage possible in the hunt...
Advice for new teachers - 5 things to know
Posted on September 14, 2009This comes to us from the Chronicle of Higher Ed - the 5 things new teachers need to know to get off to a successful start: 1. Be humble. You might be surprised at how many new hires show up...
Don't ignore student evaluations - if used the right way, they can help your teaching
Posted on September 14, 2009Adjuncts in particular, I imagine, must feel tremendous pressure to get good student evals since they are retained based almost entirely on their teaching (unlike full time faculty who are also evaluated on their scholarship and service activities). And while...
New study shows that law students who flunk the bar exam have tough years ahead
Posted on September 14, 2009The Chronicle of Higher Ed is reporting on a new empirical study that shows law students who fail to pass the bar exam often face serious financial and personal problems in the years ahead until they eventually get back on...
AFL-CIO President Stepping Down
Posted on September 13, 2009There was a very interesting article in the Sept. 8, 2009 Boston Globe about AFL-CIO President John Sweeny who is retiring after 14 years at the helm-here. His likely successor is AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka who is from the United...
NY Times Picks Up On The Danger Of Social Media Comments-Particularly Those Done By Lawyers
Posted on September 13, 2009Surprisingly, the NY Times recently reported on the dangers lawyers, judges and others may face by commenting on social media sites. Lawyers, of course, are subject to ethical rules. As the article states: ?When you become an officer of the...
Scholarship alert: "Overturning the Last Stone: the Final Step in Returning Precedential Status to all Opinions"
Posted on September 13, 2009A colleague of mine at Nova Southeastern U. Law School, Professor David Cleveland, is developing expertise on the precedential value of unpublished decisions. Because this is an issue that is of interest to both practitioners and law professors (especially those,...
Immigration Put On The Back Burner
Posted on September 12, 2009The New York Times reported on August 10, 2009 that Immigration Reform must await 2010. That article is available here. Why? Because of other concerns, including- surprise surprise healthcare reform. Interestingly, the President did not outline what his specific reforms...
Jim Levy Joins Adjunct Law Prof Blog As Contributing Editor
Posted on September 12, 2009I am delighted to announce that Professor James Levy has joined us as a Contributing Editor. Jim is also a contributing editor at two of our sister blogs, Legal Writing Prof Blog and Law Librarian Prof Blog. Jim teaches Legal...
Social Networking Sites and Litigation
Posted on September 11, 2009Savvy Use of Social Networking Sites is an important Sept. 8, 2009 New York Law Journal article for scholars and lawyers to be aware of. (free registration required). It discusses how attorneys can make use of this new medium in...
Students? constitutional rights were not violated by district?s decision to bar performance of religious music
Posted on September 11, 2009Nurre v. Whitehead, __F.3d___ (9th Cir. Sept. 8, 2009), is an interesting case involving Education and Constitutional Law. The 9th held 2-1 that a Washington school district?s decision to bar the performance of a religious-themed instrumental musical piece at a...
Paying To Work! Student Internships
Posted on September 11, 2009Unpaid Work is an interesting August 8, 2009 article from the New York Times. It outlines the fact that competition for unpaid student internships is particular keen because of the poor economy. Some parents are even paying, yes-yes paying for...
Median STARTING Pay for Law Firm Associates $130,000
Posted on September 11, 2009The August 3, 2009, ABA Journal Blog reported that median starting salary for law firm associates is $130,000. That was before some of the larger firms decreased the $160,000 starting salary. Additional statistical salary information was described as follows: While...
Dismissed probationary teacher presents evidence sufficient to require judicial review of whether termination was made in bad faith
Posted on September 10, 2009Lisa Capece f/k/a Lisa Grande v Schultz, 2009 NY Slip Op 51679(U), Decided on August 3, 2009, Supreme Court, Richmond County, Judge Philip G. Minardo, [Not selected for publication in the Official Reports.] Lisa Capece was terminated from her position...
9th Holds Collective Refusal To Work OT Violated NLRA
Posted on September 10, 2009SEIU v. NLRB, ____F.3d___(9th Cir. 2009) is an important decision to be aware of. The 9th held that a collective refusal to work overtime absent 10-day notice violated NLRA despite collective bargaining agreement. A union's actions in orchestrating union members'...
Are even further BigLaw pay cuts on the horizon?
Posted on September 10, 2009According to the online ABA Journal, one law firm consultant says that although many BigLaw firms have already cut starting pay from $160k to $145k, that doesn't go far enough. On the blog Cotterman on Compensation, consultant Jim Cotterman says...
The self-fulfilling prophecy of tuition increases and the cost to our students
Posted on September 10, 2009A pair of interesting, and eye-opening articles, describe the phenomenon of tuition increases that outstrip inflation and the impact this is having on our students. In the first article from the Wall Street Journal entitled "Student Borrow More Than Ever...
National Law Journal says law schools need to get more serious about teaching skills
Posted on September 10, 2009The title of the article says it all: "Reality's Knocking: Recession Forces Law Schools to Bow to Reality." The movement to incorporate practical skills into legal education isn't new, but legal educators and researchers report that the floundering economy is...
Adjuncts are "mad as hell and they're not going to take this anymore!"
Posted on September 10, 2009Just like Peter Finch's character Howard Beale in Network. the highly skilled and educated "working poor" that comprise 70% of all teachers in higher ed. have had enough and they're not going to take it anymore. They no longer want...
An ?at-will? employee given fair notice and an opportunity to be heard prior to dismissal has received the due process required by the 14th Amendment
Posted on September 09, 2009Edward A. Biliski, v Red Clay Consolidated School District, USCA, 3rd Circuit, Docket No. 08-1742 [This decision is noted as "Precedential"] Edward A. Biliski, a computer technician was employed by the Red Clay Consolidated School District Board of Education...
Remember That Post You Wrote About Me on MySpace? You're fired.
Posted on September 09, 2009Remember That Post You Wrote About Me on Myspace? Your fired is an interesting martindale.com article which discusses a New Jersey jury verdict for the plaintiff. The plaintiff's theory was that the employer violated his privacy and the federal Stored...
2009 Legal Educator Blog Census
Posted on September 09, 2009Professor Colin Miller over at Evidence Law Prof Blog, one of 50 or so sister blogs that are members of the Law Professor Blog Network did a great job putting together a legal educator blog census. Here is the portion...
LPN Not A Supervisor
Posted on September 09, 2009Barker ex rel. NLRB v. Regal Health and Rehab Center, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40863 (N.D. Ill. May 13, 2009), is an interesting court case concerning NLRB supervisory statuts. A federal court granted the NLRB?s request for an injunction...
Univ. of Calif. Profs To Walkout Over Furloughs
Posted on September 08, 2009As it has been reported, the Univ. of California is requiring its employees to take between 11 to 26 furlough days -- amounting to a salary reduction of 4 to 10 percent. The Faculty Lounge has an excellent September 5,...
Adjunct Prof Gov. Spitzer's Salary
Posted on September 08, 2009As reported on Adjunct Prof Blog, former Gov. Spitzer has accepted a position as an adjunct professor of political science at CUNY. The New York Times reported on Sep't. 3, 2009 that Gov. Spitzer is donating his entire salary back...
Article On Forest Grove IDEA Supreme Court Case
Posted on September 08, 2009Phyllis Saxe's August 4, 2009 New York Law Journal Special Education column (registration required) is an excellent summary of Forest Grove School District v. T.A., 557 U.S.?, 129 S Ct 2484 (2009). In Forest Grove, the Court held held that...
Several educational experts offer advice to college students on how to get the most out of classes
Posted on September 08, 2009The Opinion sectlon of the Sunday New York Times included advice from several leading educators to students about how to get the most out of the college experience. You might want to pass this along to your students or think...
AP Labor Day Piece Focuses On NLRB Delays And Appointments
Posted on September 07, 2009In an AP article released on the eve of labor day, the grid lock at the NLRB is highlighted. The article highlights the fact that Obama's 3 appointments have not yet been confirmed and this has caused the 2 Member...
Smart Phone Text Books
Posted on September 06, 2009You had to know it would be coming. There has been alot of discussion about e text books. In the law school environment, they could be very helpful. Full text of statutes and cases could be available with a click....
Irvine Law School
Posted on September 05, 2009Irvine By Erwin is an interesting August 2009 ABA Journal article. Its about California's latest law school-Univ of Calif at Irving which just opened its doors. The article explains that the goal of this school is to become a top...
Students From Lower-Tier Schools Are Happier at BigLaw
Posted on September 05, 2009Carolyn Elefant at Law.com reports on a new study that concludes students from lower-tier law schools are happier at large law firms. She writes: Great credentials may or may not make better lawyers, but apparently they don't make more satisfied...
Top 10 Law Movies
Posted on September 04, 2009Well, we are about to start Labor Day weekend. Therefore, I thought that a post about law related movies was appropriate and I came across this one from Online Universities, a commercial web site. This site also has some interesting...
Conference on the future of law firms: "Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?"
Posted on September 04, 2009The Georgetown Center for the Study of the Legal Profession will host the above conference on March 22-23, 2010. A description of the conference and a call for papers can be found here. Hat tip to the Legal Scholarship Blog....
Adjuncts, adjuncts everywhere but not a secure future in sight
Posted on September 04, 2009Here's a poignant essay from Inside Higher Ed about adjuncts personifying the plight of so many during the Great Recession of '09, by living on the margins. Even more so in light of the recent story that many universities hide...
Florida bar examiners want to check-out applicants' Facebook & MySpace pages
Posted on September 03, 2009You knew this was coming - bar examiners want to check the social networking homepages of bar applicants to determine if they meet the character fitness standards. Specifically, The Florida Board of Bar Examiners ("FBBE") Character and Fitness Committee recommended...
Court Invalidates California Furlough Plan
Posted on September 03, 2009Another Furlough Plan Bites The Dust is an interesting September 1, 2009 National Law Journal article about a California decision which enjoined layoffs. The article is not particularly well written. It appears that the furlough was enjoined based upon California...
And speaking of "work-life" balance, this poll says it's incompatible with legal excellence
Posted on September 03, 2009On the Adam Smith, Esq. blog, readers were asked in a poll to give their opinions about the viability of work-life balance in today's marketplace. Not surprisingly, the majority of those polled said that it's a pipe-dream in this economy....
A new blog called "Thriving in Law School"
Posted on September 03, 2009I thought some of our readers might be interested in this blog recently brought to my attention called Thriving in Law School. It's part of the "humanizing law school" movement which is devoted to helping students (and lawyers) find happiness...
Universities accused of hiding from USNWR the number of adjuncts they use
Posted on September 03, 2009A blog called Faculty and College Excellence is reporting that the American Federation of Teachers ("AFT") is claiming that several top universities misrepresent the number of adjunct professors they employ in order to manipulate the USNWR rankings. As part of...
The Importance Of State And Local Employment Law
Posted on September 02, 2009The New York Civil Rights Restoration Act Grows Teeth is an important-very important July/August article from the New York State Bar Journal by attorneys Jyotin Hamid, Mary Beth Hogan and Alison Page. As readers of this blog all know, I...
Adjunct Professor Spitzer
Posted on September 02, 2009Disgraced former Governor Elliot Spitzer starts a new job on Tuesday. He will be an adjunct professor of Political Science at CUNY. Lower Hudson carried the story here. I wonder if he applied to be a law professor. I'm guessing...
Breaking News! Is Justice Stevens Going To Retire Next Year??
Posted on September 02, 2009The AP reported about 45 minutes ago that Justice Stevens only hired one law clerk. Justice Stevens is 89 years old and has been on the Court since 1975. He is the second longest serving Justice in the history of...
Universities help students experience the "good life" since they likely won't upon graduation
Posted on September 02, 2009I'd previously reported on the Legal Writing Professor blog about several universities that now offer valet service for students running late to class (or who simply don't want to look for a parking space). Now comes this story from the...
3rd Holds Gay Man Can Pursue Sexual Sterotyping Claim
Posted on September 01, 2009As most of my students are aware, Title VII does not outlaw discrimination on the basis of homosexuality- at least not yet. However, many plaintiffs have never-the-less been able to bring a claim based upon a claim of sexual sterotyping....
DOT reinstates rule requiring direct observation of urine testing
Posted on September 01, 2009The Department of Transportation has reinstated a 2008 final rule mandating that transportation industry workers in safety-sensitive positions submit to direct-observation urine testing for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug tests. See Federal Register notice published July 30...
Smoke-free workplace rule does not interfere with employment at will
Posted on September 01, 2009Here is a new one.In McNeil v Charlevoix County, ___Mich.___(Mich S.Ct, July 21, 2009), the court holds that a local regulation prohibiting an employer from discharging, refusing to hire, or otherwise retaliating against an employee for exercising the right to...
Rubinstein Quoted In Las Vegas Sun
Posted on September 01, 2009One of the advantages of editing a blog is that you get to engage in self-promotion. The Las Vegas Sun recently interviewed me and included me my comments along side one of the giants in labor law, Bill Gould who...
Advice for aspiring law profs
Posted on September 01, 2009Here's some very helpful advice from Professor Paul Caron via The Legal Blog Watch. If graduating top of your class from a top 10 law school before going on to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't fit with your...
Multi-tasking can lead to cognitive difficulties
Posted on September 01, 2009I had previously posted on another blog about a new bookthat declared multi-tasking a "myth" insofar as the human brain lacks the ability to engage in multiple endeavors that require deep thinking. The book's author analogized the brain's ability to....
Study shows you need a vacation - you really do.
Posted on September 01, 2009Between teaching and work commitments, adjunct profs in particular run the risk of not finding enough time for themselves to recharge the batteries. Several new studies now suggest that neglecting to take some quality personal time can cut years off....
Mass: State statutory, tort claims were outside scope of arbitration clause
Posted on August 31, 2009Warfield v Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ___N.E.2d___ (Mass. Sup. Ct. July 27, 2009), is an interesting post-Pyett state law case. The court held that a former chief of anesthesiology was not required to arbitrate her statutory discrimination and retaliation...
9th Holds Individual Managers May Face Exposure Under FLSA
Posted on August 31, 2009Boucher v Shaw, __F.3d___ (9th Cir. July 27, 2009), is an interesting FLSA case. The 9th held that individual managers can be liable for unpaid wages under the FLSA. The lawsuit was against a hotel and its managers for unpaid...
Modern Day Yellow Dog Contracts??
Posted on August 31, 2009NY Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote an excellent August 29, 2009 article revealing the practice of Regis Corporation that is apparently encouraging employees, but not requiring them, to sign a document agreeing to insist on a union election...
Employee Free Choice Act Tabled??
Posted on August 31, 2009The EFCA Report, a management side blog, reported on August 28, 2009 that Congress will not get to the Employee Free Choice Act this year. It quotes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as saying that the Senate has too many...
2 Member NLRB Cert Petitions
Posted on August 30, 2009Workplace Prof Blog reported on August 26, 2009 that a cert petition has been filed in another 2 member NLRB decision case, the First Circuit's Northeastern Land Services case. The legal issue is that can the Board act when it...
Court used wrong analysis for hostile environment claim
Posted on August 30, 2009Winspear v Community Dev, Inc, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. July 29, 2009), is an interesting case. The 8th held that a lower court erred when it treated an employee?s hostile work environment claim as if it were a constructive discharge claim. The...
NY Times Picks Up On Poor Job Market For Lawyers
Posted on August 29, 2009The New York Times ran a revealing August 25, 2009 article outlining the dim employment prospects for today's law students, here. As the article states: This fall, law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as...
Remembering Senator Kennedy
Posted on August 29, 2009Senator Kennedy's wonderful career has been reviewed and discussed throughout the media and in households across America. One thing that I have not seen discussed is the fact that he has been a champion for children and the disabled. He...
New law grads - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Posted on August 28, 2009The National Association for Law Placement ("NALP") recently published its annual report on salary distribution for the graduating law school class of 2008 and the results are not pretty. The report shows a dramatic and widening gap between the graduating...
Age bias claim fails under cat?s paw theory and indirect method of proof
Posted on August 28, 2009Martino v MCI Comm Servs, Inc, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. July 28, 2009), is an interesting case. the 7th held that a 55 year-old employee discharged in a RIF presented insufficient evidence of age bias to survive summary judgment. The employee presented...
Pope's June 29, 2009 Encyclical Supports Labor Unions
Posted on August 28, 2009On June 29, 2009, the Pope issued an Encyclical where he strongly supports unions and the need for workers to receive decent wages. Download Encyclical - Caritas in Veritate In the below passage, the Pope also stresses the importance of...
Lifetime health benefits are vested, but scope of benefits can be modified
Posted on August 27, 2009Reese v CNH America, ___F.3d___(6th Cir. July 27, 2009), is another important employee benefits case coming out of the 6th circuit. An employer promised in a collective bargaining agreement to grant retirees healthcare for life, the Sixth Circuit held...
Arbitration Fee Splitting Agreements
Posted on August 27, 2009There is an excellent July 31, 2009 New York Law Journal article on the legality of arbitration agreements which contain fee splitting agreements, available here (registration required). The article concentrates on New York law and in particular, Brady v...
2d Holds employment-related grievances may relate to matters of public concern
Posted on August 26, 2009Sousa v Roque, Jr., ___F.3d___(2d Cir. August 21, 2009), is an important decision to be aware of. The curt held that ?The speaker?s motive is not dispositive in determining whether speech is on a matter of public concern.? The court...
Transgender substitute teacher retires over lack of assignments
Posted on August 26, 2009After William McBeth underwent sex reassignment surgery and became Lily McBeth, the two southern New Jersey school districts were she had been teaching as a substitute decided to keep her on. However, she got only a handful of assignments since...
Concerns about principal?s skills and judgment justified non-promotion
Posted on August 26, 2009A U.S. district court in Virginia has dismissed a high school principal?s Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) suit. During plaintiffs final year as principal of he applied for the position of assistant superintendent of operations, but the Augusta County...
Fourth Annual Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor & Employment Law, September 25-26, 2009, Seton Hall University School of Law
Posted on August 26, 2009The 4th Annual Conference on Current Scholarship In Labor and Employment Law is on Sept. 25 and 26th at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, N.J. I went to last years conference in San Diego and it was wonderful. It...
Just how bad is the job market for recent grads?
Posted on August 25, 2009Here's a blog I found called "Big Debt, Small Law: Dirt poor lawyers in a filthy rich town" written by a recent (top 1/3) grad of a second tier law school who chronicles his experiences working as a contract lawyer...
Specious law suit of the week (or perhaps the year): N.Y. plaintiff brings claim to establish he is JFK/Marilyn Monroe "love child"
Posted on August 25, 2009You read that right - despite the fact that MM was constantly in the public eye yet not a single photo exists showing her pregnant, a plaintiff recently filed a complaint with a New York federal district seeking to establish...
Rare Court Decision Overturns N.Y. Civil Service Section 75 Decision
Posted on August 25, 2009Matter of Penderleith v. Lakeland Central School Dist., ___A.D.3d___(3d Dep't. Aug. 18, 2009), is a rare case where a court overturned the decision of a Civil Service Section 75 Hearing Officer whose decision was adopted by the appointing authority. Why?...
Court Punts Issue Whether Just Cause Contractual Provision Is A Property Interest
Posted on August 25, 2009Biliski v. Red Clay Consolidated School Dist., ___F.3d___(3d Cir. 2009), is an interesting case. Computer technician for school district was not deprived of property interest without due process when he was discharged for performance problems and inappropriate behavior in workplace,...
An individual serving an extension of his or her probationary period may be summarily dismissed from the position
Posted on August 25, 2009Matter of Ward v Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 2009 NY Slip Op 05973, decided on July 21, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department The New York City Transit Authority terminated Steward Ward from his position. Ward while serving his 12-month probationary period...
Arbitration agreement?s unconscionable provisions severed
Posted on August 25, 2009In a suit for unpaid overtime, a Washington State court granted an employer?s motion to compel arbitration; however, on appeal, two clauses of the arbitration agreement were deemed unconscionable and were severed from the agreement?s enforceable provisions...
Employee can proceed with claim based on unauthorized access to email
Posted on August 24, 2009A city employee who alleged that the mayor, the municipality and an IT technician read and forwarded emails from her professional email account to the mayor?s account without authorization could proceed with her state law invasion of privacy claim, a...
Federal District Court Holds Employee Had No Objectively Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy In Cubicle
Posted on August 24, 2009A taped discussion was not an ?oral conversation? within the meaning of the Federal Wiretap Act, a federal district court concluded, denying an employer?s motion to exclude the recording as illegally obtained and thus inadmissible as evidence in a former...
Does A Typo On My Resume/Coverletter Doom My Chances??
Posted on August 24, 2009On August 21, 2009, Prof. Jim Levy (who has guest blogged here) of Legal Writing Prof Blog highlighted an important issue that it picked up from Sweet Hot Justice. Namely, is a typo fatal to a job application. Their bottom...
Institutional Age Discrimination In The Legal Academy
Posted on August 24, 2009I am sorry to say that most professors realize that there is institutional age discrimination in the faculty hiring process.Schools prefer candidates with just a few years of practice. They advertise for specialists in particular fields, but prefer newly minted...
ADA Amendments Act is not retroactive
Posted on August 23, 2009The D.C. Circuit recently held that Congress clearly indicated that the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), enacted to ?reinstate a broad scope of protection under the ADA,? does not apply retroactively.Instead, the pre-Amendments ADA to the disability discrimination claims...
7thCir: Informal complaint is protected activity under ADA
Posted on August 23, 2009An informal complaint may constitute protected activity for purposes of retaliation claims under the ADA, the Seventh Circuit held, reversing summary judgment to a municipal employer on an employee?s claim that she was fired in retaliation for her complaint of...
EEOC?s claims of racial and sexual harassment must go to trial
Posted on August 22, 2009A federal district court erred in granting summary judgment to an employer on a former employee?s claim that she was subjected to a hostile work environment via "a steady stream of racial and gender epithets" directed at her by four...
100% Healed Policy
Posted on August 22, 2009Can a company insist that employees only come back to work if they are100% healed?? That issue is currently being litigated in the 3rd Circuit. A district court improperly certified a nationwide class of UPS employees alleging pattern-or-practice discrimination under...
Fordham Law School Bans Reed Smith From On Campus Interviews For 5 Years
Posted on August 21, 2009Here is a new one. A Law School bars a major law firm from recruiting on campus. Think that is unusual-particularly in these tough times-well it is and that is exactly what Fordham did. A National Law Journal story about...
Future Jobs/Careers
Posted on August 21, 2009The BLS publishes a whole list of statistical material which may be of interest to researchers. One of the more valuable publications for the general public is the Occupational Handbook which forecasts future job needs. It can be downloaded for...
Pr. George's Furlough Plan Violated Contract Clause By Impairing Collective Bargaining Agreement
Posted on August 21, 2009In Fraternal Order of Police v. Prince George's County, No. AW--08-2455 (S.D. Maryland August 18, 2009), Judge Alexander Williams in a 45 page well written decision held that and Employee Furlough Program (EFP) violated the Contract Clause of the U.S...
Bad Weather Results In NLRB Sustaining Election Objections
Posted on August 21, 2009Goffstown Truck, 354 NLRB No.49 (July 21, 2009), is an important case. The Board overturned an election and sustained the employer's election objections because a representative complement of workers could not vote due to bad weather. As the Board stated:...
Interesting Law Firm Employment Blogs
Posted on August 20, 2009There are several law firm employment law blogs that are worth bookmarking. Littler Mendelson is publishes Wage & Hour Counsel, which tracks wage and hour legal developments, including court decisions, administrative agency opinions, and new or revised requirements or regulations...
Developments Under IRCA and Immigration Law
Posted on August 20, 2009The New York Law Journal ran an interesting July 27, 2009 article entitled Immigration Law (registration required). Michael D. Patrick, a partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, writes that recent events, such as the issuance of audit and...
Google Order To Disclose Name Of Anonymous Blogger In High Profile Fashion Model Case
Posted on August 20, 2009Liskula Cohen v. Google, Index No. 100012/09 (N.Y. Co. August 17, 2009)(Madden, J., J.S.C.), Download Cohen_doc is an important decision which has obtained a lot of media coverage, including coverage by Good Morning America on August 19, 2009 where I...
Vault 2010 Law Firm Rankings
Posted on August 20, 2009U.S. News and World Reports does it, so why can't associates rank law firms? They at least have first hand knowledge. Yes, it is that time of year again. The 2010 Vault rating of law firms by associates is out....
New Jersey case illustrates woeful lack of academic freedom rights for adjuncts
Posted on August 20, 2009First, let me say thank you to Professor Rubinstein for allowing me to contribute to this great blog. My intent is to report stories that I think will be of particular interest to adjuncts with a specific focus on those...
Advice to help junior associates avoid mistakes
Posted on August 20, 2009Since some of our readers undoubtedly enjoying giving students advice about how to succeed in their first law jobs and beyond (or perhaps you're looking for advice on how to make your own associates more productive), Accordingly, I thought you...
Boston court to decide if prisoner has constitutional right to electrolysis
Posted on August 20, 2009The Boston Herald is reporting the case of a male transgendered inmate who filed a lawsuit before Judge Mark L. Wolf of the United States District Court in Boston seeking an order compelling Massachusetts prison officials to provide him with...
Unemployment Gives Collateral Estoppel To Civil Service Finding That Employee Committed Misconduct
Posted on August 19, 2009Matter of Davis,___A.D. 3d___(3d Dep't. July 23, 2009), is an important unemployment decision. The court gives collateral estoppel to a factual determination that an employee committed misconduct. However, the court does go on to determine whether or not those facts...
NY Legislatures And Double Dipping
Posted on August 19, 2009A disturbing August 17, 2009 New York Times article highlights the practice of some New York Legislatures who retire on day one and start work on the same job on day two. Hence, they are double dippers. The article does...
Age discrimination lawsuit dismissed after applicant failed to show employer?s reason for rejection were pretext to mask acts of unlawful discrimination
Posted on August 19, 2009Saia v Suffolk County Community Coll., 2009 NY Slip Op 05851, decided on July 14, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Robert Saia sued the Suffolk County Community College in an attempt to obtain damages. Saia alleged that the College had...
Free PACER
Posted on August 19, 2009As federal litigators are all aware, the court system is now just about all online. PACER, as it is known, is not free. It costs 8 cents a page to print. The amount is certainly reasonable, but the charges can...
NYLJ Article On WARN Act
Posted on August 18, 2009The Warn Act and Distressed Companies is an interesting July 27, 2009 New York Law Journal article. (free with registration).Robert N. Holtzman, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, writes: "Distressed companies and their large investors are increasingly targeted...
LatCrit/SALT New Faculty Development Workshop, hosted by American University Washington College of Law Oct. 1-4,
Posted on August 18, 2009A description of this conference is as follows: LatCrit/SALT Junior Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) The Annual LatCrit-SALT Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) is a new, one-day event conducted in association with the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) to support progressive...
Do Employees Have The Right To Refuse To Answer Investigatory Questions From A Public Employer That May Implicate Criminal Charges??
Posted on August 18, 2009New York Public Personnel Law Blog ran an excellent summary of the law in New York concerning whether a public employee can refuse to answer questions that may implicate criminal activity and if he does answer those questions, will it...
Employer rep at unemployment hearing was not practicing law
Posted on August 18, 2009(Grafner v IDES, IllCtApp, (August 14, 2009), is an important state appellate case. An employee and a nonattorney representative (an outside provider of unemployment-related services to employers) did not engage in the unauthorized practice of law by appearing on an...
Should Michael Vick Been Rehired By The Eagles??
Posted on August 17, 2009Adjunct Law Prof Blog reported on Vick's arrested and reproduced a copy of the criminal indictment, available here. Now he is out of prison after serving time for unspeakable crimes inflicted upon defenseless dogs. The Eagles rehired him. This gives....
Interest Arbitration Could Not Be Mandated By Interest Arbitrator
Posted on August 17, 2009Boston Globe Union Looses Dispute Over Arbitration is an interesting August 14, 2009 National Law Journal. Unfortunately, though the article raises an important issue, it does not adequately explain the legal issues. I think it about an interest arbitration decision...
Article On Internal Discrimination Complaints After Crawford
Posted on August 17, 2009The impact of Crawford is a New York Law Journal article (registration free) about the Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Metro Gov't of Nashville. The article states that despite Crawford, employers must continue to conduct internal investigations because aside...
Insubordination Disqualifies Employee From Unemployment
Posted on August 17, 2009As readers of this blog know, in most states if an employee commits misconduct, she is not eligible for unemployment. What constitutes misconduct is often litigated. If the employee denies the facts, then an administrative law judge will make a...
Help Is On the way with Student Loan Repayments
Posted on August 16, 2009Help is nigh on the student loan front is an important June 22, 2009 National Law Journal article. It is about recent legislation that has eased student loan repayments for certain individuals. As the article states: The legislation ? called...
Social Networking, Blogging And Employment Law Article
Posted on August 16, 2009Gregory I. Rasin, a partner at Proskauer Rose, and Ariane R. Buglione, an associate at the firm, write that individuals are increasingly using blogs and social networking sites in both their private and work lives, making it imperative that employers...
The Importance of Community Colleges To Workers
Posted on August 15, 2009On This Campus, The Focus Is Jobs is another excellent New York Times article by Steven Greenhouse dated August 14, 2009. It is about the importance of community colleges to union workers who may have been laid off. Community colleges...
Sanctions For Canceling Deposition
Posted on August 15, 2009Blackberry's Speed Can't Outpace Sanctions is an excellent July 21, 2009 article from the New York Law Journal. It is about FRCP 30(g) which it describes as the no fault of divorce of sanctions rule and highlights a case where...
A "reasonable relation" between the subject matter of a grievance and the subject matter of the collective bargaining agreement defeats a motion to stay arbitration
Posted on August 14, 2009County of Greene v Civil Service Empl. Assn., 2009 NY Slip Op 31468(U), July 7, 2009, Supreme Court, Columbia County, Docket Number: 09-0669, Judge: Joseph C. Teresi [Not selected for official publication] Scott Moore, a CSEA member, tested positive for...
Alabama Supreme Court Holds Employee alleging sexual misconduct not shielded from sexual history questions
Posted on August 14, 2009A trial court did not exceed its discretion by refusing to enter a protective order to shield a female employee alleging sexual misconduct by a supervisor from deposition questions about her sexual history, ruled the Alabama Supreme Court in a...
E-Mail First Impressions
Posted on August 13, 2009We all know that an address as well as a nice looking office impresses many clients. That is just the way it is. The Legal Blog watch ran an excellent August 12, 2009 posting, here, questioning whether an employer's email...
Introduction of Guest Blogger Professor Jim Levy
Posted on August 13, 2009Jim Levy, associate professor of law-Nova Southeastern, who is a good friend to this blog, asked me the other day if he could guest blog. I was thrilled that he asked. Jim is a contributing editor over at Legal Writing...
D.C. Circuit Holds Plaintiff Waited Too Long To Complain Of Sexual Harassment
Posted on August 12, 2009Taylor v Solis,___F.3d___(D.C. Cir. July 10, 2009), is an important employment discrimination case.Availing itself of the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was not vicariously liable for a male supervisor's alleged sexual harassment because a female auditor...
9th holds Plaintiff was ERISA plan participant even though he had withdrawn his assets
Posted on August 12, 2009Harris v AmGen, Inc,, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. July 14, 2009, is an interesting ERISA case. A former employee was an ERISA "plan participant" even though he had withdrawn all of his assets from a defined contribution plan. Thus, he had standing...
Rare DFR Breach Found, But No Liability Because No Breach Of Contract
Posted on August 12, 2009Nemsky v ConocoPhillips Co, ___F.3d___ (7th Cir. August 3, 2009), is an exceeding rare and critically important DFR case. After an employee was terminated, the union refused to arbitrate. Why? Because that same employee filed charges with the NLRB against...
Senator Kennedy reintroduces bill to expand OSHA protections, liability
Posted on August 12, 2009The Protecting America?s Workers Act of 2009 (S. 1580) was recently reintroduced in the Senate by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass). The measure would extend the reach of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to airline and railroad employees who are...
Case Raises Issues Whether Union Can Be Responsible For Lawyers Malpractice?
Posted on August 11, 2009Matter of PBA v. NYC OCB, ___Misc. 3d___(N.Y. Co. Aug. 5, 2009), is an interesting public sector labor law case. A discharged police officer claimed that she had be ill advised by lawyers retained by the PBA and brought an...
Western State College of Law and Florida A & M Obtain ABA Accredition
Posted on August 11, 2009Details here. (registration required) Mitchell H. Rubinstein
9th Holds Non-signatory employer was not liable for ERISA contributions
Posted on August 11, 2009Trustees v NYCA, Inc, ___F.3d____(9th Cir. July 15, 2009), is an interesting decision. The 9th holds that a joint employer that was not a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement is not liable under ERISA for contributions to an employee...
Primer On Health Care Reform
Posted on August 11, 2009On August 10, 2009, the New York Times ran an excellent article on health care reform where it summarized the key issues being debated across this country. That article is available here and is a must read. Among the issues...
Digital Textbooks
Posted on August 10, 2009The New York Times ran an interesting article about digital textbooks on August 8, 2009, here. Though the article focuses on elementary and secondary school, I believe digital textbooks have great potential in law school. Why? It gives the prof...
11thCir: Supervisor's motive and boasts were evidence discharges were retaliatory
Posted on August 10, 2009Corbitt v. Home Depot USA, Inc,,___F.3d____(11th Cir. July 10, 2009), is an interesting employment discrimination case. Two male plaintiffs were able to show a genuine issue existed as to whether the proffered reasons for their terminations were a pretext for...
TV reporter was fired do to morals clause violation, not sex discrimination
Posted on August 10, 2009Galaviz v Post-Newsweek Stations,___F.Supp2d____(W.D. Tx. July 13, 2009), is an interesing case. A San Antonio TV news reporter assigned to the police beat, whose involvement in multiple domestic incidents led to her termination for violating the morals clause in her...
Important Article On Settling IDEA Cases-A Must Read
Posted on August 09, 2009Prof. Mark Weber (DePaul Law School) is one of this countrys leading scholars on special eductation law. He has published scores of law review articles and is the author of "the" leading treatise on special education as well as a...
Unemployment and Poor Economy Leads To Lawyer Depression
Posted on August 08, 2009The poor economy effects us lawyers to. While some people in the general public may not believe this, we are human too. That is the point of Employment Woes Fuel Uptick in Lawyer Depression, A July 20, 2009 article from...
Tuition Rises 15% Or More At Several Public Law Schools; Avg. Public Tuition $16,836 Per Year
Posted on August 08, 2009The August 3, 2009 ABA Journal Blog reported that several public law schools have raised their tuition by 15% or more. The article describes some of the increases as follows: Indiana University?s Maurer School of Law, raising tuition 24.5 percent...
Family Physican Not A Supervisor
Posted on August 07, 2009Family Healthcare, Inc., 354 NLRB No. 29 (June 4, 2009), is an interesting Post-Oakwood NLRB supervisory decision. The doctor in question was one of seven that worked in a clinic. The key reasons why the doctor was not a supervisor...
Enrollment In CUNY Summer School Soaring
Posted on August 07, 2009Enrollment at CUNY Colleges Leaps To High Highest Total In Eighteen Years is an interesting August 6, 2009 Daily News article that readers may find of interest. Enrollment this summer at CUNY schools is soaring. With the poor economy, it...
EEOC Issues Guidance On Waivers In Severance Agreements
Posted on August 07, 2009On July 15, 2009, the EEOC issued a guidance on waivers in severance agreements, available here. It is actually fairly well written. Additionally, it contains a checklist for employees who are facing a layoff and sample contractual language. Lawyers will...
If you have not seen it yet, Bitter
Posted on August 07, 2009If you have not seen it yet, Bitter Lawyer is an interesting blog designed for lawyers and intended to be entertaining. For example, Bitter Lawyer is currently running the following story: Jeff Marx is the co-creator behind the hit Broadway...
9th Issue Primer On Public Employee Free Speech
Posted on August 07, 2009Desrochers v. San Bernardino, No. 07-56773, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. July 17, 2009), is a lengthly and well written public employee free speech case. In an action claiming that defendant city suspended plaintiff police officers in retaliation for engaging in constitutionally protected...
Estoppel did not bar employer from raising FMLA non-eligibility defense
Posted on August 06, 2009Dobrowski v Jay Dee Contractors, Inc, ____F.3d___(6th Cir. July 8, 2009), is an important FMLA case to be aware of. The 6th held that an employer?s representations that an employee was being given FMLA leave did not bind it under...
Internal complaints must be in writing to be FLSA-protected activity
Posted on August 06, 2009Kasten v Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. June 29, 2009), is an interesting case that we do not see very often. The 7th held that an employee who alleged he was discharged after making verbal complaints about the location...
Employees of Wal-Mart suppliers could not hold retailer liable
Posted on August 06, 2009Doe v Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, July 10, 2009), is another interesting 9th circuit decision. the 9th held that employees of Wal-Mart?s foreign suppliers in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland, and Nicaragua failed to state a claim against the retailer based on...
Help Wanted at The EEOC
Posted on August 06, 2009Employment lawyers and future employment lawyers take note. The EEOC is looking to hire several attorneys as well as interns. Jobs are listed here; internships are listed here Hat Tip: Workplace Prof Blog Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Breaking News Sotomayor Confirmed To Sit On Supreme Court
Posted on August 06, 2009The New York Times reported about a half hour ago that Judge Sotomayor is now Justice Sotomayor. The vote was 68-31. The story can be found here. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
A 3 Year College??
Posted on August 05, 2009An Argument For Cutting The Standard College Experience To Three Years is an interesting August 4, 2009 article from the New York Times. It discusses a book by Robert Zemsky, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, who...
Sample Law Review Cover Letters
Posted on August 05, 2009Well, you heard of cover letters. They are important to help find a job. They are also important when submitting articles to law reviews. Concurring Opinions recently ran an interesting story about this, here. What might be most useful to...
5th Holds ADA claim stated for employee with chronic fatigue syndrome
Posted on August 04, 2009EEOC v Chevron Phillips Chemical Co, ___F.3d___ (5th Cir. June 5, 2009), is an interesting case. The court held that a magistrate judge erroneously found that an employee with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was not disabled under the ADA because...
State of Delaware Makes It Unlawful To Discrimate On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation
Posted on August 04, 2009Delaware's state anti-discrimination statute was recently amended. S.B. 121 passed the General Assembly on June 24, 2009, and was signed by the Governor on July 2, 2009. The law took effect immediately. A copy of that statute is available here....
Equitable estoppel does not save public employee?s FMLA claim
Posted on August 04, 2009Nagle v Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, __F.3d___(1st Cir. July 30, 2009), is an important case. The court held that a part-time employee of a public school district who claimed she was given oral assurances that she could take leave to...
Use of Work Computer To Solicit Prostitute Leads To Multiple Criminal Charges
Posted on August 04, 2009Proskauer Workplace Privacy Blog reports on an important Ohio decision. State v. Wolf, No. 08-16, slip op. (Ohio Ct. App. 5d April 28, 2009). Ohio state law has an unauthorized use statute. The statute, Ohio Rev. Code § 2913.04(B) (2009),...
NYS Division Of Human Rights Appeal Dismissed For Failing To Name Division As A Party
Posted on August 03, 2009Appeal dismissed because of a procedural misstep Matter of Rumman v Duane Reade, 2009 NY Slip Op 05968, decided on July 21, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department The Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights adopted the...
Union Internal Disputes
Posted on August 03, 2009New York Times Reporter Steven Greenhouse reported on July 8, 2009 about internal union infighting, here. The article reports that unions are not fighting with each other over big policy issues-such as the Employee Free Choice Act. Rather, unions are...
When Should You Start Collecting Social Security Benefits??
Posted on August 03, 2009Collect Now, or Later? Timing Social Security Benefits is an important New York Times article which most people close to retirement should read. The central thesis of the article is that while it is temping, you should not begin to...
Pants Judge Looses His Wrongful Termination Suit
Posted on August 02, 2009Remember that Judge who sued his dry cleaners for millions after his pants were ruined? Well apparently he was later removed from his job as an ALJ. He brought suit in federal court alleging First Amendment violations and wrongful termination-presumably...
Queens College of the City University of New York not subject to the City?s Human Right Law because it is a State entity
Posted on August 02, 2009Jattan v Queens Coll. of City Univ. of N.Y., 2009 NY Slip Op 05746, decided on July 7, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Lincoln Jattan, sued Queens College of the City University of New York to recover damages for employment...
Overtime Advisor Law Firm Blog
Posted on August 02, 2009There is a new law firm blog in town called the Overtime Advisor. It is run by the law firm of Greenwald Doherty. A July 27, 2009 article, for example, discusses the pitfall of employers using comp time instead of...
Happy Belated Birthday To Medicare
Posted on August 01, 2009July 30, 2009 marked the 44th Birthday of Medicare. To millions of Americans it seems like Medicare is an entitlement and that it always existed. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The AFL-CIO blog ran an interesting story...
Oldest Legal Blog
Posted on August 01, 2009Ever wonder which is the oldest legal blog and how old is it. Well, those honors belong to Overlawyered. According to blogger Robert Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch Overlawyered just turned 10. Congrats! Mitchell H. Rubinstein
White House Counsel Salaries
Posted on July 31, 2009Ever wonder how much White House Counsel makes? It turns out to not be much. Just How Much Do Lawyers in The White House Make is an interesting July 6, 2009 law.com article that discusses this very issue. This article...
New York State Human Rights Law Amended To Provide Civil Penalties and More Changes Proposed
Posted on July 31, 2009On April 7, 2009, New York Governor Paterson signed legislation authorizing the imposition of civil penalties against employers and individuals found to have committed discriminatory practices under the New York Human Rights Law (the law is scheduled to take effect...
The Benefits of Online Education
Posted on July 31, 2009Inside Higher Education ran an interesting June 29, 2009 story about the benefits of online education. Surprise, surprise a new study indicates that students really do learn by taking online classes. As the article states: The study found that students...
Illinois Supreme Court holds ?patient safety? assertion won?t justify at-will public policy exception
Posted on July 30, 2009Turner v Memorial Medical Center, IllSCt, June 18, 2009, is an important case and it demonstrates how difficult it is to establish a public policy cause of action even in states that recognize such an exception to the employment at...
Early Opposition To NLRB Nominee Craig Becker
Posted on July 30, 2009The Chamber of Commerce and some of its political supporter have come out against the nomination of Craig Becker to the NLRB. Workplace Prof Blog notes that this is no surprise-given the fact that he is a union lawyer. Workplace...
ForeWarn Act Introduced Into Congress
Posted on July 30, 2009H.R. 3042 would amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to minimize the adverse effects of employment dislocation. This Bill would requiring more and smaller employers to notify workers of plant closings or mass layoffs. FOREWARN also would increase...
Liquidated Damage Exception Under Hoffman Plastics and IRCA
Posted on July 30, 2009Workplace Prof Blog has an interesting June 29, 2009 posting about NLRB v. C&C Roofing Supply, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. 2009), where the court drew a distinction between reinstatement, which was at issue in Hoffman Plastics and liquidated damages. As the court...
White House Continues To Support Employee Free Choice Act As A High Priority
Posted on July 29, 2009On June 2, 2009, in response to a reporters question, Press Secretary Gibbs stated the President continues to support the Employee Free Choice Act and it remains a priority. Specifically, the exchange was as follows: Q Robert, the Employee Free...
The Dilemma of Apologizing
Posted on July 29, 2009Gonzalez v. State, ___N.E.2d___, 2009 WL 1765684 (Indiana Ct. App. June 23, 2009), illustrates the dilemma criminal defendants and others have by offering an apologizing. Here, the defendant was convicted of criminal mischief and operating a vehicle while intoxicated after...
Georgia teacher may raise consensual sex defense to sex assault charge
Posted on July 29, 2009Chase v. State, No. S09G0139 (Ga. June 15, 2009), is an interesting case from the Georgia Supreme Court. The Court held a defendant teacher charged with sexually assaulting a student who had reached the age of consent was entitled to...
Baseball's Use Of DNA Testing May Violate GINA
Posted on July 29, 2009Baseball's Use of DNA Raises Questions is an interesting July 21, 2009 article from the New York Times. Apparently, to confirm age and identity, MLB conducts DNA testing. However, that may role a foul of GINA. As the article states:...
Streamlining of Financial Aid Applications
Posted on July 28, 2009Obama Wants To Trim Complex College Aid Form is an interesting June 24th article from the New York Times. It reports that the Obama Adminstration wants to trim the 153 question student financial aid application form. The article describes the...
What Ever Happened To The Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on July 28, 2009We have not heard much about the Employee Free Choice Act. I had expected Congress to act by the August recess. So what happened? My best guess is that it can be summed up in one word-"healthcare." The last couple...
State Senate required to provide employee payroll records in response to a Freedom of Information Law request
Posted on July 28, 2009Matter of Polokoff-Zakarin v Boggess, 2009 NY Slip Op 03823, decided on May 14, 2009, Appellate Division, Third Department Penny Polokoff-Zakarin filed a Freedom of Information [FOIL] request seeking documents concerning an employee of the State Senate, including the individual?s...
Employee Polygraph Protection Act claim may proceed
Posted on July 27, 2009Harmon v CB Squared Servs, Inc, ___F.Supp. 2d___(E.D. Va. June 1, 2009), is an interesting case. A lower corut held that a manager who was demoted after the results of a polygraph exam may go forward within his wrongful discharge...
Biometric Identification And Employment Law
Posted on July 27, 2009Employment Lawyers Voice Skepticism About Biometric Verification is a very interesting July 24, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. It is about using biometric data, such as fingerprints and retina scans, to verify if employees are eligible to work...
Muslim workers lacked uniform beliefs, commonality; Title VII class cert denied
Posted on July 27, 2009Haliye v Celestica Corp, ___F.Supp.2d ____ (D. Minn. June 10, 2009), is an interesting case. The district court in Minnesota declined to certify a class of 22 Muslim employees in a Title VII religious accommodation suit, concluding there was a...
Downloading Porn Disqualifies Employee From Unemployment
Posted on July 27, 2009Matter of Pesant v. Commissioner of Labor, ___A.D3d___(3d Dep't. June 18, 2009), illustrates an important unemployment insurance principle. An individual is disqualified from unemployment if he was terminated for misconduct. The question frequently litigated is what is misconduct...
Bullied student gets $260,000 from families of bullies and school district
Posted on July 26, 2009The Bakersfield Californian, reports that a high school student, who was physically assaulted by five older students, has settled his suit against the school district, the students who committed the assault and two other students for $260,000. The case illustrates...
The doctrine of the exhaustion of administrative remedy
Posted on July 25, 2009Matter of Mirenberg v Lynbrook Union Free School Dist. Bd. of Educ., 2009 NY Slip Op 05138, decided on June 16, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department In this decision the Appellate Division set out a synopsis of the doctrine of...
Immigration, Rehiring, NLRB.
Posted on July 24, 2009NLRB v. C&C Roofing Supply, Inc., ___F.3d___(9th Cir., June 25, 2009), is an interesting decision. The Ninth Circuit ruled that an employer was required to comply with a settlement agreement providing for the payment of liquidated damages to 20 fired...
FLSA Min. Wage Increased To $7.25
Posted on July 24, 2009The federal minimum wage rate will increase effective today, July 24, 2009 to 7.25 per hour from 6.55 per hour. In cases where an employee is subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to...
NYC Fire Department Test Is Discriminatory
Posted on July 23, 2009Judge Finds Racial Bias in Recruiting By Fire Department is an interesting July 22, 2009 New York Times article. The article does not provide many details, but it appears to be reporting on a lower court decision which found that...
Reasons NOT To Go To Law School
Posted on July 23, 2009H. Luiz Presents posted an interesting story entitled Top 8 Reasons Not To Go To Law School. They are: 1. FINANCIAL SUICIDE 2. IF YOU?RE A CREATIVE PERSON, FORGET IT 3. THE ?BREAKUP? RATE IS NEARLY 80% 4. THE BAR...
Bill Outlawing Union Salting Proposed
Posted on July 22, 2009Legislation amending the National Labor Relations Act to allow employers to discharge undercover union organizers, commonly referred to as ?salts,? was introduced in the House and Senate on June 10. Called the Truth in Employment Act (H.R. 2808/S. 1227), the...
Non-Lawyers Judging Supreme Court Nominee
Posted on July 22, 2009I have always been puzzled by the fact that members of the Senate Judicary Committee, who review on Supreme Court and lower court appointments, do not have to be lawyers. Its not like there is a shortage of lawyers in...
Another Employer Association Supports Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on July 22, 2009The International Council of Employers, a group of more than 10,000 masonry contractors, announced its support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The group joins more than 1,000 businesses around the country that have endorsed the bill to restore the...
3rdCir: Employees with mere oversight duties not ?management level? For Discrimination Law Purposes
Posted on July 21, 2009Huston v Procter & Gamble Paper Prods Corp, ___F.3d___(3d Cir. June 9, 2009), is an important case. The 3rd held that two team leaders who oversaw the production line work at a paper manufacturing plant did not qualify as ?management...
School Districts Have The Authority To Require That Employees Undergo Medical Examination
Posted on July 21, 2009Under Education Law Sec. 913, school districts have the authority to require that school district employees undergo a medical education. Matter of Appeal of D.R., Decision No. 15, 885 (March 2, 2009)is a recent decision of the Commissioner of Education...
8thCir: ?Correction Notice? issued after EEOC charge not unlawful reprisal
Posted on July 21, 2009Littleton v Pilot Travel Ctrs, LLC, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. June 4, 2009), is an interesting case. Th 8th holds that an employer did not unlawfully retaliate against an employee in violation of Title VII and Arkansas law when, seven months after...
Overtime Under New York Law Which Is Broader Than Federal Law
Posted on July 21, 2009New York's Reduced Overtime Provision is an excellent New York Law Journal article dated July 21, 2009 (registration required). It is about a little known state law which provides more overtime protection to employees than under the FLSA. The Miscellaneous...
Rare DFR Win For Plaintiffs
Posted on July 20, 2009Addington v. U.S. Airline Pilots, ___F.Supp 2d___(D. Az. July 17, 2009), Download Findings_of_Fact_and_Conclusions_of_Law[1]is an important DFR case to be aware of. We had previously reported on an earlier decision denying a motion to dismiss. The case went to a jury...
Federal Judge Sentenced To Jail
Posted on July 20, 2009Judges, even federal Judges, are not above the law. U.S. District Court Judge Kent was sentenced to 33 months in jail. After he was impeached, he resigned. A NY Law Journal story is available here. The Judge plead guilty to...
Public Employee and Individual Liability Under FMLA
Posted on July 20, 2009Barnes v. LaPorte County, ___F.Supp.2d___ 2008 WL 111019 (N.D. Ind. 2008), is an interesting case. In a case of first impression, the court held that a public employee who acted directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer satisfied...
Certain information contained in personnel records may be redacted in complying with a Freedom of Information request
Posted on July 19, 2009Matter of Capital Newspapers Div. of Hearst Corp. v City of Albany, 2009 NY Slip Op 04789, Decided on June 11, 2009, Appellate Division, Third Department The Albany Times Union [TU] reporter filed two requests under the Freedom of Information...
Employee Free Choice Act Compromise In The Works??
Posted on July 18, 2009On July 16, 2009, Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times reported that a compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act is in the works, here. As I predicated, the card check provision of the Bill is being eliminated and...
Live Blog Coverage of Confirmation Hearing
Posted on July 17, 2009SCOTUS Blog has live blog coverage of Judge Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearing, here. Some of the comments made may be of interest to readers. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
AllLaw.Com Legal Portal
Posted on July 17, 2009There is another blog legal portal in town. alllaw.com It is a commercial cites which includes hundreds of links to caselaw, legal forms, and lawyers. They also have a type of subject matter overview of the law.That overview is too...
Article On Alcoholics, Convicts, Drug Addicts In The Workplace
Posted on July 16, 2009Law Relating To Alcoholics, Convicts, Drug Addicts In The WorkplaceDownload Alcoholics-convicts-drug-addicts-in-the-workplace is an interesting May 19, 2009 New York Law Journal article by Louis Pechman. The article, written by a New York attorney, does a nice job summarizing New York...
Ambigious Unit Stipulations
Posted on July 16, 2009Regional Emergency Medical Services, 354 NLRB No. 20 (May 21, 2009), deals with an important principal of labor law. How should the Board deal with a situation where it is unclear whether an employee should be included within a stipulated...
Bipartisan Civil Rights Tax Relief Act Is Reintroduced
Posted on July 15, 2009he Civil Rights Tax Relief Act (CRTRA), HR.3035/S.1360, a bill that would exclude compensatory damages in employment and civil rights cases from the definition of gross income for income tax purposes, has been reintroduced in the House and Senate. The...
Cravath, a Top Law Firm, to Pay
Posted on July 15, 2009Cravath, a Top Law Firm, to Pay New Hires to Delay Startis is an interesting June 12, 2009 article from the N.Y. Times. It reports that Cravath is willing to pay associates $80,000 to delay there start year for a...
Minimum Wage To Increase To $7.25 effective July 24, 2009
Posted on July 15, 2009Employers beware. The federal minimum wage increases from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Hat Tip: Juz The Fax MItchell H. Rubinstein
Co-worker with different supervisor is appropriate comparator under Title VII
Posted on July 14, 2009Lee v Kansas City S Ry Co, ___F.3d___(5th Cir. June 30, 2009), is an important decision to be aware of. The 5th held that a white coworker was an appropriate comparator to a discharged African-American train engineer even though they...
7thCir: No ADA claim for physician fired for making threats of physical violence
Posted on July 14, 2009Sometimes you just cannot make these cases up. Bodenstab v Cook County, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. June 22, 2009), is one such case. The 7th held that a hospital did not violate the ADA when it discharged an anesthesiologist who allegedly threatened...
6th Holds Cost-Splitting Requirement In Employment Unenforceable.
Posted on July 14, 2009Mazera v. Varsity Ford, ___F.3d___(6th Cir. May 19, 2009), is a major employment arbitration decision. The plaintiff attempted to bring a race discrimination case and the employer moved to compel arbitration based upon a provision in the Employee Handbook...
Rostron & Allen: Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals
Posted on July 14, 2009Allen Rostron and Nancy Levit have submitted "Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals" to the Social Science Research Network. Here is the abstract: This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the...
Live Coverage of Confirmation Hearings For Sonia Sotomayor
Posted on July 13, 2009The Senate Confirmation Hearings start today for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. For those with time, confirmation hearings are very interesting to watch. Live TV coverage is not being carried by the major networks. However, gavel to gavel coverage is available over...
Brian Hayes Republican Nominated To NLRB
Posted on July 13, 2009President Obama has nominated Republican Brian Hayes to the NLRB. As readers know, traditionally, the President's party holds 3 seats and other party holds 2. Workplace Prof Blog reports that now all 3 NLRB Members have been nominated (there are...
Obama To Meet With Union Leaders
Posted on July 13, 2009In a move that signals the Administration's support for unions, Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times reported that President Obama will be meeting with about a dozen union leaders. The article reports that likely topics are the Employee Free Choice...
California Supreme Court Adopts Title VII Standards For Sexual Harassment Restrictions On Professional Relationships
Posted on July 13, 2009Standard Established For Sexual Harassment Within Professional Relationships is an important National Law Journal article for California attorneys. California's Civil Code Section 51.9, prohibits sexual harassment in certain business relationships outside the workplace, such as those involving attorneys and their...
Injunction of state rule requiring pharmacists to fill drugs was overbroad
Posted on July 13, 2009I am surprised that we have not heard much about Stormans, Inc v Selecky, ____F.3d____(9th Cir. July 8, 2009). The 9th held that a district court abused its discretion by enjoining the Washington State Board of Pharmacy from enforcing its...
Recession and Law Schools
Posted on July 12, 2009Recession Crimps Plans For New Law Schools is an interesting June 1, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. It is about the effect the economy is having on planned new law schools. As you can imagine, the effect is...
Top 100 Employment Law Blogs
Posted on July 11, 2009Delaware Employment Law complied a list of the top 100 Employment Law Blogs. This list should be very helpful to readers-even though they left one out! Their list is as follows: Affirmative Action Blog Spot Alaska Employment Law Boston Employment...
Employee Web Based E-Mail- A New Frontier??
Posted on July 09, 2009Investigating Personal Web Based E-Mail is an excellent June 26, 2009 law.com article. It correctly explains that the law is fairly settled with employee use of employer email. Employees almost never will have a cause of action. But what about...
Attorney?s letter to witnesses in a grievance proceeding held an attempt to threaten or influence a witness
Posted on July 09, 2009Kalyanaram v New York Institute of Technology, 2009 NY Slip Op 04349, decided on June 4, 2009, Appellate Division, First Department After investigating complaints from 37 students alleging that Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, a member the New York Institute of Technology?s faculty...
Random Drug testing policy for school employees unconstitutional
Posted on July 09, 2009Jones v. Graham County Bd. of Educ., No. 08-477 (N.C. App. June 2, 2009), is an interesting North Carolina Court of Appeals case. The court held that a Board of Education policy requiring employees to submit to random, suspicionless drug-testing...
Strike Could Threaten 2010 World Cup
Posted on July 09, 2009A July 9, 2009 Associated Press article reported that South African construction workers recently went on strike and that strike could effect the 2010 World Cup. As the article states: Thousands of workers at stadiums across the country put down...
Copy of Michael Jackson's Will Available
Posted on July 06, 2009A copy of Michael Jackson's will is all over the internet. If you have not seen it by now, it is available here. It was executed in 2002 and what is surprising to me is that it only spans 5...
What the Franken Victory Means
Posted on July 06, 2009The AP ran an interesting July 2, 2009 story about the significance of Franken being seated as a U.S. Senator, available here.As they point out, 2 Democrats (Byrd and Kennedy) have been out for months. It will also give the...
Adjunct Law Prof Blog-Research and Blog Roll Updates
Posted on July 06, 2009As many of you know, on the left hand side of this blog I maintain a list of free legal research sites as well as a blog roll. I have just updated both. Today, a decent amount of research can...
Court vacates jury?s determination that employee was laid off because of her political affiliation
Posted on July 06, 2009Miller v County of Nassau, 2009 NY Slip Op 31178(U), May 11, 2009, Supreme Court, New York County, Docket Number: 28936/92, Judge: Ute W. Lally [Not selected for publication in the Official Reports] Roberta Miller was the only Democrat employed...
Alumni Sponsors At Harvard
Posted on July 04, 2009I'm Going To Harvard. Will You Sponsor Me is an interesting June 12, 2009 article. It is about a new service which matches alumni sponsors with students who can not afford college. As the article states: Unithrive, which made its...
Government reports on restraint and seclusion of students
Posted on July 03, 2009The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued an updated version of its April 19, 2009 report on the legal issues concerning the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, including their application both to children covered by the Individuals with Disabilities...
JAG Lawyer Applications On The Rise
Posted on July 03, 2009Military JAG Corps Report Recruitment Surge is a interesting June 8, 2009 National Law Journal article. The article reports that applications for positions as a JAG officer are approaching record levels. This comes as no surprise to me-given the poor...
District?s policy of reviewing of valedictory speeches upheld
Posted on July 02, 2009Corder v. Lewis Palmer Sch. Dist. No. 38, No. 08-1293 (10th Cir. May 29, 2009), is an interesting Student First Amendment case. The 10th Circuit held that a school district did not violate a student?s free speech rights by requiring...
MT: Employer must accommodate service dog of worker with a disability
Posted on July 02, 2009McDonald v Dept of Environmental Quality, MontSCt, June 17, 2009, is an interesting Supreme Court of Montana case. The use of a specially trained service dog by a state employee who required the dog?s assistance for both a physical and...
U.S. To Encourage Online Education
Posted on July 02, 2009U.S. Push For Free Online Courses is an interesting June 29, 2009 article from Inside Higher Education. It reports that the Obama Administration plans to offer federal funds to colleges and high schools that offer free online courses. The program...
Adjunct Professor Abuse
Posted on July 02, 2009Will Teach For Tenure is an excellent June 25, 2009 article by Kevin Clarke who writes for U.S. Catholic. It outlines how grossly underpaid adjuncts are at colleges-particularly at several Catholic universities which the article focuses on. As the article...
Goldman: Why Law Students Should Take the Federal Courts Course
Posted on July 02, 2009Roger Goldman (Saint Louis University Law School) has posted his short essay, "Why Students Should Take the Federal Courts Course," on the Social Science Research Network. Saint Louis University Law Review has accepted the paper for publication. Here is the...
Injunction Against Strike Is Not a Prior Restraint On Speech
Posted on July 01, 2009Commonwealth Employment Relations Board v. Boston Teachers Assoc., ___N.E.2d___ (Mass. App. Court June 28, 2009), is an interesting public sector labor law case. A state appellate court held that a trila court's preliminary injunction prohibiting a teachers strike in connection...
Madoff Sentenced To 150 Years
Posted on July 01, 2009Madoff is Sentenced to 150 Years For Ponzi Scheme is an interesting June 29, 2009 NY Times article. U.S. Judge Denny Chin, a former labor lawyer, through the book at him and sentenced him to the max for one of...
Law Journal Article On Arbitration Fairness Act
Posted on July 01, 2009Businesses, Consumers At Odds Over Proposed Arbitration Act is an interesting June 5, 2009 article. It is about the Arbitration Fairness Act that was recently reintroduced into the 111th Congress. The Bill, if enacted would bar most mandatory predispute arbitration,...
Sotomayor Nomination And Web Commentary
Posted on July 01, 2009The National Law Journal is continuing to provide links to commentary appearing on the web concerning the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. For those interested in following these developments, this may be an easy way to...
Johnson & Johnson wins $1.67 Billion from Texas Jury
Posted on July 01, 2009Johnson & Johnson won a $1.67 billion federal court verdict from an East Texas jury yesterday, the largest patent jury verdict in U.S. history. Johnson & Johnson's Centocor unit sued Abbott Laboratories claiming Abbott interfered with Johnson & Johnson's exclusive...
Supremes Decide Important Reverse Discrimination Case
Posted on June 30, 2009Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. ___(June 29, 2009), is an important Title VII decision concerning reverse discrimination. The decision spans 93 pages and is well written. In a 5-4 decision, the Court holds that a fire department's rejection of a...
ENDA Re-introduced Into the 111th Congress
Posted on June 30, 2009On June 19, 2009, Rep. Barney Frank re-introduced H.R. 2981, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or "ENDA." The Bill makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Specifically, the Bill provides in part: Employer Practices-...
Student On Student Harassment Via Email-Not Actionable
Posted on June 30, 2009Sauerhaft v. Board of Education, Hastings-on-Hudson U.F.S.D., ___F.Supp.2d. ____, NYLJ June 8, 2009 (S.D.N.Y. 2009) (registration required), is an interesting case. Plaintiff received three offensive e-mails through her high school e-mail account. She claimed the e-mails were student-on-student sexual harassment...
Considering criminal conviction in determining qualification of an applicant for employment in the public service
Posted on June 30, 2009Matter of El v New York City Dept. of Educ., 2009 NY Slip Op 50883(U), Decided on April 1, 2009, Supreme Court, New York County, Judge Alice Schlesinger [This opinion will not be published in the Official Reports.] Civil Service...
Bill To Legalize Gay Marriage In New York Stalled In State Legislature
Posted on June 29, 2009As most attorneys in New York know, the N.Y.S. legislature is in a state of disarray. Therefore, questions can be raised about any legislation that is passed. The New York Law Journal is reporting that because of this, legislation concerning...
Arbitration Fairness Act
Posted on June 29, 2009Business Consumers At Odds Over Proposed Arbitration Act is an interesting June 5, 2009 NYLJ article. (registration required). It is about the "Arbitration Fairness Act." That Bill, if passed, severely limits pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer, employment and franchise agreements...
Unemployment Decision Not Given Preclusive Effect
Posted on June 29, 2009Matter of Strong v. NYC Department of Education, ___.A.D.3d ___(1st Dep't. May 26, 2009), demonstrates a fundamental proposition of New York employment law. Unemployment insurance decisions are not binding on courts or employers. Thus, the decision to terminate a probationary...
Board Member Who Has Interest In Dispute Should Have Recused Himself
Posted on June 29, 2009Appeal of Laub, No. 15, 923 (May 22, 2009), involves several fundamental principles of Education Law that readers may be interested in. First, under New York Law, Education Law 3811 requires that the Board provide defense and indemnification with respect...
Blogging As A Career??
Posted on June 28, 2009Legal Blog Watch carried an interesting June 24, 2009 story about blogging lawyers who made a career out of bloging. It cites to a story in the West Virginia Record which is about Mike Florio, a labor lawyer who started...
More Than 1,000 Businesses Come Out In Support of Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on June 28, 2009On June 4, 2009 a new coalition, Business Leaders for a Fair Economy, that includes entrepreneurs, employers and leaders of businesses large and small who agree that a strong economy is compatible with the protection of workers' freedom to form...
Michael Jackson-A Lawyers Dream!!
Posted on June 27, 2009There are so many legal issues that arise concerning Michael Jackson's death that I do not know where to begin to start. 1. Criminal Law Issues Assuming Jackson died of an overdose, who gave him the medicine? Did the doctor...
New Labor And Employment Law Blog
Posted on June 27, 2009There is a new labor and employment law blog in town and it is excellent. Its called Workday and its put out by the folks at CCH so you know it has to be good. Check it out here. Mitchell...
Supremes Declare Strip Search Of Student Unconstitutional, But Officials Entitled To Qualified Immunity
Posted on June 26, 2009Safford Unified School Dist. v. Redding, 557 U.S. __(June 25, 2009), is an important Education and constitutional law case. In a lengthly and well written decision the Court held that a strip search of a 13 year old girl was...
Arbitration Clause That Does Not Specifically Mention Discrimination Does Not Require Mandatory Arbitration Under Pyett
Posted on June 26, 2009Shipkevich v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp. & Aramark, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51011 (E.D.N.Y. June 16, 2009), is an interesting case. A lower court held that held that a CBA did not mandate arbitration of the plaintiff?s statutory anti-discrimination claims...
Freedom From Union Violence Act introduced in the House
Posted on June 26, 2009The Freedom From Union Violence Act (H.R. 2537), introduced in the House on May 21, 2009 would impose a fine of up to $100,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 20 years for anyone affecting commerce who commits robbery,...
Lex Opus; an alternative to Expresso?
Posted on June 26, 2009Prawf Blawg ran an interesting May 29, 2009 story about Lex Opus. Lex Opus is run by Washington and Lee Law School and it will send out your law review articles, just like expresso-but without charge! As Professor Markel explains:...
Breast Feeding Promotion Act of 2009, H. R. 2819
Posted on June 25, 2009The Breast Feeding Promotion Act of 2009, H.R. 2819 has been introduced into Congress. This Bill amends Title VII to protect employees who want to express breast milk at work, amends the IRS Code to provide tax incentives to employers...
LABOR SECRETARY PONDERS OVERSIGHT OF HOME WORKERS
Posted on June 25, 2009LABOR SECRETARY PONDERS OVERSIGHT OF HOME WORKERS is an interesting June 12, 2009 article from the New York Times. Though no specfics are mentioned, the labor secretary is quoted as saying that she is concerned that home workers are not...
Indiana Supreme Court: Multiple jobs with single employer- FMLA-eligible
Posted on June 25, 2009Gary Community School Corp v Powell, ___N.W.2d___(Indiana May 19, 2009), is an interesting FMLA case coming out of the Indiana Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court held that an employee who holds multiple positions with an employer is eligible for....
Selection of one of available alternative remedies provided by the State?s Human Right Law bars recourse to the other
Posted on June 25, 2009Tierney v Patchogue Fire Dept. Ambulance Co., Inc., 2009 NY Slip Op 50929(U), Decided on May 14, 2009, Supreme Court, Suffolk County, Judge Thomas F. Whelan, [This decision will not be published in the printed Official Reports.] Penny A. Tierney...
Monitoring employee's keystrokes may have been unlawful
Posted on June 24, 2009Brahmana v Lembo, ___F.Supp.2d___(N.D. Cal. May 20, 2009), is an interesting decision. An employee who alleged that his employer unlawfully monitored his computer keystrokes in order to obtain the password to the employee?s personal email account can proceed with his...
Unit member bound by the terms set out in the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the union
Posted on June 24, 2009Matter of Raymond v Walsh, 2009 NY Slip Op 04832, Decided on June 12, 2009, Appellate Division, Fourth Department Onondaga County Deputy Sheriff Joseph D. Raymond, Sr., was receiving benefits pursuant to General Municipal Law §207-c. Onondaga County notified Raymond...
President Obama Reiterates Support for Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on June 24, 2009On May 14, 2009, at a town hall meeting in New Mexico, President Obama reaffirmed his support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama acknowledged there's a tough fight ahead, but expressed his concern that current labor law isn't fair...
9th holds retirees have standing to sue for benefits
Posted on June 24, 2009Poore v Simpson Paper Co, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. May 21, 2009), is an important case involving employee benefits.The 9th Circuit holds that early retirees had standing to pursue a claim that their employer violated ERISA by eliminating their health benefits and...
Adjunct Prof Blog Surpasses 200,000 Hits!!!
Posted on June 24, 2009I am delighted to announce that Adjunct Prof Blog recently surpassed 200,000 hits. We have be in operation for just over two years-since May 2007. Gee- time does fly when your having fun!!! Congrats also belongs to Professor Eric A....
Supremes Hold That Student Does Not Have To First Fail At Public Education Before Being Entitled To Reimbursement For Private Education
Posted on June 23, 2009Forest Grove v. T.A, ___U.S.___ (June 19, 2009), resolves a long standing conflict in the circuits concerning when a school district is required to reimburse parents for a private placement. In a 6-3 decision the Court holds that parents of...
EFCA Card Check Compromise In The Works
Posted on June 23, 2009Washington Roll Call reported on June 19, 2009 that an EFCA compromise is in the works and that there is already agreement with respect to the interest arbitration provisions in EFCA. Unfortunately, the article does not state what those compromises...
Employer failed to explain that pay differential was not based on sex
Posted on June 23, 2009Drum v Leeson Elec Corp, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. May 15, 2009), is an interesting Equal Pay Act case. The 8th held that an employer failed to explain that a $21,000 pay differential between a female HR manager and the male who...
Sexually hostile work environment was discrimination ?based on sex?
Posted on June 23, 2009Gallagher v C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc, ___F.3d____(6th Cir. May 22, 2009), is an important sexual harassment case because it demonstrates that a cause of action can be established even if the plaintiff is not the target of the sexual harassment....
2d Reverses Bush NLRB and Holds Picketers Are Protected In Health Care Even If Notice Not Given
Posted on June 22, 2009Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000 AFSCME v. NLRB, ___F.3d.___(2d Cir. June 19, 2009), is an important case. The 2d reversed the Bush NLRB?s holding that employees who picket a health care institution, but do not strike, when their union...
Teacher's Blog Caused A Disruption Resulting In No First Amendment Protection
Posted on June 22, 2009Richerson v. Beckon, 2009 U.S. App. Lexis 12870 (9th Cir. June 16, 2009), is an important decision. A teacher alleged that she was involuntarily and unconstitutionally transferred in retaliation for an entry she made on her personal blog. Because of....
Conservative Sotomayor FMLA Decision
Posted on June 22, 2009One of the cases we cover in my Employment Law class is Fioto, Jr. v. Manhattan Woods, 123 Fed. Appx. 26 (2d Cir. Feb. 17, 2005). Though it is an unsigned decision, Sotomayor was on the panel that decided the...
Supremes vacate ruling that nonsignatories may not enforce arbitration pact
Posted on June 22, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court, in a summary disposition, vacated and remanded to the Sixth Circuit decision in in Kimberlin v Renasant Bank (Dkt No 08-816) for further consideration in light of the Supreme Court's Court?s May 4, 2009 decision, Arthur...
Dismissal recommended as the penalty for employee?s abuse of sick leave
Posted on June 21, 2009NYC Department of Corrections v Auguste, OATH Index No. 2770/08 OATH Administrative Law Judge Joan R. Salzman, found that a New York City Department of Corrections correction officer, Emile Auguste, had left his residence repeatedly without permission while on sick...
If the Court Asks You More Questions, Your Likely To Loose
Posted on June 21, 2009When Justices Ask Questions, Be Prepared To Loose, is an interesting May 25, 2009 New York Times article. It is about a study by a political scientist that confirms that the side that is asked the most questions is likely...
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
Posted on June 21, 2009FATHERS DAY is one of my best holidays. As you dads out there all know, there is nothing that matches being a dad. So enjoy your day. Happy fathers day! Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Court Room Attire
Posted on June 20, 2009At A Symposium of Judges, A Debate On The Laws Of Fashion is an interesting May 22, 2009 article from the New York Times. It is about a panel discussion between 7th Circuit Judges and lawyers about how one should...
Education Law Jobs
Posted on June 20, 2009General Education / Labor & Employment Attorney Lozano Smith Los Angeles, California Special Education Attorney Lozano Smith Northern/Central California School Board Attorney Miami-Dade County Public Schools Miami, Florida School Law Attorney - Law Firm Brannan Legal Search Illinois Litigation Attorney...
Supremes Require But For Causation In ADEA Cases
Posted on June 19, 2009Gross v. FBL Financial Services, 557 U.S. ___(June 18, 2009), is an extremely important ADEA case. The Court holds 5-4 that in ADEA cases "but for" causation must be established. The majority rejects the more liberal mixed motive standard under...
Employer Provided Cell Phones/PDA's and Taxes
Posted on June 19, 2009The law firm of McGuire and Woods has recently summarized the taxability of cell phones provided by employers as follows: Under current law, employers may deduct the expense of providing employees with the use of such devices, and employees are...
Non-custodial parent cannot challenge adequacy of child's education under IDEA
Posted on June 19, 2009Fuentes v. Board of Educ. of City of New York, ___F.3d___ (2d Cir. June 15, 2009), is an important special education decision to be aware of. The 2d Circuit held that a non-custodial parent lacked standing to bring suit under...
Labor and Employment Law Prof Moves
Posted on June 19, 2009Workplace Prof Blog puts out a list of labor and employment law prof moves every year. This year's list is as follows: Entry Level Hires Ariana Levinson (visiting Louisville) to Louisville Jayesh Rathod (practitioner-in-residence at American) to American Deborah Widiss...
Single Unemployment Board Member Has Authority To Render Binding Decision
Posted on June 18, 2009Palmatier v. Commissioner,___A.D. 3d___ (3rd Dept. June 11, 2009), caught my eye because the court held that a single member of the NYS Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board had the authority to render a binding decision. As readers to this blog...
2d Upholds Authority of NLRB To Issue 2 Member Decisions
Posted on June 18, 2009Snell v. NLRB, ___F.3d____(2d Cir. June 17, 2009), adds to the debate whether the Board has the authority to issue decisions with only 2 Members. In a lengthly 23 page decision, the 2d holds that it does. This decision is...
Principal Of Corporation Not Entitled To Unemployment Insurance
Posted on June 18, 2009What if your a principal of a business and are not earning any income. Are you entitled to unemployment insurance?? The answer appears to be no. As the court stated in Matter of Menkov v. Commissioner of Labor, ___A.D.3d___(3d Dept....
Employment Law Special Report On Federal Stimulus, Title VII and Personal Email Account Privacy
Posted on June 18, 2009The New York Law Journal May 26, 2009 edition ran a special report on labor and employment law which contained the following articles: Broad Whistleblower Protection Under The Federal Stimulus Law Jyotin Hamid and Mary Beth Hogan, partners at Debevoise...
Discharge For Failing Drug Test Disqualifies Employee From Receiving Unemployment
Posted on June 17, 2009Matter of Shugg v. Commissioner of Labor, __A.D.3d___(3d Dept. May 21, 2009), illustrates that an employee fired for failing a drug test is not eligible for unemployment. As the court explains: Substantial evidence supports the decision of the Unemployment Insurance...
International Law In Brief
Posted on June 17, 2009Twice a month the attorney-editor of ASIL?s International Legal Materials publishes an electronic resource entitled International Law in Brief, which is a collection of analytical abstracts of and links to significant primary documents related to the latest developments in international...
11thCir: Court will rehear hostile work environment claim ruling
Posted on June 17, 2009The Eleventh Circuit has agreed to rehear en banc Reeves v C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc, a case that will determine whether being subjected to sexually charged language that permeates the workplace is sufficient to establish a Title VII sex-based hostile...
Communism and Unions In The 1950's
Posted on June 17, 2009When Suspension of Teachers Ran Unchecked In New York is an interesting article from the June 15, 2009 New York Times. It is about a lawsuit filed seeking information from the NYC Municipal Archives about teachers in the 1950's who...
Az Supremes Holds Spouse Entitled To Payments For Nursing Type Services Under Workers Comp
Posted on June 16, 2009Professor Ted McClue, Adminstrative Law Prof Blog writes to inform us about Carbajal v. Industrial Commission is an important Workers Comp decision from the Supreme Court of Arizona. Download Workerscomp We do not cover Workers Comp matters much here...
E-Verify Rule Delayed Until September 8, 2009
Posted on June 16, 2009E-Verify is an Internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees...
Federal Stimulus Law And Whistleblowers
Posted on June 16, 2009Broad Whistleblower Protection Under The Federal Stimulus Law is an important May 26, 2009 New York Law Journal article. (free). It is about the Whistlebower provisions contained in the recently enacted federal stimulus. As the article states: In response to...
Hoffman Plastics And Labor Law Violations
Posted on June 16, 2009Wage Recovery For Illegal Aliens In New York Under Labor Law is an important May 26, 2009 New York Law Journal article (registration required). It is about the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which outlaws the hiring of...
10 New Law Schools In the Works
Posted on June 15, 2009A Deluge Of Law Schools is an interesting June 2, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. It reports that up to 10 new law schools have been proposed. Most of the schools are in the Northeast. As the article...
Girl Sports
Posted on June 15, 2009A City Team's Struggle Shows Disparity In Girl Sports is an interesting June 13, 2009 N.Y. Times article. It is about girl participation in school sports in NYC. The article describes the importance of Title IX to girl sports as...
DOT rule requiring direct observation of urine testing upheld by D.C. Circuit
Posted on June 15, 2009BNSF Railway v US Dep?t of Transportation, ___F.3d___(D.C. Cir. May 15, 2009), is an interesting decision. The court held that the US Department of Transportation acted neither arbitrarily nor capriciously in modifying its drug-testing regulations in 2008 to require that...
Texting During Jury Deliberations
Posted on June 15, 2009Electronic Communications During Jury Deliberations (registration required) is an interesting May 18, 2009 New York Law Journal article. It documents recent cases and pending litigation where jurors used email, Twitter or Facebook during a criminal trial...
Farming College Internships
Posted on June 14, 2009Many Summer Internships Are Going Organic is an interesting May 23, 2009 New York Times article. It is about the fact that a number of college students are working as interns on farms-at little or no pay. Some of these...
NY Labor Leader Sentenced To 10 Years
Posted on June 14, 2009May 20th was a sad day for organized labor in New York. Brian McLaughlin, a seven term (yes seven term) NYS Assemblyman and the former head of the NYC Central Labor Council was sentenced to 10 years in prison and...
A Quasi-Law School
Posted on June 13, 2009Legal Blog Watch has an interesting June 9, 2009 story entitled Another Law School Sort Of. It reports on American College of History and Legal Studies which is a branch of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. The school, which...
Employers Spend 30% of Compensation On Employee Benefits 30%
Posted on June 13, 2009Workplace Prof Blog is reporting on a new statistics just released from the Department of Labor?s Bureau of Labor Statistics These stats show that slightly over 30% of employee compensation consists of fringe benefits. The average wage (not including fringe...
Parent had no constitutional right to read scripture to kindergarten class
Posted on June 12, 2009Busch v. Marple Newtown Sch. Dist., No. 07-2967 (3d Cir. June 1, 2009), is an interesting case. The Third Circuit held that a school district did not violate a student?s or his parents? free speech or Establishment Clause rights by...
Modern Day Sweat Shop
Posted on June 12, 2009Do you think sweatshops are a thing of the past? Guess again. New York State Calls It A Sweat Shop is an interesting May 20, 2009 New York Times article that documents a modern day alleged sweat shop-guess where in...
Quitting Work Disqualifies Employee From Unemployment
Posted on June 12, 2009Matter of Gagraj v. Commissioner of Labor,___A.D.3d___(3rd Dep't. May 14, 2009), demonstrates an important principle of unemployment insurance law. If you voluntary quit work or leave your job without good cause, your disqualified from receiving unemployment...
Employee Status For Unemployment Purposes
Posted on June 12, 2009Whether or not an individual is an employee is important for Title VII, NLRA and a host of other labor and employment law purposes. Matter of Empire State Towing v. Commissioner of Labor,___A.D.3d___ (3rd Dep't. April 8, 2009), demonstrates that...
Executive Pay And Say To Play Rules
Posted on June 11, 2009Overseer To Set Executive Pay At Rescued Companies is an important June 10, 2009 article from the NY Times. It reports that the Obama Administration has appointed a compensation czar to oversee executive compensation at firms which received stimulus funds...
Hearings On Paid Sick Time Bill
Posted on June 11, 2009I expect that we are going to hear more about Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460). This Bill, if enacted, would require up to 7 days of paid sick time. The Bill goes much further than the FMLA as it applies...
Using a global positioning device to track the location of individuals while at work
Posted on June 11, 2009People v Weaver, 2009 NY Slip Op 03762, Decided on May 12, 2009, Court of Appeals A number disciplinary actions taken against employees were initiated by, or relied upon, the use of global positioning equipment installed in the employer?s vehicle...
Federal Contractor De-barred For Wage and Hour Violations
Posted on June 11, 2009Karawia v. Department of Labor,___F.Supp.2d. ___, NYLJ May 13, 2009 (S.D.N.Y. May 6, 2009)(registration required), illustrates an important point. Federal contractors can loose their contract for wage and hour violations. THE MCNAMARA-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) requires federal service contractors...
D. N.J. limits Ledbetter Act to discriminatory compensation claims
Posted on June 10, 2009Richards v Johnson & Johnson, ___F.Supp.2d___(D. N.J. June 2, 2009), is an important case. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act continues to divide the courts, as a federal district court in New Jersey has joined a district court in Pennsylvania...
Washington Post Editoral In Support of EFCA By ILR Prof Kate Bronfenbrenner
Posted on June 10, 2009A War Against Organizing is an interesting June 3, 2009 Washington Post editorial by ILR Prof. Kate Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbrenner summarizers her recent research and is a strong supporter of EFCA because the current election process is too often abused by...
Connecticut and Maine Governors signs bills implementing same-sex marriage
Posted on June 10, 2009Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell (R) signed into law (Pub. Act No. 09-13) which codifys the decision in Kerrigan v Commissioner of Public Health, which legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The law also recognizes out-of-state marriages, civil unions and...
Employer?s FMLA notice requirements can be enforced as long as practicable
Posted on June 10, 2009On May 5, the DOL?s Wage and Hour Division released an opinion letter (FMLA2009-1-A) on employee notification procedures under the FMLA related to employer attendance and no call/no show policies. The DOL?s revised FMLA regulations, which took effect on January...
Breaking News! En Banc 6th Cir Reverses Itself And Rejects Associational Discrimination Theory
Posted on June 09, 2009Thompson v North Am Stainless, LP, ___F.3d___(6th Cir. June 5, 2009) (en banc), is a critically important case. The en banc panel overturned its prior 2-1 ruling which had broadened the scope of Title VII?s anti-retaliation provision. A divided en...
NLRB Holds No duty to reassure employees about former union organizer on staff
Posted on June 09, 2009Community Medical Center, 354 NLRB No. 26, (May 29, 2009), is an interesting case. The Board holds that an employer did not violate Sec. 8(a)(1) hiring a former union organizer to campaign against the union without assuring employees that the...
Employees not party to EEOC enforcement action not required to arbitrate
Posted on June 09, 2009EEOC v SWMW Mgmt, Inc, ___F.Supp.2d___(D. Az. April 21, 2009), is an interesting case concerning the application of the Supreme Court's decision in Waffle House. The court holds that even if there was a valid arbitration agreement between the defendant...
?Indispensability? is not a test for exempt status under FLSA
Posted on June 09, 2009Desmond v PNGI Charles Town Gaming, LLC, ___F.3d___(4th Cir. April 30, 2009), is an interesting FLSA case. The 4th holds that an employee?s indispensability to the employer?s business is not the determining factor of whether the employee?s position is directly...
Professor Salaries
Posted on June 08, 2009Top Notch Professors, Coaches Don't Come Cheap is an interesting article from the Chicago-Sun Times. This newspaper article published the salaries of several profs and coaches at the University of Illinois. Presumably, the newspaper obtained this information from the Freedom...
Big Firm Layoffs
Posted on June 08, 2009A Study Why Major Firms Are Shrinking is an interesting June 7, 2009 New York Times article. It focuses on the continuing decline of White and Case- which is a classic white shoe large NYC law firm. The reason for...
New York legislature urged to pass Tier V pension reform legislation
Posted on June 08, 2009Office of the Governor press release Following his veto of a bill to provided for the temporary extension of Tier II retirement that would provide Tier II benefits to all new police officers and firefighters, matching the benefits of current...
An accommodation that inherently breaches existing employee agreements is not a reasonable accommodation; Nor is an indefinite LOA
Posted on June 08, 2009I bring Fiumara v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College, ___F.3d___(1st Cir. May 1, 2009), for two primary reasons. It discusses a point that sometimes comes up in disability discrimination cases. Is an accommodation reasonable if it would violate some...
The Sickness Of U.S. News Ranking System
Posted on June 07, 2009Cornell Law School Associate Dean Richard Geiger wrote an excellent article for the May 20, 2009 New York Law Journal entitled The Rankings, Deconstructed and Examined. In this article, Dean Geiger accepts that the ranking system is here to stay...
Technology Addiction
Posted on June 07, 2009Workplace Prof Blog has a very interesting posting questioning whether employers can be liable for technology addiction. Prof Bales cites to a non-law review publication, journal Strategic Change article entitled "The Unbalanced High-Tech Life: Are Employers Liable?"The abstract provides: Technology...
Hi Tech Cheating
Posted on June 06, 2009There is an interesting article in the June 5, 2009 edition of Insider Higher Education about student hi tech cheating called A New Student Excuse. The game goes this way. Students intentionally purchase(for up to $5.95) a software program which...
Cheating In Law Schools
Posted on June 06, 2009Cheating 2.0 is an interesting National Law Journal article from May 25, 2009. It is about how student cheating may differ because of advances in technology. Specifically, the article discusses students taking bathroom breaks at Syracuse Law School and texting...
Article On Supreme Court 2009 Labor and Employment Cases-Part 1
Posted on June 05, 2009The June 5, 2009 NYLJ (registration required) has an interesting 2 part article about the Supreme Court's 2009 labor cases. The cases discussed are: -AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen, 129 S.Ct. 1962 (2009), where the Supreme Court decided that an employer...
Not All Bullies Are Men
Posted on June 05, 2009Blacklash-Women Bullying Women At Work is an interesting May 9, 2009 New York Times article. It reports that up to 40% of the bullying at work is done by woman. By bullying, the article is referring to yelling and screaming....
Souter's Former Law Clerks
Posted on June 05, 2009Souter's Tribe is an interesting May 11, 2009 National Law Journal article. It is about the 72 clerks who have worked for Justice Souter. It is a study in success. Many became law professors. Most, however, wound up at big...
Arbitrator may award attorney and arbitrator fees notwithstanding an arbitration provision that each party is to bear its own expenses
Posted on June 05, 2009ReliaStar Life Insurance Co. v EMC National Life Company,* USCA, 2nd Circuit, Docket No. 07-0828-cv A typical provision in an agreement to arbitrate a dispute provides that in the event a dispute is submitted to arbitration, ?each will bear the...
Termination Of Long Term Disablity For Employee With AIDS Does Not Violate ERISA
Posted on June 04, 2009Jenkins v. Price Waterhouse, ___F.3d____(7th Cir. May 4, 2009), is an important ERISA decision. The 7ht held that the decision to terminate long term disability benefits of an Employee with AIDS did not violate ERISA. Why? Because the employee's medical...
Politics At The NLRB
Posted on June 04, 2009Unions Look To Labor Board To Reverse Bush Policy is an interesting June 3, 2009 Wall Street Journal article. It is about President Obama's nominees to the NLRB. The article has correctly reported that Obama has nominated union side attorneys.What...
Union's Negligence About Failing To Fully Inform Grievant Does Not Establish Breach Of Duty of Fair Representation
Posted on June 04, 2009Hansen v. Communication Workers of Am., No. 08-2051 , ___F.3d___(8th Cir. May 6, 2009), demonstrates how difficult it is to establish a breach of the union's duty of fair representation.Here, the union failed to disclose a 18 month limitation on...
Teacher?s disparagement of creationism violated Establishment Clause
Posted on June 04, 2009C.F. v. Capistrano Unified Sch. Dist., ___F.Supp.2d____ (C.D. Cal. May 1, 2009), is an interesting case. The court held that a high school teacher violated the Establishment Clause when he stated in class that creationism is ?superstitious nonsense.? However, the...
6th Holds Union Does Not Breach Its DFR By Advising Grievant To Plead Mercy
Posted on June 03, 2009Hayes v. UPS, Inc., ___F.3d___(6th Cir. May 19, 2009), is an interesting as well as important DFR case. The 6th held that a union's decision to plead a "mercy case" at a grievance panel on behalf of a terminated employee...
Employee found guilty of disciplinary charges involving absence from work based on records generated by global positioning equipment
Posted on June 03, 2009Matter of Halpin v Klein, 2009 NY Slip Op 03593, Decided on May 5, 2009, Appellate Division, First Department* Joel I. Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, terminated John Halpin?s employment with the Department after finding...
2d Cir. Issues A Primer On Labor Arbitration
Posted on June 03, 2009United Steel v. E.I. Dupont, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. May 1, 2009), is brought to your attention for several reasons. First, its short and well written. Second, it does a nice job of summarizing arbitral principals and as such, it is an...
Employee terminated after accessing Facebook from her a home after claiming to be too ill to use a computer at work
Posted on June 03, 2009Source: BBC World News, April 25, 2009 Employee surveillance using the employer?s on-site security cameras is becoming an important issue in terms of employee privacy and the expectation of employees to privacy at the worksite. For example, employees were threatened...
NY Times Article On Forest Grove Special Education Case
Posted on June 02, 2009Supreme Court To Address Meeting Needs Of Special Education Students is an interesting May 31, 2009 article from the New York Times. It previews Forest Grove School District v. T.A., No. 08-305 which deals with the issue whether or not...
Michigan State Faculty Unionize
Posted on June 02, 2009Inside Higher Education reported on June 1, 2009 that the non-tenured and adjunct faculty voted to unionize. The bargaining unit appears to not include tenure track profs and the union is the AFT. Additional information is available from the union's....
NLRB Files Petition For Rehearing in Laurel Baye
Posted on June 02, 2009Readers of this blog will note that we have been following the interesting issue of whether or not the NLRB has the authority to issue 2 Member decisions. The D.C. Circuit in Laurel Baye, held that the Board did not...
Death benefits granted widow of Jehovah?s Witness who refused treatment
Posted on June 02, 2009We do not discuss Workers Comp much here. However, it is an important part of employment law. (Williams v State of Wyoming, (WyoSupCt, April 21, 2009), demonstrates that some of these cases can be quite interesting as well. The Supreme...
Eisenberg, et al. on The Decision to Award Punitive Damages
Posted on June 02, 2009Theodore Eisenberg (Cornell Law), Michael Heise (Cornell Law), Nicole L. Waters (National Center for State Courts) and Martin T. Wells (Cornell University and Weill Medical Center) have posted "The Decision to Award Punitive Damages: An Empirical Study" on the Social...
Bill to Create New Law School Goes to Texas Governor
Posted on June 02, 2009A bill to create the University of North Texas at Dallas Law School passed the Texas House and Senate on Sunday and now goes to Texas Governor Rick Perry for approval. Four days earlier, Governor Perry signed legislation making North...
Cert. Petition Filed In 2 Member NLRB Circuit Decision
Posted on June 01, 2009Workplace Prof Blog has done an excellent job following the issue of whether or not the NLRB has the authority to issue two member decisions. As readers to this blog know, there is a conflict in the circuits with respect...
Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA") May Be Reintroduced Next month
Posted on June 01, 2009Workplace Prof Blog is summarizing reports from other blogs that Congressman Barney Frank may reintroduce the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ("ENDA") next month.The article they cite to suggests that this version will prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and...
Employee Denied Injunction In FMLA Case Even Though He Established Probability Of Sucess On The Merits
Posted on June 01, 2009Cantrall v Zeon Chemicals, LP, ___F.Supp.2d____(W.D. Ky. April 23, 2009), demonstrates how difficult it is to get an injunction ordering reinstatement pending a resolution of an employment dispute. A federal district court declined to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting an...
Employer violated NLRA in unilaterally canceling dues checkoff
Posted on June 01, 2009Tribune Publishing v NLRB, ___F.3d___(D.C. Cir. April 28, 2009), is an interesting decision. The D.C. Circuit affirms a decision of the NLRB which held that an employer committed a ULP when it unilaterally discontinued using its direct deposit system to...
Jon Plus Kate Labor Law Violations??
Posted on May 31, 2009On May 29, 2009 Workplace Prof Blog raised an interesting legal issue. Whether the children on the reality TV show, Jon plus Kate are working. If they are, FLSA child labor law requirements kick in. The issue in my mind...
Why Write Law Review Articles??
Posted on May 31, 2009Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, UC-Irvine) has published Why Write?, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 881 (2009). Here is the abstract: What is the purpose of legal scholarship? The foreword to the University of Michigan Law Review's book review issue provides an excellent...
Legal Research Over The Internet
Posted on May 30, 2009Get Your Free Case Law On The Web is an important May 8, 2009 law.com article. It reviews the pros and cons of 10 different free internet research sites on the web-none of which compare to Lexis or Westlaw. The...
Free College Textbooks (Well, Sort Of!)
Posted on May 30, 2009I just became aware of Flatworld Knowledge. They post open source Free College Textbooks online. Whats the catch? They are online books. You need to purchase a book if you want a hard copy. The books appear to be softcover...
2d holds Assertion that men have propensity to harass was invidious sex stereotyping
Posted on May 29, 2009Here is an interesting one. In Sassaman v Gamache, Dutchess County Bd of Elections and Dutchess County, ___F.3d___(2d Cir. May 22, 2009), the 2d Circuit held that a male employee who was charged by a coworker with sexual harassment provided...
Labor Peace Agreements And Gov. Patterson
Posted on May 29, 2009New York Governor's New Order To Benefit Unions is an important May 3, 2009 New York Times article. It reports on an Executive Order issued by the Governor which may make it easier to organize unions in New York. It...
Public Policy Exception To Employment At Will and Porn
Posted on May 29, 2009Workplace Prof Blog picked up on a story by Mass Lawyers Weekly here and the Legal Ethics Forum blog about a Massachusetts appellate decision that reversed a trial court's dismissal of an unlawful termination claim. The plaintiff is an attorney...
Non-Custodial Parent Does Not Have The Right To Make Special Education Decisions
Posted on May 29, 2009Fuentes v. Board of Education, ___N.Y.3d ___(April 30, 20009), is an important Education and Family law decision coming out of the New York Court of Appeals. The Court answers a certified question put to it by the Second Circuit and...
In post-Pyett ruling, union member need not arbitrate ADA claims
Posted on May 28, 2009Kravar v Triangle Services, Inc, ___F.Supp.2d___(S.D.N.Y. May 12, 2009), is also an important post-Pyett decision to be aware of. The court holds that an employer could not compel an employee to arbitrate her ADA claims pursuant to the arbitration provisions...
In post-Pyett ruling, union member who chose to arbitrate must do so
Posted on May 28, 2009Mathews v Denver Newspaper Agency, LLP, __F.Supp. 2d___ (D. Colo. May 4, 2009), is one of the first post-Pyett rulings and therefore, this case should be looked at carefully by all who practice in this area. the court holds that...
Online Law Review Submission Guide
Posted on May 28, 2009Professor Colin Miller (John Marshall Law School) and Editor Evidence Prof Blog recently wrote to inform me about a Submission Guide for Online Law Review Journals which he posted on SSRN. This document, which spans 7 pages, is a wonderful...
Federal Jurisdiction And Arbitration
Posted on May 28, 2009Arbitration To Establish Federal Jurisdiction, Only the Complaint Counts is an interesting May 1, 2009 New York Law Journal article by Samuel Estreicher and Steven C. Bennett (registration required) It is about a recent Supreme Court decision in Vaden v...
Who Is Judge Sonia Sotomayor??
Posted on May 27, 2009SCOTUS Blog has a wonderful summary of Judge Sotomayor's civil cases, many of her employment discrimination decisions. Since joining the 2d Circuit in 1998, she authored over 150 opinions. With respect to her record on civil rights, SCOTUS Blog states:...
AFL-CIO Applauds Nomination of Judge Sotomayor To Supreme Court
Posted on May 27, 2009Here is the statement AFL-CIO President Sweeney issued earlier today on Judge Sotomayor's nomination: America?s workers applaud the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court. She is a brilliant jurist and in her distinguished career has...
Qualified Immunity In Student 1st A 1983 Case
Posted on May 27, 2009Harper v. Poway Unified Sch. Dist., No. 07-55224, ____F.3d____ (9th Cir. Mar. 10, 2009), is an interesting Education Law/Student First A type of case. In a brief, but important decision in a case involving a California district that restricted a...
First Amendment Case Involving Attorney Employed By Disciplinary Committee Can Proceed To Trial
Posted on May 27, 2009Anderson v. State of New York, ___F.Supp. 2d___(S.D.N.Y. April 27, 2009), is an interesting case. In a lengthly decision, the court held that the plaintiff, a New York lawyer, who was fired after working six years as a staff lawyer...
Copy of Justice Souter's Resignation Letter
Posted on May 26, 2009Ever wonder what a retirement letter from the Supreme Court looks like. Well, SCOTUS Blog has Souter's letter to the President and additional information which is reproduced as follows: Justice David H. Souter notified President Obama Friday that he will...
Proposed Restatement of Employment Law
Posted on May 26, 2009Professor Richard Bales over at Workplace Prof Blog posted a very interesting April 29, 2009 article about the proposed Restatement of Employment Law which scholars cannot seem to agree on. He summarizes the debate and enclosed links to several important...
Ledbetter Act saves professor?s Title VII claim for denial of tenure
Posted on May 26, 2009Gentry v Jackson State Univ, ___F.Supp.2d___ (S.D. Miss. April 17, 2009), is an interesting case. The court held that the plaintiff, a university professor could proceed with her claim that she was denied tenure and a corresponding salary increase because...
Is Discharge For Wearing Religious Nose Ring Discriminatory??
Posted on May 26, 2009EEOC v Papin Enters Inc, ___F.Supp.2d____(M.D. Fla. April 7, 2009), is an interesting case. The court held that EEOC could proceed to trial with its lawsuit alleging that a Florida corporation which franchised the Subway sandwich shop brand and one...
Justice O'Connor on Judicial Elections, Civic Education and the High Court Vacancy
Posted on May 25, 2009Justice O'Connor gave a rare interview to the National Law Journal, here. As she has done before, she discussed the importance of civc's and education, but this time she also talked a bit about Justice Souter and that she would...
Prof. Harris Confirmed As Deputy Secy of Labor
Posted on May 24, 2009On May 21, 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed New York Law School Professor Seth Harris to be Deputy Secretary of Labor which is the number 2 position in the department. Seth is a old college buddy of mine as well...
Bitter Lawyer Entertaining Web Site
Posted on May 23, 2009Ok, its Memorial Day weekend, so its time for something light. How about this wonderful new web site I just discovered www.Bitterlaw.com. It is run by former big firm lawyers with one goal in mind-to entertain. Some of the material...
Slow Computer Boot-Time Suit
Posted on May 23, 2009Laptop Mag at page 112 (April 2009), reported in a brief blurb (no link to the story online) that employees at AT&T, Cigna an United Health Group are suing their employers for the time they have to spend waiting for...
List of Law Profs In Obama Administration
Posted on May 22, 2009Here, complied by Hunter of Justice. Hat Tip. Brian Leiter Law School Reports Mitchell H. Rubinstein
Court Holds That To Be Eligible For Unemployment, You Must Be Totally Unemployed
Posted on May 22, 2009Matter of Bunting v. Commissioner of Labor, ___A.D.3d___(3d Dept. April 23, 2009), is an interesting case. The plaintiff was denied unemployment because he was not totally unemployed. As the court explained: By decision filed May 28, 2008, the Unemployment Insurance...
New York Law Journal Special Report On Law Schools
Posted on May 22, 2009The April 27, 2009 New York Law Journal ran a Special Report on Law Schools. (registration required). The Journal is running stories on survival tips for law students, law school rankings, what law firms want, and career management. I found...
Conflict of Interest for Adjunct at Rutgers-Newark Law
Posted on May 22, 2009Dan Filler at The Faculty Lounge picked up this story by Henry Gottlieb, New Jersey Law Journal, about Rutgers-Newark Law forcing adjunct professor Sheryl Mintz Goski to choose between working as an adjunct at the school or representing a client...
Union Busting Increasing!
Posted on May 21, 2009Study Says Antiunion Tactics Are Becoming More Common is an important May 19, 2009 article by NY Times Reporter Steven Greenhouse. Greenhouse previews a upcoming scholarly article by Cornell ILR Professor Kate Bronfenbrenner which documents some stunning statistics including: -57%...
FMLA Retaliation Found Where Employer Cancelled Health Insurance
Posted on May 21, 2009Ryl-Kuchar v Care Centers, Inc, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. May 11, 2009), is an interesting FMLA case. The 7th held that a jury could reasonably have found an employer violated the FMLA when it retroactively canceled an employee?s health insurance benefits after...
ADA Document Portal
Posted on May 21, 2009The National Network of ADA Centers maintains a ADA Document Portal which researchers and litigators may find of interest. The categories of information which can be researched are as follows: General The ADA Law Overview Frequently Asked Questions Employment Technical...
8th Circuit Issues Decision Discussing Damages Under Title VII
Posted on May 21, 2009Wallace v. DTG Operations, Inc., No. 08-1474 (8th Cir. Apr. 17, 2009), is an interesting decision. This is because it reviews the standards for awarding damages under Title VII. The 8th affirms a jury veridict ($10K wages; $20K comps; $220K...
Restatement of Employment Law About To Be Adopted
Posted on May 20, 2009Workplace Prof Blog has reported that the Restatement of Employment Law has been tentatively adopted by ALI (the same folks who brought us the UCC). Foir a copy, click on the word Restatement The ALI has stated that the tentative...
Breaking News Copies of Torture Memo's Available; ASIL Paper of Torture Memos
Posted on May 20, 2009The American Society of International Law recently published a paper, as part of their Insight Series entitled "The Torture Memos and Accountability". It is written by Allen Weiner-a Stanford Law School Prof. It includes links to the memos in question,...
7th Holds Driving Is Not A Majority Activity Under ADA
Posted on May 20, 2009Winsley v. Cook County, No. 08-2339 (7th Cir. Apr. 22, 2009) is an interesting decision. The court affirmed the dismissal of Black female nurse?s race and disability + retaliation claims, noting that driving is not an ADA major life activity....
So You Want To Be A FT College Prof
Posted on May 20, 2009So You Want To Be A Professor is an interesting April 23rd Wall Street Journal Op Ed which discusses just how difficult it is to land a tenure track gig at a University. The article does not discuss law profs...
More on Souter's Possible Replacements
Posted on May 19, 2009This is a new one. Professor Eric Posner, the son of 7th Circuit Judge Posner has posted on a blog a story about statistical analysis of Judges to rate the leading candidates to replace Justice Souter. A law.com story about...
Arbitration Award That Conflicts With Public Employer's Internal Policy Does Not Violate Public Policy
Posted on May 19, 2009I bring Matter of Amalgamated Transit Union v. MTA, ____Misc. 3d____ (N.Y. Co. April 16, 2009), to your attention because it once again demonstrates how difficult and close to impossible it is to vacate an arbitration award. Here, an arbitrator...
Summaries Of Law Review Articles
Posted on May 19, 2009The Legal Workshop is a blog which reprints summaries of law review articles from several schools. The current members are: Cornell Law Review Duke Law Journal Georgetown Law Journal New York University Law Review Northwestern University Law Review Stanford Law...
Individual Liability For Discrimination Under New York Law
Posted on May 19, 2009Solinsky v. Custodial Maintenance, ___F.Supp. 2d ___ , 2008 U.S. Dist. Lexis 105964 (N.D. N.Y. 2009)(not freely available on the internet) demonstrates once again how state discrimination law differs from federal law. Here, corporate officers were not entitled to dismissal...
2d Circuit Issues Major Decision On Intersection Between Statutory Strike Notice and Call In Rule
Posted on May 18, 2009NLRB v. Special Touch, ___F.3d____(2d Cir. May 12, 2009), is an important case of first impression. In the health care industry, unions must give advance notice of striking. That was done in this case. However, the employer also had a...
Two Year Suspension Of Student For Placing Fist On Teacher Sustained
Posted on May 18, 2009Appeal of B.M., 48 Ed. Dep't. Rep.___, No. 15, 909 (March 31, 2009), is brought to your attention because it reviews some basic principles with respect to discipline of students under N.Y. Education Law Sec. 3214. Here, a two year...
Alexander and Alexander's Law of Schools, Students and Teachers in a Nutshell, 4th
Posted on May 18, 2009I was kind of surprised to learn that West publishes Alexander and Alexander's Law of Schools, Students and Teachers in a Nutshell (4th ed. 2009). That is because Education Law is unfortunately, not a popular class in law schools. Upon...
Cancer patient with unknown return date not otherwise qualified under ADA
Posted on May 18, 2009Peyton v Fred's Stores of Arkansas, Inc, ___F.3d___(8th Cir. April 15, 2009), demonstrates how difficult it is to establish a ADA claim. A store manager who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and who was uncertain as to her possible return...
DOL SOX proceeding had preclusive effect on later Title VII, ADEA court claims
Posted on May 17, 2009Tice v Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, ___F.3d___ (3rd Cir. April 8, 2009), is an important case-yet it is marked as "not precedential." In a case of first impression, the Third affirmed a district court ruling that an employee could not proceed...
Interesting Article On 2008 ADA Amendments
Posted on May 17, 2009ADA Amendments More In Line With New York State and City Law is an interesting April 20, 2009 article from the New York Law Journal (registration required). The article, provides in part: Under the ADA, an employee is protected if...
Negotiation Ethics
Posted on May 16, 2009Ethics and Negotiating: Truth or Consequences? is a very interesting April 21, 2009 New York Law Journal article.Download 125192-1 As its title implies, it concerns the ethical obligation of attorneys with respect to negotiations.The premise of the article is that...
The Difficulty In Organizing Unions
Posted on May 16, 2009Bid To Organize Nurses Faces Setback in Congress is an interesting April 20, 2009 New York Times article by Steven Greenhouse. Its about the struggles organized labor has had in trying to organize nurses at a Louisville, Ky hospital for...
Vault's Office Romance Statistics
Posted on May 15, 2009The results may surprise you. Available here. Mitchell H. Rubinstein
LSAT Blog
Posted on May 15, 2009When I was applying to law school, I knew very little about it. The only lawyers I knew were some of my college profs and the only thing I knew about the LSAT was what a read about in Barons....
Labor Peace At Yale
Posted on May 15, 2009After Years of Rancor, Yale and Unions Reach Deals Early is an interesting April 16, 2009 New York Times article by Steven Greenhouse. Greenhouse reports that Yale and its two unions reached a new 3 year labor agreement. What is...
Whether and How to Consolidate Arbitral Proceedings
Posted on May 15, 2009Whether and How to Consolidate Arbitral Proceedings is a interesting New York Law Journal article from April 13, 2009. Though it discusses case law involving commercial arbitration under the FAA, that may be helpful to lawyers and scholars interested in...
New York State Assembly passes Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act
Posted on May 14, 2009The New York State Assembly passed a bill (A. 5710) that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. The proposed measure, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, would declare as a civil...
Brooklyn Law School Under Investigation
Posted on May 14, 2009As readers of this blog all know, the U.S. News and World Reports rankings-as flawed as they are-are regarded as the bible by many. To mean anything, the data must be accurate. The National Law Journal is reporting that Brooklyn...
Possible Cheating At Syracuse Law School
Posted on May 14, 2009Law Librarian Blog links to a disturbing story from Syracuse.com SU Law school curbs bathroom breaks to flush out cheaters. It is about a report that Syracuse Law School limited restroom breaks for 1Ls to one per final exam this...
Union has no duty to act after member files a grievance on his or her own behalf
Posted on May 14, 2009George Carr and Civil Service Employees Association, Inc., Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO and County Of Westchester. ALJ Blassman, PERB U-27258 The ALJ dismissed Carr's charge, which alleged that CSEA violated §§209-a.2(a) and (c) of the Act when it refused his...
Stanford and open office hours on facebook experiment
Posted on May 14, 2009I'm not very conversant with facebook but this experiment seems interesting. See Legal Writing Prof Blog for details. I do know that the few times I used TWEN chat for a review session (due to scheduling problems) I had mixed...
Archdiocese Not Liable For Sexual Molestation Of Student
Posted on May 13, 2009Doe v. Brouillette, ___N.E.2d. ___ (Ill. 1st. Dist. March 31, 2009), is an important decision which does not seem to have gotten much press. The court held that a guidance counselor who was part of the religious order that established...
NYU Dental School Ordered To Award Student Dental Degree
Posted on May 13, 2009Eidlisz v. NYU, ___A.D.3d___(1st Dept. April 14, 2009), is a very unusual case. A New York appellate court took the unusual step of ordering NYU to award a former student a dental degree. The court characterized the dispute as one...
Vermont legalizes same-sex marriage and becomes first state to do so by statute
Posted on May 13, 2009On April 7, 2009 Vermont became the fourth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage, overriding a veto from Governor Jim Douglas (R) to make it the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by statute (S. 115). Only four...
Court grants 10(j) petition, medical center must bargain with union
Posted on May 13, 2009Norelli v Fremont-Rideout Health Group, __F.Supp. 2d___ (E.D. Cal. April 7, 2009), is an interesting case. The court granted a motion for injunctive relief filed on behalf of the NLRB, ordering a regional medical center to recognize a nurses' union...
Ethical Issues and Blogging
Posted on May 12, 2009The Legal Blog Watch has an excellent posting entitled Do We Need Ethics Rules on Ex Parte Blogging? It discusses a law review article by Rachel Lee in the Stanford Law Review Ex Parte Blogging: the Legal Ethics of Supreme...
Transgender veteran prevails in sex sterotyping case
Posted on May 12, 2009Schroer v Billington, ___F.Supp. 2d____(D.D.C.April 28, 2009), is an interesting decision. The court holds that a transgender veteran is entitled to $491,190 in damages for the discrimination she suffered because of her sex, after being initially offered and then refused...
CBA's language suggested healthcare benefits were vested, could not be changed
Posted on May 12, 2009Retirement benefits cases are always difficult for courts to decide. Cases involving health insurance are even more difficult to decide. Tackett v M&G Polymers, USA, ___F.3d___ (6th Cir. April 3, 2009), is one such important case primarily dealing with retiree...
Policewoman cannot wear hijab while in uniform
Posted on May 12, 2009Webb v City of Philadelphia, ___F.3d___(3d Cir. April 7, 2009), is an interesting decision. The 3rd held that Philadelphia need not accommodate a Muslim policewoman's request to wear a hijab with her uniform, because to do so would put an...
N.Y. Governor Patterson Settles Reverse Discrimination Suit For $300,000!!
Posted on May 11, 2009The May 5, 2009 New York Post reported, here, that Gov. Patterson settled a reverse discrimination law suit for $300,000. Just after the Gov. had became Democratic minority leader, Patterson fired a photographer. The Post reports that the Gov. claims...
A Non-Judge Supreme Court Justice??
Posted on May 11, 2009Another excellent posting from Legal Blog watch is Law Profs Urge Non-Judge for Souter Seat It reports on two apparently well regarded law professors (Daniel J. Meador, James Monroe professor of law emeritus at the University of Virginia School of...
Can Courts Increase Atty Fee Awards??
Posted on May 11, 2009The Supremes granted certiorari on April 6, 2009 in Perdue (govenor of Georgia) v. Kenny A., et al. (08-970). At issue in the case was more than a 10 million dollar atty fee award in a case involving neglect of...
Surprise, Suprise It Takes Older Workers More Time To Find Jobs
Posted on May 11, 2009Longer Periods of Unemployment For Workers 45 and Older is an interesting April 12, 2009 New York Times article. It documents something we all know. Older workers have more difficulty finding jobs than others. As the article states: The recession?s...
Gaming SSRN Downloads
Posted on May 10, 2009The Legal Writing Prof Blog ran an interesting April 11, 2009 posting entitled Harvard researchers find academics "game" SSRN downloads - envy, not money, is the motive. Unfortunately, this is no surprise to me. Some of the highest downloaded papers-well...
Summer Associates-The Party Is Over
Posted on May 10, 2009A Bummer of A Summer is an interesting April 13, 2009 National Law Journal article. With law firm layoffs, it should come as no surprise that firms are cutting down on their summer associate programs. As the article states: The...
CALI Social Media Conference June 18-20, 2009 (Univ of Colorado Law School)
Posted on May 09, 2009The 19th Annual Conference on Law School Computing will be held at the University of Colorado Law School on June 18-20, 2009. Registration here. There will be an interesting workshop on Social Media Best Practices, discussed here which readers may...
Researching International Law
Posted on May 09, 2009Twice a month the attorney-editor of ASIL?s International Legal Materials publishes an electronic resource entitled International Law in Brief, which is a collection of analytical abstracts of and links to significant primary documents related to the latest developments in international...
Possible Changes To Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on May 08, 2009We have been extensively covering the Employee Free Choice Act. Readers will recall there are three basic parts to it: 1. Allowing for card check elections where a majority of workers sign cards; 2. Providing for interest arbitration of first...
Paid FMLA Leave Amendment Introduced Into Congress
Posted on May 08, 2009H.R. 1723 was recently introduced into Congress which would significantly amend the FMLA. The two major changes to the current system are that it establishes an insurance fund as part of the Department of Labor which provides for paid sick...
1st $2400 of Unemployment To Be Tax Free in 2009
Posted on May 08, 2009Finally, there is some sense to the Tax Code. One of the provisions of the federal stimulus is that the first $2400 of unemployment will be tax free in 2009. Therefore, this does not apply to the 2008 tax returns....
Don't Yell At The Judges Law Clerk
Posted on May 08, 2009Sometimes you just cannot make these cases up.Disbarred for Yelling at Law Clerk is a interesting story from legal blog watch about Matter of Michael Moity Jr., ___F.3d___(5th Cir. April 6, 2009). An attorney yelled at the Judges law clerk...
Union Election Win Rates Increasing
Posted on May 07, 2009Unions Winning More Organizing Elections is an important May 5, 2009 New York Times article. It reports on new data that shows that unions have won 63% of recent elections.The article states that opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act...
Falling Wage Syndrome
Posted on May 07, 2009NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman wrote an interesting May 3, 2009 piece entitled "Falling Wage Syndrome."His point is that falling wages are bad for the economy. Why? Because purchasing power declines when wages are lower. As the article states:...
Private Security Firm and City Are Joint Employers Under Title VII
Posted on May 07, 2009Forsythe v. New York City, ___F.Supp. 2d___(S.D.N.Y. April 6, 2009)(registration required), illustrates an important principle of law. Two separate business can both be considered employers, for Title VII purposes, of an employee. Here, a pro se plaintiff survived a motion...
Breach of Contract (CBA) Action Allowed To Proceed Due To Union's Possible Breach Of Its Duty Of Fair Representation
Posted on May 07, 2009Spano v. Kings Park Cent. School Dist., ___A.D.3d___ (2nd Dep't. April 7, 2009), illustrates an important principle of both private and public sector labor law. Normally, an action cannot be maintained for breach of a collective bargaining agreement. However, the...
Arbitration Agreement To Split $42,000 Arbitration Fee Void As Against Public Policy
Posted on May 06, 2009Brady v. Williams Capital Group, ___A.D.3d___(1st Dept. April 30, 2009), is an important employment arbitration provision decided under New York law. A divided appellate court held that an employment manuel which required that arbitration fees be split was void as...
Hidden Danagers of Hiring Interns
Posted on May 06, 2009Rites of Spring: The Hidden Dangers of Hiring Interns is a very interesting April 5, 2009 article from Business Management Daily. Readers of this blog as well as my students all know what those dangers are. Interns, although they may...
EFCA Is A Boom For Management Labor Lawyers
Posted on May 06, 2009Labor Fears Spawn Boom in Workplace Legal Advice is an interesting April 8, 2009 Wall Street Journal article. Many employers are seeking advice about the Employee Free Choice Act as well as other statutes that are likely to be enacted...
State agency decision that employee was not eligible for unemployment compensation benefit had collateral estoppel effect
Posted on May 06, 2009Cox v. DeSoto County, ___F.3d___(5th Cir. April 3, 2009), is an important case. The 5th held that, under Mississippi law, a decision of Mississippi Employment Security Commission (MESC), that a county employee was not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits because...
Senate Confirmation Hearings On Harris And Smith To Take Place On May 7th
Posted on May 06, 2009Workplace Prof Blog has a interesting May 6, 2009 posting which announces that Prof. Seth Harris (Nominee Deputy Secy of Labor) and Patty Smith (Solicitor of Labor) confirmation hearings will be held on May 7th. As Professor Hirsch states: Tomorrow...
Board Literally Refuses To Decide Whether Its Lawful For Employer To Call Police On Picketers
Posted on May 05, 2009Venetian Casino, 354 NLRB No. 9 (April 29, 2009), had the potential to be a very important case. Instead, it has become a very unusual case. On remand from the D.C. Circuit, the Board was faced with the issue of...
UAW and Chrysler
Posted on May 05, 2009Union Takes Rare Front Seat in Deal For Chrysler is an important May 1, 2009 New York Times article. In exchange for agreeing to some wage concessions, the U.S. Gov't has stated that it will stand behind the health insurance...
Disciplinary arbitrator has jurisdiction to hear a defense based on CSL §75-b, the Whistle Blower statute
Posted on May 05, 2009Matter of Kowaleski v New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs., 2009 NY Slip Op 02515, decided on April 2, 2009, Appellate Division, Third Department NYS Correction Officer Barabara Kowaleski was served with a notice of discipline charging her with...
School board has broad discretion with respect to initiating disciplinary action against its members or employees of the district
Posted on May 05, 2009Appeal of Peter And Francesca Gonzalez, on behalf of their daughter Nilli, from action of the Board of Education of the Middleburgh Central School District, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education, Decision No. 15,900 Peter And Francesca Gonzalez appealed various...
Interesting Law Journal Article On Swine Flu And Employer Responsiblity
Posted on May 04, 2009Attorney David Wirtz wrote an interesting April 29, 2009 article for the New York Law Journal entitled Pandemic For New York Workplaces (free with registration). In this article, David recommends that employers adopt workplace policies and he summarizes OSHA, ADA,...
Free Cloud Computing For Professors
Posted on May 04, 2009Legal Writing Prof Blog has an interesting story about Amazon.com offering free cloud computing services for professors, available here. Seems like this service functions exactly like Blackboard and TWEN except that there are no links out perform legal research...
Law Professor Obama And The Supreme Court
Posted on May 04, 2009Unlike most, if not all other Presidents, President Obama is a former con law professor. Whether you like Obama or not, he therefore, knows more about the constitution and the Supreme Court than all other Presidents. To the extent V.P....
Employee's alteration of FMLA application results in denial of leave
Posted on May 04, 2009Smith v The Hope School,___F.3d___(7th Cir. March 30, 2009), is an important FMLA case to be aware of. The 7th held that an aide at a residential facility was neither entitled to FMLA leave nor fired for asserting her rights...
teaching tax and other tedious topics
Posted on May 04, 2009Jack Bogdanski (Lewis and Clark) and Sam Donaldson (U Washington) have posted a very good piece on this topic. Good advice from two very good teachers. (hat tip Ann Murphy through TaxProf). I think this translates to many of the...
USERRA Section 4311 Contains No Duty To Accommodate
Posted on May 03, 2009Sandoval v City of Chicago, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. March 30, 2009), is an interesting case under USERRA. The 7th held that a police department did not violate the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) by not offering two police...
Texas bring-your-guns-to-work law nearer to passage
Posted on May 03, 2009The Texas Senate has recently passed S.B. 730, a measure that would bar employers from prohibiting an employee who holds a license to carry a concealed handgun or otherwise lawfully possesses a firearm (or ammunition) from transporting or storing a...
D.C. Circuit Strikes Down Two Member Board Decisions Creating Circuit Conflict
Posted on May 02, 2009Laurel Baye Healthcare of Lake Lanier, Inc. v. NLRB, ___F.3d____(D.C. Cir. May 1, 2009), is a critically important case that is probably going to wide up in the Supremes. The NLRB had found that the employer committed a ULP and...
Who Will Replace Justice Souter?? The Speculation Has Begun
Posted on May 02, 2009Souter's Retirement Reports Stir Speculation On Obama Pick is an important May 1, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. The article speculates that Obama will pick a woman a minority or someone who is both, but it does not...
Breaking News: Justice Souter Is Retiring
Posted on May 01, 2009NPR reported on April 30, 2009 that it learned that Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of this term. Souter is only 69 and not nearly has old as Justice Stevens and Ginsburg. Though appointed by...
Employer does not have to pay benefits to former employees guilty of embezzling
Posted on May 01, 2009William Floyd Union Free School Dist. v Wright, 2009 NY Slip Op 03164, Decided on April 21, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department The William Floyd Union Free School District asked Supreme Court to relieve it of its contractual obligation to...
Swine Flu and Employment Law
Posted on May 01, 2009What is the impact of Swine Flu (or to be politically correct H1N1 Flu) on Employment Law? Sounds like a good examination question. Law students take note, these are my thoughts. 1. Under OSHA, employers have a general duty to...
Medical interns eligible for student exemption from FICA tax
Posted on May 01, 2009United States v Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,( 2d Cir. March 25, 2009) illustrates that employee status is not just important for labor and employment law purposes-there are tax consequences as well. Here, the 2d Circuit held that the lower court...
New York State Assembly passes bill banning transgender discrimination
Posted on April 30, 2009The New York State Assembly Passed a Bill outlawing discrimination against transgendered individuals. The Bill amends the state?s human rights law to include anti-discrimination protections based upon gender identity and expression. The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA, A...
Legal Aide Society Case Loads To Be Capped
Posted on April 30, 2009State Law to Cap Public Defenders? Caseloads, but Only in the City is an interesting April 5, 2009 New York Times article. It is about a New York law that is going to cap public defender case loads. Currently, its...
Law Professors and P.hd's
Posted on April 30, 2009As we all know, there is a trend in the academy to hire new profs with advanced degrees. To my dismay, years of legal practice is not considered valuable. In fact, I have been recently been told by a Dean...
Foreman Found Not To Be A Supervisor
Posted on April 30, 2009Determining whether or not an individual is a supervisor under the NLRA is often difficult-particularly with respect to professionals and Foreman. Diversified Enterprises, 353 NLRB No. 120 (March 26, 2009), is a case holding that a Foreman was not a....
The Swine Flu Outbreak and International Law-American Society of International Law (ASIL) Publication
Posted on April 29, 2009We do not discuss International Law issues much here. However, the American Society of International Law just published an "Insight" paper written by a Indiana law professor David P. Fidler about the Swine Flu Outbreak. Insights are electronically published articles...
Labor and Employment Law Implications of Senator Specter Switching Parties
Posted on April 29, 2009Senator Specter has been a Republican Senator since 1980. That's 29 years. On April 28, 2009, he announced a bombshell. He is switching to the Democratic Party. That may give Democratics a filibuster-proof majority (which would exist if Franken is...
Email Etiquette
Posted on April 29, 2009Legal Writing Prof Blog has an interesting April 28, 2009 posting entitled Professionalism alert - Email etiquette for students along with book recommendation which I recommend that you check out. It cites to he career counselor column in the Chronicle...
Payment of 4 Hours Pay To Come In And Vote Is Objectionable
Posted on April 29, 2009Tea Party Concerts, 353 NLRB No. 130 (March 31, 2009), demonstrates an important principle of labor law. An employer may not pay employees to come in and vote. Such conduct is considered objectionable because it may interfere with employee free...
EEOC issues best practices guidance on work/family balance
Posted on April 28, 2009Best practices are proactive measures that go beyond federal non-discrimination requirements. The EEOC has issued a technical assistance document on best practices for avoiding discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities. The document, Employer Best Practices for Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities,...
Patriot Employers Act reintroduced in Congress
Posted on April 28, 2009Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill) reintroduced legislation that uses tax incentives to encourage US employers to create and keep jobs in the United States that meet specific pay and benefits criteria and maintain a policy of neutrality in union organizing campaigns...
Call for Papers for the Seton Hall Law Review 2009 Symposium, "Securities Regulation and the Global Economic Crisis: What Does the Future Hold?," to take place on October 30, 2009, at Seton Hall Law School
Posted on April 28, 2009CALL FOR PAPERS The SETON HALL LAW REVIEW will be hosting a Symposium on October 30, 2009, at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, NJ, to address the role of securities regulation in the current global financial crisis. Specifically, this...
NYLJ Article on Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on April 28, 2009The April 3, 2009 Labor Relations column for the New York Law Journal is on the Employee Free Choice Act, a topic we have extensively covered. For those who might not be family with this pending Bill, I highly recommend...
Volunteer Attorney Positions
Posted on April 28, 2009With the down turn of the economy, more and more lawyers are out of work. The NYS Uniform Court System has started a volunteer attorney program where attorneys can volunteer for the courts while getting some good experience and exposure....
Law License Revoked Due To Failure To Repay Student Loans
Posted on April 27, 2009Last week, I reported on Matter of Anonymous, 2009 NY Slip Op 02883, ___A.D.3d____(3rd Dep't. April 16, 2009), a New York Appellate Division decision which refused to admit a law school graduate who passed the NYS Bar examination to the...
UCLA Offers LLM Program For Deferred Associates
Posted on April 27, 2009The April 20, 2009 National Law Journal reported that UCLA Law School has a new LL.M program which is designed to teach law students the skills that they would learn during the first year as an associate. The schools April...
More and More Seniors Looking To Re-enter Workforce: Age Discrimination on the Rise
Posted on April 27, 2009Senior Citizens Look to Re-Enter the Workforce is an interesting March 30, 2009 Fox Business article. With millions of seniors loosing thousands in their 401(k) plans, it should come as no surprise that many are looking to come back to...
Mother-In-Law Not An Employee Under N.Y. Executive Law For Purposes Of Numerosity
Posted on April 27, 2009Goldman v. Stein, ____A.D.3d___(2d Dept. March 24, 2009), illustrates that numerosity issues arise under state employment discrimination as well as federal law. Here, the NYS Human Rights law only applies to employers with 4 or more employees. It excludes from...
Legislation To Prohibit Mandatory Arbitration Proposed
Posted on April 26, 2009The April 25, 2009 Workplace Prof Blog had an interesting posting about the The Arbitration Fairness Act, a.k.a. H.R. 1020, that was proposed in Feb. 2009. If enacted, this Bill would prohibit mandatory arbitration of employment and consumer disputes...
Union Violates Its Duty Of Fair Representation By Not Supplying Grievant With Copy Of Grievance
Posted on April 26, 2009American Postal Workers Union, 353 NLRB No. 124 (March 30, 2009), is one of those rare decisions where a union is found to have breached its duty of fair representation. Why is it so rare? Because employees have a high...
Breaking News: President Obama Nominates Two Union Lawyers To NLRB
Posted on April 25, 2009In a April 24, 2009 Press Release, the President announced that he will nominate Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the NLRB. Their bios are as follows: Craig Becker, Nominee for Board Member, National Labor Relations Board Craig Becker currently...
Employee may be fired if performance problems uncovered on FMLA leave
Posted on April 25, 2009Cracco v Vitran Express, Inc, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. March 17, 2009), is an interesting case. The 7th held that while the FMLA requires employees to be restored to their same or equivalent position upon returning from leave, it did not bar...
1st Circuit Holds That Working Mother's "sex-plus" Nonpromotion Claim Is Viable
Posted on April 24, 2009Chadwick v Wellpoint, Inc,___F.3d____(1st Cir. March 26, 2009), is an important case. The First held that a female employee's "sex-plus" bias claim alleging that her employer failed to promote her to a managerial position because of stereotypes that women who...
State Division of Human Rights lacks jurisdiction to consider school board member?s charge that the school board unlawfully discriminated against her
Posted on April 24, 2009Appeal of Antoinette A. Huffine from action of the Board of Education of the South Country Central School District regarding a discrimination complaint, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education, Decision No. 15,893 South Country Central School District board member Antoinette...
Terminated employees challenge City?s requirement that employees be domiciled within its jurisdication
Posted on April 24, 2009Matter of Ball v City of Syracuse, 2009 NY Slip Op 02039, Decided on March 20, 2009, Appellate Division, Fourth Department The significant issue Ball case is the legal distinction between an individual?s domicile and his or her residence. The...
Furlough's Instead Of Layoffs??
Posted on April 24, 2009Europe's Solution: Take More Time Off is an interesting March 29, 2009 commentary from the New York Times. This story debates whether some employees should work less in exchange for a company not having to make layoffs. The story then...
U.S. News Law School Rankings Officially Released
Posted on April 23, 2009Well, its finally out. The U.S. News official rankings are out and available here. The April 22, 2009 Wall Street Law Journal Blog ran an interesting story entitled Here It Is where they previewed the rankings (which were already leaked)...
D.C. Circuit Issues Major Decision Defining Employee Status Under NLRA
Posted on April 23, 2009FedEx Home Delivery v. NLRB, ___F. 3d ___(D.C. Cir. April 21,2009), is an exceedingly important case. In a 50 page decision, a divided court held that FedEx drivers were independent contractors under the NLRA and thus the court vacated the...
Employee Free Choice Act Compromise??
Posted on April 23, 2009Union Bill's Declining Chances Give Rise To Alternatives is an interesting March 29, 2009 Washington Post article. With the announcement that Senator Spector will not support this Bill, the chances of it becoming law are more difficult and therefore some...
Copy of New York Style Manual Available (Brown Book)
Posted on April 23, 2009As many readers may know, New York has its own style manual which is commonly referred to as the Brown. It can be downloaded here without charge. The 2007 edition has been updated and can be downloaded without charge here....
Leaked 2010 Law School Rankings. What Is The Significance Of Part-Time Rankings???
Posted on April 22, 2009For the first time this year, U.S. News has ranked part time programs. Interestingly, they appear to only use one criteria-peer assessment. While that is probably the most accurate criteria why are PT programs judged under a different standard than...
Same-sex marriage legislation introduced in New York
Posted on April 22, 2009Gov. David A. Paterson (Dem. N.Y.) proposed legislation that would end "legal discrimination against same-sex couples" in the state by granting them the same legal recognition afforded to partners of the opposite sex. The bill would amend New York's Domestic...
Can I Get Fired for Posting on Twitter or Facebook?
Posted on April 22, 2009Find Law's Common Law ran an interesting story Can I Be Fired For Post in Twitter of Facebook? All my students should know the answer to that question. YES!! As the article states: [S]ome employees out there might be wondering...
No Notice Of Claim Necessary In Public Sector Labor Arbitration
Posted on April 22, 2009Matter of Local 832 v. NYC Dept. of Education, ___A.D.3d___(1st. Dept. March 26, 2009), is an interesting case. The Board argued that the motion to compel arbitration should be dismissed because the union did not file a Notice of Claim...
Law Students Beware! Failure To Pay College Loans Prevents Law School Graduate From Being Admitted To New York Bar!
Posted on April 21, 2009Matter of Anonymous, 2009 NY Slip Op 02883, ___A.D.3d____(3rd Dep't. April 16, 2009), is a decision that every law student and every law school should be aware of. After a student graduated from law school and passed the New York...
U.S. News 2010 Law School Ratings Leaked!!
Posted on April 21, 2009Tax Prof Blog and the Faculty Lounge have posted links to the 2010 U.S. News Law School rankings which appear (repeat the word I am using is appear) to be legitimate. The scans are available here. (Top 100 Schools). Tiers...
Some Lawyers Giving Up Blackberrys For i-Phones-Why??
Posted on April 21, 2009Some Lawyers Give Up Blackberrys For i Phones is an interesting ABA Journal Blog March 24, 2009 story. As the article states: Some lawyers are giving up their BlackBerrys for iPhones, preferring the latter gadget's big screen and slick interface....
Employee serving a disciplinary probationary period terminated after violation of the terms of a disciplinary settlement
Posted on April 21, 2009Matter of Outley v Upstate Med. Univ., 2009 NY Slip Op 02162, Decided on March 20, 2009, Appellate Division, Fourth Department Joanne Outley, an employee at SUNY?s Upstate Medical Center, was served with disciplinary charges alleging that she was guilty...
9th Holds Transgender Plaintiff Can Bring Case Based Upon Sexual Sterotyping
Posted on April 20, 2009Kastl v. Maricopa Community College, __F.3d___(9th Cir. April 14, 2009), is an important, but short decision. Though homosexuality is not protected under Title VII, sexual sterotyping is. Thus, a transgender may be a case based upon sexual sterotyping...
NLRB Issues Advisory Opinion Over Its Jurisdiction
Posted on April 20, 2009Here is something you do not see very often-an NLRB advisory opinion. At issue in Steven Scott Entertainment, 353 NLRB No. 115 (March 20, 2009), is whether the Board will assert jurisdiction over an entertainment company which provided musical bands....
NLRB Establishes ADR Program To Settle ULP's
Posted on April 20, 2009The NLRB has finally embraced ADR. A March 24, 2009 Press Release describes how the NLRB is going to make its temporary NLRB ADR program permanent given the success in the temporary program (60% settlement rate). The program is basically...
Subpoena Power of Arbitrators Over Third Parties
Posted on April 20, 2009Courts Differ on Subpoena Power of Arbitrators Over Third Parties is an interesting March 25, 2009 New York Law Journal article (registration required). Though the article focuses on FAA commercial arbitration, the article is also relevant to labor arbitration...
Book Review-Zeigler, How I Teach
Posted on April 19, 2009Donald H. Zeigler, a popular law professor at New York Law School, recently published How I Teach (Tribeca Square Press (2008). The book, actually its a soft paper back monograph, spans 50 pages and was just a joy to read....
Official Frank Serpico Website
Posted on April 18, 2009Do you remember the movie Serpicio? It was about a NYC copy who exposed corruption within the NYC Police Department. It was a true story. Now, the real Frank Serpico is establishing a website to help expose corruption. He also...
Retrenchment 101 ? basics concerning the layoff of employees from positions in the public service of the State and its political subdivisions
Posted on April 18, 2009N.B. The following is a basic and limited overview of the often complex laws, rules and regulations, and court rulings, that must be considered and applied in a layoff situation. Many municipalities and school districts have announced, or cautioned, that...
Sexual Harassment Liberally Interpreted Under NYC's Local Law
Posted on April 17, 2009When we think of employment discrimination most of us turn to federal law and assume that state and local law will be interpreted in the same manner. Such an assumption is a mistake-particularly in NYC. New Rules For Harassment Claims...
Nurse Literally Called Out Of Surgery To Be Informed That She Is Fired
Posted on April 17, 2009Sometimes you cannot make this stuff up. A April 15, 2009 AP report that was picked up by MSNBC reports that a RN was called out of surgery to be informed that she was being laid off. As the article...
Primer on ADA Amendments
Posted on April 17, 2009Disability Law is an excellent March 17, 2009 New York Law Journal Article that reads like a primer on disability law. It describes the major changes to the ADA as follows: The ADAAA did not change the basic definition of...
Bankrupt municipality may void union contracts
Posted on April 17, 2009In a case of first impression, a municipality in bankruptcy may reject its collective bargaining agreements with the firefighters and electrical workers unions, a federal bankruptcy court ruled, concluding Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code permits a municipality to reject...
X-Con May Become A Substitute Teacher
Posted on April 16, 2009Matter of Talib El v. NYC Department of Education, 401571/08, ___Misc. ___(N.Y. Co. April 1, 2009), is an important decision. The court held that the City improperly refused an X Con's application to be a substitute teacher because the City...
Adjunct Law Prof Blog Cited In Shane, Teachers As Sexual Harassment Victims, Florida Law Review
Posted on April 16, 2009On July 9, 2007, I posted an article about Mongelli v. Red Clay Consolidated School Dist. Bd. of Education, __F. Supp. 2d __, 2007 WL 1592967 (D.Del. 2007)(registration required). I characterized that decision as shocking. The court held that a...
Refusal to take lessons to improve English did not cause discharge
Posted on April 16, 2009Zokari v Gates,___F.3d___(10th Cir. March 17, 2009), is an interesting case out of the 10th circuit. Plaintiff, a Nigerian-born employee who was discharged for "poor work performance" shortly after refusing to take lessons to improve his English. The court held...
Discharge for profanity directed at VP did not violate NLRA
Posted on April 16, 2009Media General Operations v NLRB, ___F.3d___ (4th Cir. March 13, 2009), is an important case. A newspaper pressman who called his employer's vice president of operations a "stupid f --moron," in response to the executive's letter to pressmen about ongoing...
Show Up Pay Is Objectionable Per Se
Posted on April 15, 2009Durham School Services, 353 NLRB No. 129 (April 1, 2009), illustrates an important principle of labor law. A party may not pay employees to show up to vote-even if the election is on their day off. Member Schaumber does not...
Big Brothers Watching
Posted on April 15, 2009Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight is an interesting NY Times article from March 22, 2009. It is about the fact that the Obama Adminstration is seeking additional oversight with respect to Executive Pay at financial institutions. The article is abit...
Administrative Law Judge holds that an employee's failure to report for drug testing must be treated as the equivalent of failing a drug test
Posted on April 15, 2009Department of Sanitation and Henry Morrison, OATH Index No. 894/09 OATH Administrative Law Judge Kara Miller recommended termination for a sanitation worker, Henry Morrison, after finding that he was guilty of failing to be at home after reporting sick on...
Employer Committed ULP By Discharging A Supervisor
Posted on April 14, 2009Normally, supervisors are not protected under the NLRA. However, Woodbury Partners, 353 NLRB No. 112 (March 18, 2009), demonstrates that that there are circumstances where supervisors are protected under the Act. As the Board explained: As we stated in our...
Rubinstein, Duty Of Fair Representation Jurisprudential Reform, 42 U. Michigan J. Law Reform 517 (2009)
Posted on April 14, 2009I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article, Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Duty of Fair Representation Jurisprudential Reform: The Need To Adjudicate Disputes In Internal Union Review Tribunals And The Forgotten Remedy of Re-Arbitration, 42 U...
Workplace Defamation Actions Increasing
Posted on April 14, 2009Workplace Defamation Suits rise is an interesting April 13, 2009 National Law Journal article. The article speculates that this is due to the poor economy. As the article states: Defamation lawsuits are on the rise in the workplace as employees...
Important Employment Award Not An Adverse Employment Action
Posted on April 14, 2009Douglas v. Preston, No. 07-5339, ___F.3d___(D.C. Cir. March 12, 2009), is an important Title VII case. The plaintiff, a federal employee, was not awarded the President's Award which is literally awarded by the President for outstanding performance. However, the majority...
5th Circuit upholds Texas moment of silence law
Posted on April 14, 2009Croft v. Perry, ___F.3d___ (5th Cir. Mar. 16, 2009), is an interesting case. The 5th held that a Texas mandatory moment of silence law does not violate the Establishment Clause. The statute requires local school boards to set aside one...
Texas pledge of allegiance reference to ?under God? is constitutional
Posted on April 13, 2009Croft v. Perry, ___F.Supp.2d___ (N.D. Tex. Mar. 26, 2009), is an important case. A district court has held that a 2007 law amending the Texas Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase ?one state under God? does not violate the...
Supremes Deny Cert Of Ruling That Driving Is A Major Life Activity
Posted on April 13, 2009On April 10, 2009, the Supremes denied cert in Kellogg v. Energy Safety Services, Inc., 544 F.3d 1121 (10th 2008), which held that driving is not a major life activity under the ADA. While acknowledging that driving is an extremely...
Georgia assistant principal suspended over racy dance team routine
Posted on April 13, 2009The March 10, 2009 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has an interesting article written by Megan Mattuecci. The article reports that a disciplinary board has recommended a Jonesboro High School assistant principal be suspended three days for signing off on a student dance...
NYC Pensions
Posted on April 12, 2009Many employees do not fully understand the pension system which they are enrolled in. Jeff Friedlander's March 23, 2009 New York Law Journal article entitled A Brief Introduction To NYC Pension Law may help (registration required). As the article states:...
Excessive Absenteeism Disqualifies Employee From Unemployment
Posted on April 12, 2009Matter of Anumah v. Commissioner of Labor, ___A.D.3d ___(3d Dep't. March 19, 2009), is a tough decision. On the one hand excessive absenteeism is misconduct which can disqualify a claimant from unemployment. On the other hand, however, loss of employment...
Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege Narrowly Applied In Women Workers' Sex Harassment, Groping Suit
Posted on April 11, 2009EEOC v. Nichols Gas, ___F.Supp.2d___(W.D.N.Y. March 9, 2009), is an interesting decision. (free registration required). Plaintiffs sued their employer, and its successor, claiming they were groped or otherwise sexually harassed. In the EEOC lawsuit filed on their behalf, defendant sought...
Failure to exhaust administrative remedy by not filing a contract grievance results in dismissal of terminated employee?s lawsuit
Posted on April 11, 2009Matter of Cummings v Board of Education of Sharon Springs Cent. School District, 2009 NY Slip Op 01570, 2009 NY Slip Op 01570, Appellate Division, Third Department Ginger Cummings was terminated from her position as a school bus driver with...
Book Review Highlight; Randall & Randall, Layoff, Preferred Lists and Reinstatement A Concise Guide
Posted on April 10, 2009I am pleased to announce that Harvey Randall and Eric D. Randall just published there 3rd book entitled "Layoff, Preferred Lists and Reinstatement A Concise Guide." The price is $65, it runs 334 8.5 x 11 pages and is sold...
A board of education may require any school district or BOCES employee to submit to a medical examination to determine his or her fitness for duty
Posted on April 10, 2009Appeal of D.R. from action of the Board of Education of the South Orangetown Central School District regarding a personnel matter. Decisions of the Commissioner of Education No. 15,885 The South Orangetown Central School District School Board directed D...
Employee dismissed after being found guilty of 14 of 16 allegations of misconduct by the Civil Service Law Section 75 hearing office
Posted on April 10, 2009Matter of Roth v Manhasset Union Free School Dist., 2009 NY Slip Op 01807, Decided on March 10, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Jeffrey S. Roth, an audio-visual technician employed by Manhasset Union Free School District, was served with disciplinary...
A Democratic Senator Comes Out Against Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on April 09, 2009An April 6, 2009 Washington Post article entitled Drifting Right, Lincoln Comes Out Again reports that Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) will vote against the Employee Free Choice Act. Organized labor was counting on 100% Democratic support in the Senate...
Sanitation Worker Reinstated as AWOL Status Due to Arrest, Acquittal Is Not Misconduct
Posted on April 09, 2009Silverzweig v. Doherty, ___Misc.3d___ (N.Y. Co. Feb. 2, 2009)(registration required), is a very interesting case. Plaintiff, a sanitation worker was dimissed for being AWOL. Why? He was in jail awaiting trial for Conspiracy to Commit Murder for Hire. Ultimately, he...
5th holds Manifest disregard of the law no basis for vacating arbitration award
Posted on April 09, 2009Citigroup Global Markets, Inc v Bacon,____F.3d___(5th Cir. March 5, 2009), is an interesting case. The 5th Circuit held that "manifest disregard of the law" is no longer a valid independent ground for vacatur of an arbitration award in light of...
Sales rep unequivocally did not exercise FMLA rights
Posted on April 09, 2009Righi v SMC Corp of Am, ___F.Supp.2d___(C.D. Ill.February 27, 2009), is an interesting case. The court held that a sales rep who emailed his supervisor requesting "a couple days off" to make arrangements for his mother, a diabetic who was...
School District Can Waive Its Right To Discharge Probationary Administrator
Posted on April 08, 2009Consedine v. Portville Cent. School Dist., ___N.Y.3d___(April 7, 2009), is an important tenure decision. The Court of Appeals holds that a school district may enter into a contract waiving its right to discharge a probationary administrator, but that waiver must...
The Healthy Workplace Act Introduced Into Congress
Posted on April 08, 2009On April 2, 2009, the Healthy Workplace Act was introduced into the 111th Congress. Senator Harkin's Press Release is available here. H.R. 1897 (S. 803) is a Bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide a tax credit...
Retraining Business Schools
Posted on April 08, 2009Is It Time To Retrain Business Schools? is an interesting March 14, 2009 article from the New York Times. The article questions whether B schools should continue to place so much emphasis on finance. As the article states: The master?s...
Religious College Beyond Jurisdiction of NLRB
Posted on April 08, 2009Carroll College v. NLRB,___F.3d___(D.C. Cir. March 13, 2009), is an interesting case. Petitioner college's petition for review of the NLRB's order that it bargain with the collective bargaining agent of its faculty is granted, where the college's religious educational environment...
Iowa Supreme Court Legalizes Gay Marriage
Posted on April 07, 2009Varnum v Brien, (Iowa SCt, April 3, 2009), is another important case in the growing jurisprudence recognizing gay marriage. The Iowa Supreme Court held that a state statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman...
Supervisor?s comments concerning an employee?s job performance protected by a qualified privilege absent a showing of malice
Posted on April 07, 2009Bayer v City of New York, 2009 NY Slip Op 01762, Decided on March 10, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Hank Bayer, who was employed as a plumber by the New York City Department of Education, sued the City, the...
An individual may not withdraw or rescind his or her resignation without the consent of the appointing authority
Posted on April 07, 2009Matter of Lewis v State Univ. of N.Y. Downstate Med. Ctr., 2009 NY Slip Op 01802, Decided on March 10, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department State University Police Officer Robert Lewis submitted his written resignation from his position at the...
Does Student Right To Service Dog At School?
Posted on April 07, 2009Hearing to decide if boy with diabetes can take service dog to Yonkers school is an interesting March 13, 2009 article from Hudson Valley News. It is about a Hearing Officer ruling which permits the student to take his German...
Crisis on Wall Street and Legal Profession-Special Report
Posted on April 06, 2009Law.com has a Special Report on the crisis on Wall Street that readers may be interested in. It includes a firm layoff list. Some of the other articles are as follows: Lowenstein Sandler Lays Off 8 Percent of Attorneys Chicago...
1st Enforces NLRB Decision Finding Employer Committed ULP By Failing To Bargain Over Layoffs
Posted on April 06, 2009Pan American Grain Co. v. NLRB____F.3d___(1st Cir. Feb. 24, 2009), is an interesting decision. The First affirms an earlier NLRB decision which found that the employer committed a ULP because it refused to bargain about layoffs caused by the need...
Statute of Limitations Under NY Civil Service Law Commences When The Decision Is Final
Posted on April 06, 2009Arnold v. Erie County Medical Center, ___A.D.3d___(4th Dept. Feb. 6, 2009), is an important decision dealing with the statute of limitations under New York Civil Service Law. The statute of limitations itself is 4 months by virtue of the fact...
9th Circuit holds ADEA is the exclusive remedy for age discrimination in employment in public sector
Posted on April 06, 2009Ahlmeyer v Nevada System of Higher Ed, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. February 18, 2009), is an important decision to be aware of. The 9th Circuit held that the ADEA is the exclusive enforcement mechanism for claims of age discrimination in employment, in...
The Law Teacher Newsletter
Posted on April 06, 2009The Institute for Law School Teaching is now a collaborative effort of Gonzaga (Gerry Hess) and Washburn (Michael Hunter Schwartz). The institute's site has a tremendous amount of helpful information. Here is the latest newsletter EAL
Arbitrator Decision Giving Employer A Choice Of Penalties Is Upheld
Posted on April 05, 2009Matter of Hansen, ___A.D3d___(3d Dept. Feb. 26, 2009), is a very unusual case. In this disciplinary arbitration, the arbitrator found the grievant guilty of the charged conduct, but gave the employer a choice of penalties. Either keep him and give...
Federal Law Does Not Permit Racial Discrimination Based Upon Client's Preferences
Posted on April 05, 2009Pleener v. NYC Board of Education, ___F.3d___ (2d Cir. Feb. 24, 2009), illustrates an important employment discrimination principle. With respect to racial discrimination, an employer may never make a decision based upon the preferences of his clients...
Oregon may strengthen anti-bullying laws
Posted on April 04, 2009The State of Oregon may strengthen its anti-bullying laws and require every school district and charter school to designate a person to receive and investigate bullying complaints. According to the Oregonian, this was prompted by a new study that reports...
Atty Censured For Failing To Pay Taxes
Posted on April 04, 2009Corporate Attorney Censured For Failing to Pay Income Taxes is an interesting March 9, 2009 New York Law Journal article. It is about a big firm atty who failed to file income taxes on a 4.1 million dollars in income...
Adelphi Settles Sex Discrimination Suit Brought By College Profs For $300,000
Posted on April 03, 2009A March 24, 2009 press release from the EEOC indicates that it settled a sex discrimination case on behalf of female college professors who alleged that they were paid less than male college professors for $300,000. the press release states:...
Individual Has No Standing To Challenge Arbitration Award
Posted on April 03, 2009Matter of Sales v. NYC Transit Authority, ___Misc.3d____, 2009 NY Slip Op 30520(U) (N.Y. CO. Feb. 10, 2009), involves several fundamental arbitral law principles. The parties to a CBA are the union and the employer and therefore, unless the CBA...
Growing Number of States Seek To Ask Teachers To Submit To Drug Tests
Posted on April 03, 2009Teacher Rep Fight Random Drug Tests is an interesting March 12, 2009 Washington Times article. It reports that a growing number of school districts and states are asking teachers to submit to random drug tests. As the article states: In...
Professor Churchill wins-but its only a dollar!
Posted on April 03, 2009Remember Professor Ward Churchill; a University of Colorado prof who was fired for his controversial views? Or, if you believe the university, the professor who was fired because of his poor research. Well, that case finally went to trial and...
Obama Supports Education Reform
Posted on April 02, 2009The March 11, 2009 New York Times ran an interesting article entitled Obama Outlines Plan For Education Overhaul. Some of Obama's proposals include lifting limitations of charter schools, tougher curriculum standards and teacher incentives which would reward teachers for good...
Certification year ends one year from start of good-faith bargaining
Posted on April 02, 2009Virginia Mason Medical Ctr v NLRB, ___F.3d___(9th Cir. February 25, 2009), illustrates a basic principle of labor law. The 9th held that an employer unlawfully withdrew recognition from a union four days before the certification year ended, affirming an NLRB...
Pre-judgment interest on FMLA damages is mandatory
Posted on April 02, 2009In Dotson v Pfizer, Inc, ___F.3d___(4th Cir. March 4, 2009), the court reversed a district court's denial of pre-judgment interest in an FMLA interference and retaliation case, in which a drug company terminated an employee shortly after he and his...
The Problem of EyeWitness Testimony
Posted on April 02, 2009Prawf Blawg has an interesting March 8, 2009 posting about a March 8, 2009 60 Minutes TV broadcast which highlights the problem with Eyewitness testimony.It includes a video link to a portion of the broadcast. Part I of the video...
NFL Labor Arbitration Upheld
Posted on April 01, 2009Sports arbitration decisions are always interesting to read. NFL Players Assoc. v. NFL Management Council, ___F.Supp.2d___(S.D.N.Y. March 26, 2009)(registration required) is no different. The merits of the controversy concerned how workers comp injuries would be treated...
Detroit Crisis Bargaining
Posted on April 01, 2009Workers Share in the Pressure on Car Makers is a interesting April 1, 2009 article from the New York Times that outlines the pressure both union and management are under to make concessions that would be acceptable to the Obama...
Paying To Get Into College
Posted on April 01, 2009Paying In Full As The Ticket To College is an interesting March 30, 2009 New York Times article. As the title implies more and more colleges are taken into account ability to pay-though many say they are doing this with...
Employee terminated after refusing to sign a statement acknowledging a ?verbal warning? given to her by her supervisor
Posted on April 01, 2009Matter of Rey-calderon v Commissioner of Labor, 2009 NY Slip Op 01562, Decided on March 5, 2009, Appellate Division, Third Department Wanda Rey-calderon, a school bus dispatcher, for the employer reported late to work and her supervisor gave her a...
Breaking News-Supremes Hold That CBA Arbitration Provisions Can Preclude Employees From Asserting Statutory Rights In Court
Posted on April 01, 2009In Alexander v. Gardner Denver, 415 U.S. 36 (1974), the Court held that an arbitration provision in a CBA does not preclude an employee from asserting a violation of Title VII in federal court effectively giving a plaintiff potentially two...
Employers Must Use New I-9 Form Effective April 3, 2009
Posted on March 31, 2009On December 18, 2008, the INS published a rule announcing that there would be a new I-9 Form. That Form must be used by employers after April 3, 2009. A copy of an Employer's Handbook (published by the INS) which...
Book Review Highlight-Dau-Schmidt, Malin, Corrada, Ruiz Cameron and Fisk's Labor Law in the Contemporary Workplace (American Casebook Series®)
Posted on March 31, 2009I recently received a review copy of Dau-Schmidt, Malin, Corrada, Ruiz Cameron and Fisk's Labor Law in the Contemporary Workplace (West's American Casebook Series® 2009) and I was quickly able to determine that this is not just another labor text....
Public Policy Cause of Action Can Exist Even If Employee Does Not Make A Report Of Illegal Activity
Posted on March 31, 2009Gossett v Tractor Supply Co, Inc, ___S.W.2d___(Tenn Ct App, March 2, 2009), is an interesting decision. The court held that an at-will employee who is terminated as a result of his refusal to participate in an illegal activity, or one...
Optician who made complaint to state board has retaliatory discharge claim against Walmart under Tenn. law
Posted on March 31, 2009Dishmon v Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, ___F.Supp.2d___ (MDTenn, February 17, 2009), is an interesting lower court decision applying Tenn state employment law. The court denied summary judgment to Wal-Mart in a case in which a store optician alleged he was terminated...
Rostron & Levit: Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals
Posted on March 31, 2009Allen Roston (Missouri-Kansas City) and Nancy Levit (Missouri-Kansas City) have posted "Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews and Journals" on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the...
Will The AFL-CIO and Change to Win Reunite
Posted on March 30, 2009NY Times reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote an excellent March 9. 2009 article entitled Unions Face Obstacles in Effort to Reunite. It is about the possible reunification of the AFL-CIO with the Change to win. The article places the odds of...
Law Firm Goes After Laid Off Associates Loan
Posted on March 30, 2009Like many firms, Thacher apparently advanced first year associates relocation and bar costs. Thacher apparently did this in the form of a loan. Now that the firm is dissolving, it has rescinded the offers and is going after the money...
No individual liability for employees, including supervisors, under Title VII
Posted on March 30, 2009Fantini v Salem State College, ___F.3d___(1st Cir. February 23, 2009), is an important decision which reviews settled Title VII law in the other circuits. The First holds that individual employees, including supervisors, cannot be held liable under Title VII...
Cost of College Increases Competitiveness of Public Colleges
Posted on March 30, 2009Public Colleges Get A surge of Bargain Hunters is an interesting March 1, 2009 article from the New York Times. The cost of a college education together with the poor economy is causing a surge in public college applications. As...
Texas Tech Law Review: Criminal Law Symposium
Posted on March 30, 2009Texas Tech Law Review will present "Excuses and the Criminal Law" on April 3, 2009 in Lubbock, Texas. Here is the summary: For years, the issue of excuses has been both mystifying and tantalizing to criminal law theorists and philosophers....
Lets Go To The Video Tape
Posted on March 29, 2009Supreme Court Enters the You Tube Era is another excellent March 3, 2009 NY Times article by Adam Liptak. It is about the use of video by courts and how that may change things. How? Because courts and jurors would...
Harvard and Stanford Law Schools Switching To Pass/Fail Grading
Posted on March 29, 2009Grading Policies Get Tweaking is an interesting Feb. 23, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. If reports that Harvard and Stanford Law Schools are switching from letter grades to a pass/fail grading system. The article also discusses how some....
National Law Journal Article Story Concludes AIG Bonuses Are Legal
Posted on March 27, 2009The March 25, 2009 National Law Journal has a story about the AIG bonuses which is basically just an interview of attorney Carolyn Plump. Plump basically argues that the bonuses are legally binding contractual obligations and any effort to tax...
Yale Launches 3 Year JD/MBA
Posted on March 27, 2009Yale Launches 3 year JD-MBA is an interesting March 6, 2009 article from the National Law Journal. This is in addition to its existing four year program. The article is a bit short and does not provide much details. The...
The custodian of the records has the burden of proving that information it withheld in responding to a FOIL request is within a FOIL exemption
Posted on March 27, 2009Matter of U.S. Claims Servs. Inc. v New York State Dept. of Audit & Control, 2009 NY Slip Op 29071, Decided on February 20, 2009, Supreme Court, Albany County, Platkin, J. The U.S. Claims Services case concerned a FOIL demand...
Employment Law Reference
Posted on March 27, 2009The folks over at Manpower employment agency maintain an excellent Employment Blawg which they describe as everything you wanted to know about employment law, organized by subject. This might be useful to students, non-lawyers and researchers. Some of the topics...
Principal Must Teach After Probationary Period Expiration To Obtain Tenure By Estoppel
Posted on March 26, 2009Matter of Ronga v. Klein, ___Misc. 3d___(N.Y. Co. March 19, 2009), demonstrates a fundamental principal of Education Law. Tenure by estoppel can only occur if the employee teaches after his or her probationary period expires. Here, a Principal was removed...
Incompetence At U.S. Dep't. of Labor
Posted on March 26, 2009NY Times reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote an interesting March 24, 2009 article entitled :Labor Agency is Failing Workers; Report Says. It discusses a Government Accounting Office report which indicates that in 9 of the 10 cases examined, the Department of...
NY Gov. Establishes Task Force On Retiree Health Benefits
Posted on March 26, 2009xecutive Order 7.15 Governor David A. Paterson issued an Executive Order, Executive Order 7.15,* establishing the New York State Task Force on Public Retiree Health Benefits. The Task Force will study health care benefits provided to employees of the State...
Smith, Hodges, Stabile and Gely Principals of Employment Law
Posted on March 26, 2009Four giants in the labor bar, professors Peggie Smith, Ann Hodges, Susan Stabile and Rafael Gely just published a needed book for Wests Concise Hornbook Series entitled Principles of Employment Law. The book is concise and that is one of...
Senator Spector Drops A Bombshell. He Does Not Support The Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on March 25, 2009On March 24, 2009, Senator Spector formerly announced that he does not support the Employee Free Choice Act. His press release and a video of his statement is available here. Specifically, he does not support the elimination of elections or...
No Right To Discovery Under Taylor Law With Respect To Disciplinary Hearings
Posted on March 25, 2009Matter of Pfau v. Public Employment Relations Board, ___Misc. 3d___(Albany Co. Feb. 19, 2009), is an important decision (registration required). The union sought discovery in connection with a disciplinary hearing. The court held that the union was not entitled to...
Adjunct Abuse
Posted on March 25, 2009Inside Higher Education ran an interesting story dated March 24, 2009 entitled Adjunct Solidarity. Its about a school in Utah that presumably is having economic difficulty because of the economy. The school, is not a small school. Its Weber State...
Delphi may eliminate retiree health benefits
Posted on March 24, 2009In re Delphi Corp,___ Bank. Rep. ___ (S.D.N.Y.March 10, 2009) is an interesting case. A bankruptcy judge held that Delphi Corp may eliminate retiree health care benefits. Section 1114 of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that a debtor in possession...
Alternative To EFCA
Posted on March 24, 2009The March 22, 2009 Washington Post ran a story entitled Executives Detail Labor Bill Compromise which is about 3 corporations which are proposing an amendment to EFCA-namely the elimination of the card check and interest arbitration provisions, but they are...
Court properly rejected after-acquired evidence of alleged misconduct
Posted on March 24, 2009Perkins v Silver Mountain Sports Club and Spa, ___F.3d___(10th Cir. February 25, 2009), is an interesting decision. The 10th held that the lower court did not commit plain error in refusing to admit an employer's after-acquired evidence that an employee...
Employee showed harassment based on association with black coworkers
Posted on March 24, 2009Barrett v Whirlpool Corp, ___F.3d___(6th Cir. February 23, 2009), is an interesting decision. The plaintiff, a Caucasian employee was able to show that she was the victim of direct harassment resulting from her associations with black employees. The plaintiff presented...
Important Article-Obama?s Big Deal; The 2009 Federal Stimulus; Labor And Employment Law At The Crossroads.
Posted on March 24, 2009I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article: Obama?s Big Deal; The 2009 Federal Stimulus; Labor And Employment Law At The Crossroads, 33 Rutgers Law Rec. 1 (2009)(available here). It is the lead article in a symposium...
South Texas College of Law Announces New President and Dean
Posted on March 24, 2009South Texas College of Law has named Donald J. Guter to be its new president and dean. Guter is currently on the faculty of Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh where he was dean from 2005 to 2008. The...
Is Legal Scholarship Dead?
Posted on March 24, 2009Is legal scholarship dead? To find out, see the most recent Georgetown Law Review, which includes Pierre Schlag's (Colorado) essay on point accompanied by response from five leading scholars. Dan Filler (Drexel) offers additional commentary on the exchange at The...
Dictionary Definition of Marriage Has Changed!
Posted on March 23, 2009As we all know, there is a revolution going on in the law with respect to the recognition of gay marriages. Therefore, it is not surprising that the dictionary definition of marriage has now been changed-at least according to Merriam-Webster....
Should Lawyers Unionize?
Posted on March 23, 2009The ABA Journal Blog ran a very interesting story entitled "Should Layers Form Their Own Unions" on March 11 ,2009. They cite to my article entitled Attorney Labor Unions. (though they incorrectly cite to Law Memo Blog which republished my...
The 2009 National Policy Forum: New Frontiers in Labor and Employment Policy: Ensuring Good Jobs, Fair Treatment, and High Performance in a Turbulent Economy
Posted on March 23, 2009The 2009 National Policy Forum: New Frontiers in Labor and Employment Policy: Ensuring Good Jobs, Fair Treatment, and High Performance in a Turbulent Economy will be held June 11-12, 2009, Washington, D.C. at the Cafritz Conference Center, George Washington University...
Preview Of Gross Supreme Court Case Concerning Mixed Motive Terminations Under ADEA
Posted on March 22, 2009A Test Case For Age Bias Claims is an interesting March 16, 2009 National Law Journal article which outlines the issues the Supreme Court will face in Gross v. FBL Financial, No. 08-441. As the article explains, what is at...
Individual Owns Orginal Copy Of Declaration Of Independence
Posted on March 22, 2009Virginia Man Beats Maine In Declaration of Independence Smackdown is a very interesting Feb. 27, 2009 story from Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Its about an individual who bought this rare copy from a London book dealer in 2001 for...
DLA Piper to Cut Most Partners' Pay
Posted on March 22, 2009Here is a new one. Partners at a major firm are actually going to cut their own pay that is according to a law.com article entitled DLA Piper to Cut Most Partners Pay. As the article states: DLA Piper informed...
Law Professor Jury Foreman Inappropriately Explained Legal Concepts To Jury
Posted on March 21, 2009Law Prof's Article on His Jury Experience is an interesting March 19, 2009 ABA Journal Blog story. A Seton Hall Law School Professor wrote about his experience as a jury Foreman for the N.J. Law Journal. That is of course...
31st Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture at Chicago-Kent College of Law, featuring Richard Freeman
Posted on March 21, 2009The 31st Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture will take place on Tuesday, March 24 at 11:30 a.m. Central time at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Richard Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics at Harvard University will speak on, ?Return of...
DOL Issues Model COBRA Notices Under Federal Stimulus Legislation
Posted on March 20, 2009The DOL issued model COBRA notices and instructions on its web site. This should be very helpful to both employers and employees. There are 4 sets of model notices which are as follows: General Notice (Full version) Plans subject to...
NLRB Issues Affirmative Bargaining Order As Remedy
Posted on March 20, 2009Spectrum Health-Kent, 353 NLRB No. 99 (Feb. 26, 2009), is a recent decision where the NLRB issued an affirmative bargaining order due to employer unfair labor practices. The Board summarized the applicable standards for a bargaining order as follows: In...
Employer Commits ULP By Unilaterally Requiring Employees To Have Drivers License
Posted on March 20, 2009Cardi Corp., 353 NLRB No. 97 (Feb. 25, 2009), illustrates a basic principal of labor law. An employer cannot unilaterally make a change in an employees terms and conditions of a unit employees employment without first bargaining in good faith...
EEOC Proposes GINA Regulations
Posted on March 20, 2009On February 25, 2009, the EEOC issued proposed regulations under the Genetic Information and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 ("GINA"). GINA, which became law in May 2008, seeks to protect individuals from discrimination based on genetic information in insurance and employment...
SDNY dismisses Cintas corporate campaign RICO suit against union
Posted on March 19, 2009Cintas Corp v UNITE HERE,___F.Supp.2d___(S.D.N.Y. March 9, 2009), is an important case. The court held that UNITE HERE did not violate RICO by carrying out a corporate campaign against Cintas. Therefore, the court dismissed RICO and Lanham Act complaints against...