Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of a class action against defendants Saks Inc., Gucci, Prada, Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and other luxury good manufacturers....more
New technologies continue to transform the workplace and raise additional legal considerations for employers. Wearable technologies such as smart glasses, watches, and exoskeleton suits are valuable tools that help workers...more
2/21/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Privacy Laws ,
Wearable Technology
Frequently, employment arbitration agreements are written with the intent to apply to future disputes between an employee, the employer and the employer’s parent and sister companies....more
Last Friday, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) gave notice to appeal Judge Brown’s nationwide bar on the FTC’s final rule creating a Non-Compete Ban or enforcement of the rule in the case of Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade...more
As of yesterday afternoon, employers across the country that utilize noncompete agreements may breathe a sigh of relief, as Judge Ada Brown beat her self-imposed deadline of August 30, 2024 and ordered an end to any...more
8/21/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Restrictive Covenants
In July, this blog alerted you to the outcome of the preliminary injunction rulings in Ryan, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission and ATS Tree Services, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission, which resulted in a 1-1 tie between...more
The Federal Trade Commission promulgated regulations that stand to ban non-compete agreements in employment relationships nationwide. These regulations are scheduled to become effective on September 4, 2024....more
Employers may be able to breathe a sigh of relief as a California Court of Appeal concluded that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempts state law that allowed employees to wriggle out of arbitration and win thousands of...more
The explosion of AI and the fast pace at which employers are implementing AI into the workplace prompted California regulators to propose new rules that will govern the use of AI tools in employment decisions such as...more
Arbitration agreements are useful tools for California employers, but they are replete with potential dangers. An employer contemplating using arbitration in the workplace must evaluate whether it should be mandatory, the...more
5/10/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Best Practices ,
California ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Contract Drafting ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
State Labor Laws ,
Webinars
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) Commissioners’ voted 3-2 to approve rules first announced in January 2023 to, essentially, ban the use of non-compete agreements in most employment relationships in the United States...more
4/26/2024
/ Chamber of Commerce ,
Competition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants
On April 17, 2024, the United States Supreme Court delivered a win to employees holding that a lateral job transfer can be discriminatory under Title VII when the transfer brought some harm to the employee. The Supreme Court...more
President Biden issued an Executive Order on February 28, 2024 to prevent access to U.S. Citizens’ sensitive personal data and U.S government-related data by countries of concern. This executive order targets data brokers...more
3/5/2024
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
Data Brokers ,
Data Protection ,
Data Sellers ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
International Data Transfers ,
Personal Data
Many people are contemplating what to give their Valentine in a couple of weeks.
However, California employers that employed California persons under an agreement with a noncompete clause “no matter how narrowly...more
On January 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“Department”) changed the test as to whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). This final rule rescinds the...more
1/12/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour
On January 1, 2024, most California employers are required to provide up to five days of unpaid leave to an employee who experiences a reproductive loss event. Senate Bill 848 defines a reproductive loss as a failed adoption,...more
In September, California created a cause of action whereby employees may challenge non-compete agreements and win damages and attorney’s fees (see our prior post on “New Golden State Law to Create Gold Rush Litigation Testing...more
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to tackle the new field of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). As technology develops and changes, Newsom indicated that it’s time to be “Asking questions....more
For over two decades, California law concluded non-compete agreements are not enforceable in the context of employment, Edwards v. Anderson, 44 Cal.4th 937 (2008) and even created a public policy claim against employers...more
California has gone to great lengths to limit independent contractor relationships and recently, the City of Los Angeles, created additional hurdles to the hiring and use of independent contractors or freelance workers. The...more
8/18/2023
/ City of Los Angeles ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Local Ordinance ,
Wage and Hour
A private class-action complaint claimed that the department store, Saks, and several luxury brands (including Louis Vuitton, Loro Piana, Prada, Brunello and Fendi) violated Federal Antitrust laws when they agreed that each...more
8/15/2023
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Luxury Goods ,
No-Poaching ,
Restraint of Trade ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Labor Practices
The Ninth Circuit gave short shrift to employees’ claims that an intermediary in the commerce of strawberries was responsible for paying the farmworkers’ wages under a creative legal theory that the intermediary was a “client...more
6/13/2023
/ Agribusiness ,
California ,
Day Laborers ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Farm Workers ,
Farms ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Code ,
Labor Contractor ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Employers following the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) rulemaking process that will restrict non-compete agreements in many employment relationships may be relieved to learn that the FTC is not expected to vote on its...more
Join Dan M. Forman, Partner and Chair of CDF’s Trade Secret and Privacy Practice Groups, for an exclusive one-hour complimentary webinar focused on providing attendees with invaluable insights and top tips for effectively...more
5/31/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Best Practices ,
Bias ,
California ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Ethics ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Trade Secrets ,
Webinars
On top of last week’s Senate hearing into artificial intelligence (“AI”) featuring the testimony of OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)...more
5/22/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Automated Decision Systems (ADS) ,
Biometric Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Innovative Technology ,
Machine Learning ,
Policy Statement