The U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum to all Federal Agencies providing guidance clarifying the application of Federal discrimination law to DEI programs and offering best practices for program compliance. The...more
Can members of a majority group be subject to a heightened pleading standard for their Title VII discrimination claims? The United States Supreme Court answered this question with a unanimous “no” in Ames v. Ohio Department...more
The Trump Administration issued its latest Executive Order entitled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy (the “EO”) on April 23, 2025. The EO focuses on “disparate impact” discrimination and is the latest in a...more
On March 19, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released joint “technical assistance documents” (i.e., non-binding interpretive guidelines for...more
3/20/2025
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Harassment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
A federal district court in Maryland has temporarily enjoined enforcement of several key aspects of two recent DEI-related executive orders from the Trump Administration – Executive Order 14151 (Ending Radical and Wasteful...more
2/25/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Compliance ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fifth Amendment ,
First Amendment ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Trump Administration
In the wake of President Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” Executive Order (the “Executive Order”) (discussed further here), many companies are in the process of revisiting their...more
President Trump has issued a flurry of wide-ranging executive orders intended to shake up the employment landscape. One of those orders, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the...more
1/24/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
OFCCP ,
OMB ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Subcontractors ,
Trump Administration
Although 2023 perhaps did not see the passage of any laws quite as impactful as 2022—which, as employers will recall, included New York State enacting its own pay transparency law (see here) and novel New York City Council...more
12/15/2023
/ #MeToo ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Earned Sick and Safe Time Act ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Facebook ,
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA) ,
Freelance Workers ,
Harassment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Minimum Wage ,
New York ,
NYDOL ,
Pay Transparency ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Settlement ,
State Labor Laws ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft ,
WARN Act
In an effort to further restrict the use of confidentiality clauses when resolving employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, New York recently passed S4516, which amends Section 5-336 of the New York...more
The New York City Council has passed a bill amending the City’s anti-discrimination statute (the New York City Human Rights Law or “NYCHRL”) to prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of an individual’s “height”...more
5/22/2023
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
City of New York ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Hairstyle Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Housing Discrimination ,
Human Rights ,
Job Applicants ,
Public Accommodation
A New York State Trial Court judge recently ruled that an agreement between a company and an employee to arbitrate sexual harassment claims was unenforceable due to 2018 amendments to New York State’s Human Rights Law, which...more
The Second Circuit recently adopted the “Cat’s Paw” theory of liability in Title VII cases. This was hardly a surprise as other Circuit Courts had done the same after the United States Supreme Court endorsed Cat’s Paw in a...more
Sometimes a judge says what many of us are already thinking. In Rivera v. Crowell & Moring L.L.P., Katherine B. Forrest was that judge....more
Donald Trump has become part of the national conversation. Not a single day goes by now without Mr. Trump filling up at least one news cycle. His recent success reminds me of a fantastic exchange in Private Parts when a...more
New York City is finishing off a strong year on the employment law front. Earlier this year, the City Council passed laws that banned the box and all but eliminated credit checks. It also passed a law requiring employers to...more