Blogs

Business and Financial Services

Fair Use or Foul Play? Navigating the Complexities of Copyright Fair Use in the Digital Age

In today’s digital landscape, the concept of fair use in copyright law has become increasingly critical for businesses and individuals alike. The line between permissible use and infringement can be blurry, making it essential to understand the intricacies of fair use to avoid potential legal ramifications. Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows…

May 3, 2023

Employment Law

Elon Musk’s “What Not to Do” Moments – Part 4: Racial Discrimination by Supervisors Should Never be Tolerated!

Recently, in Elon Musk’s “what not to do moments,” Part 3, I blogged about a series of tweets by Musk back in May 2018, that an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded had created an “unlawful threat” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) because Tesla employees could reasonably have…

April 11, 2023

Employment Law

Elon Musk’s “What Not to Do” Moments – Part 3: Just Say No to Twitter!

Elon Musk has become a treasure trove of “what not to do moments” on Twitter for U.S. employers. Recently I blogged about Musk’s twitter exchange dust up with Haraldur Thorleifsson, a disabled Twitter employee, with Musk appearing to question whether Thorleifsson was disabled and to criticize his work ethic. Musk subsequently apologized to Thorleifsson, claiming…

April 6, 2023

Construction

Virginia Supreme Court Voids Fairfax County’s New Zoning Ordinance

On March 23, 2021, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (the “Board”) approved a comprehensive update and modernization – the “Zoning Ordinance Modernization Project (“ZMOD”) – of the County’s Zoning Ordinance. At that time, the Board was utilizing special electronic meeting rules so that it could conduct public business necessary to continuation of government during…

March 24, 2023

Employment Law

FTC Votes to Extend Public Comment Period for Proposed Ban on Non-Competes

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently voted to extend the public comment period for its proposed new rule to ban employers from imposing non-competes on their workers. The public comment period was extended by the FTC for 30 days, until April 19, 2023. Originally the public comment deadline had been March 20, 2023. The proposed…

March 20, 2023

Employment Law

Elon Musk’s “What Not to Do” Moments, Part 2: Don’t Forget to Tell Your Employees That They Have Been Terminated!

In Part 1 of Elon Musk’s “what not to do” employment law moments, I wrote about the possible legal risks of a disparate treatment or hostile work environment employment discrimination claim that can arise under the ADA or Title VII when an employer makes disparaging and insensitive comments about an employee’s protected characteristics. In Musk’s…

March 13, 2023

Employment Law

Elon Musk’s “What Not to Do” Moment: Don’t Insult Your Disabled Employees on Twitter!

As a management-side employment law attorney, I spend much of my time advising employers on how to comply with the ADA’s disability accommodations requirements, no easy task, often using examples of what they should avoid. Thank you, Elon Musk, for providing a stark example this week with tweets that were publicly dismissive of Haraldur Thorleifsson,…

March 9, 2023

Employment Law

Equal Pay and Your Workplace: What Employers Need to Know

Equal Pay Day was originated in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity to highlight the gap between men’s and women’s wages. The next Equal Pay Day is March 14, 2023. It symbolizes how far into 2023 women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Equal pay and pay equality…

March 8, 2023

Employment Law

NLRB Changes Rules for Employee Severance Agreements

On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a significant decision in McLaren Macomb, ruling that an employer may not offer employee severance agreements containing broad confidentiality and non-disparagement restrictions because such restrictions amount to an impermissible waiver of the employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). McLaren Macomb reverses…

February 24, 2023

Employment Law

Best Practices to Reduce Employer Risks in Implementing a Reduction-in-Force

The ever-present question for businesses this year is whether the U.S. economy is already in a recession or is slowly heading toward one? Traditional economic metrics show that the U.S. is not in a recession, for now. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes over the last 12 months have increased the cost of borrowing…

February 22, 2023