Blogs

Employment Law

New DOL Regulations on FLSA Overtime

Editor’s note: A federal district court has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the overtime rule from taking effect December 1, 2016. The U.S. Department of Labor will today unveil new regulations effectuating significant changes to the payment of employee overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The new rule will raise the salary…

May 18, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Virginia Attorney General Says Virginia Law Prohibits Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Perhaps Sexual Orientation

For Virginia employers who have not already updated their EEO policies to include prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, the time may have come to make those changes. Last week, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring made it official, issuing an advisory opinion in which he concluded that the Virginia’s Human Rights Act’s ban on discrimination on the basis of “sex” also prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and, possibly,…

May 18, 2016

4th Circuit Rules that a Virginia School Board Violated Title IX by Preventing a Transgender Male Student from Using Boys’ Restroom

A sharply divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond ruled 2-1 last week in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board that a Gloucester County School Board regulation limiting the use of student restrooms and locker facilities to a student’s biological or birth gender was impermissibly in conflict with a U.S. Department of Education (“DOE”), Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title…

May 6, 2016

Employment Law

HR 101 from Abercrombie & Fitch

Most human resources professionals know this simple rule governing job interviews: don’t ask candidates about religion. In EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch , (2015) Abercrombie’s job interviewer complied with this axiom, but ran afoul of Title VII nonetheless. When Samantha Elauf applied for a position at Abercrombie & Fitch (“A&F”), she was wearing a headscarf or hijab. The interviewer didn’t ask about it during the interview, and Elauf, a practicing Muslim, didn’t mention it or indicate that she…

January 21, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Trade Secrets and Confidentiality

In light of the clear trend in Virginia law against the enforcement of non-competition agreements, savvy practitioners and their clients increasingly rely on trade secret and confidentiality agreements as effective surrogates. While it is undeniably true that courts in Virginia are more inclined to enforce such agreements, the case of SanAir Technologies Laboratory, Inc. v. Burrington demonstrates that although subject to less stringent analysis, trade secret and similar arrangements must also…

January 21, 2016

Employment Law

OFCCP Final Rule Prohibits Pay Secrecy Policies by Federal Contractors

Federal contractors, take notice: did you know that it is now illegal as a federal contractor to prevent your employees from discussing their compensation? The Department of Labor’s recent ruling may significantly impact your business and necessitate changes to your policies and practices. Continue reading to determine whether your business will be affected and how.…

January 13, 2016

Employment Law

A Tale of Two Cases: The Perils of Using Temporary Workers

Is your business among the many that utilize contract or temporary employees, workers hired through a third-party staffing agency? Did you know that using temporary workers may subject you to liability under federal employment laws as a joint employer of that worker? Two recent federal appeals court decisions highlight the pitfalls of using temporary workers. Continue reading to see if your business is at risk. The Use of Temporary Workers Has Expanded Since the end of the Great Recession in…

January 13, 2016

Construction

Unanimous Approval for Self-Storage Facility in Prince William County

On December 8, 2015, the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors unanimously approved Mini Price Storage’s proffer amendment and special use permit applications to bring the company’s first self-storage facility to the County. Represented by Mark Viani and Matt Roberts, the applications removed a prohibition on self-storage uses at the property, allowing Mini Price…

December 9, 2015

Business and Financial Services

Obligations of the Corporate Status

One of the principal reasons business owners form a corporation (or an LLC) is to shield the owners’ personal assets from attack by creditors of the business. However, the corporate shield is not absolute; while judges are loath to pierce it, they will – and may have an obligation to – if the owners of the entity fail to comply with corporate formalities and/or treat its assets as their own. Atron and Karen Rowe learned this difficult lesson when Judge James C. Cacheris entered judgment…

November 24, 2015

Employment Law

The Financial Risks to Employers of Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors

Employers, from well-established corporations to start-ups, continue to struggle to understand the legal distinctions between an employee of the business and an independent contractor. The differences can be fundamentally important to the financial well-being of businesses of all sizes, and the difficulties in comprehending the legal nuances go back many decades. More than half a century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court observed in a dispute over whether newspaper boys should be classified as…

November 8, 2015