Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in Washington and Oregon
Heads up, employers—a new law went into effect in Washington State this week (effective as of July 27, 2025) limiting when an employer can require job applicants and employees to have a valid driver’s license. A recent update...more
Washington AG Nick Brown announced that Washington is the first state to require companies to file a premerger notification with the state AG’s office concurrently with the federal filing required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino...more
Washington employers face a wave of new workplace legislation, some of which recently became effective and some that will begin in 2026 and beyond. These new or modified laws address a broad range of topics, many of which...more
A new Washington law expands protections for job applicants and employees under the state’s Fair Chance Act, aligning the statewide law more closely with Seattle’s Fair Chance Employment Ordinance. Notably, employers will...more
Washington law has long given employees the right to inspect their personnel records and former employees the right to receive a written statement about the reasons for their termination – but, until now, employers faced no...more
Washington lawmakers were busy this year, and a wave of new laws will have a major impact on the workplace. Employers must be aware of significant workplace laws taking effect within the next year, including 11 new laws that...more
As of July 27, Washington State is now the first state to enact a uniform antitrust premerger notification law, and as of August 6, 2025, Colorado will be the second. Both new notification laws are similar, as they are...more
Colorado and Washington have each enacted statutes modeled after the Uniform Law Commission’s Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act. Soon, both states will require parties to certain mergers and acquisitions (M&A)...more
As temperatures rise and wildfire season intensifies across the Pacific Northwest, Washington State employers must remain alert – for the safety of their workforce and to follow state law. The Washington State Department of...more
Washington is the latest state to enact a “mini-WARN” act, joining a growing number of states with legislation similar to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), 29 U.S.C. § 2101, et seq. The...more
With the close of the 2025 Washington state legislative session, it is time to review the new employment laws and amendments that will affect businesses operating in Washington. Many of these changes take effect on July 27,...more
Washington was the first state to adopt the Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act. Signed into law in April 2025 and effective as of July 27, 2025, the Washington law establishes new premerger filing requirements for...more
Oregon and Washington just became the latest states to make striking employees eligible for unemployment compensation benefits. This marks a major policy shift for both states – especially for Washington, which currently...more
Washington and Colorado recently passed laws that require parties that file premerger filings pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act) and meet certain state-specific thresholds to...more
Starting Sunday, July 27, 2025, any party to an M&A transaction that triggers a federal Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act filing must also submit a copy to the Washington attorney general if the filing party (1) maintains a...more
Prenuptial agreements are touchy subjects. Sometimes they can be perfectly fair and fine contracts between soon-to-be spouses. Other times they can grossly favor one spouse over the other. In a previous blog post, I...more
Effective July 27, 2025, employers will have to carefully consider whether they should require that employees have a valid driver’s license as a condition of employment. In 2019, Washington State enacted the Equal Protection...more
Nearly 140 years ago, the United States Supreme Court first recognized that one who causes harm to another should not financially benefit from the estate of the harmed person. In Mutual Life v. Armstrong, the defendant was...more
Washington employers are experiencing a significant rise in wage-and-hour class action lawsuits, a trend that has accelerated with the recent entry of several California-based law firms into the state. These firms,...more
Key Takeaways - - The Washington Supreme Court has relaxed the evidentiary burden for employees seeking to bypass the workers’ compensation tort immunity that typically protects Washington employers. - Employees may now...more
Are you contemplating a merger or acquisition with a connection to Washington State? Effective July 27, 2025, any transaction requiring pre-notification under the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976...more
State attorneys general (AGs) have a legal right to challenge anticompetitive mergers, both under the federal Clayton Act and their own state antitrust laws. And in recent years, state AGs have played increasingly larger...more
In May 2025, the Supreme Court of Washington overruled previous precedent regarding the deliberate intent to injure exception related to workers’ compensation immunity for employers, finding that an employee may sue its...more
Employers should take note, amendments to Washington state's Paid Family and Medical Leave law (PFML) included in HB 1213 significantly broaden job restoration rights, attempt to address leave stacking issues, alter benefits...more
Washington recently became the third state in the nation—joining New York and New Jersey—to offer unemployment benefits to workers on strike or locked out by their employers. Under the newly signed Senate Bill 5041, eligible...more