Employment

Expert Analysis

• Uniformity Goal Eludes Defend Trade Secrets Act, 5 Years On

  

  Five years after the enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, work remains to be done on achieving uniformity across jurisdictions, because state law differences being imported into the DTSA are creating the same patchwork of law the act was intended to rectify, say attorneys at MoFo.

• Judge's Rebuke Of Mass. AG Has Lessons For All Attorneys

  

  A Massachusetts federal judge’s recent rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office for refusing to respond to discovery requests in Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Healey highlights six important considerations for attorneys who want to avoid the dreaded benchslap, say Alison Eggers and Dallin Wilson at Seyfarth.  

• How 5-Year-Old Defend Trade Secrets Act Has Met Its Goals

  

  Case law and data reveal that, five years after its enactment, the Defend Trade Secrets Act has opened up federal courts to litigants and has proven effective against extraterritorial misappropriation, while concerns about inconsistency and overuse of ex parte seizures have not borne out, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• Opinion

  Federal Minimum Wage Should Be Indexed For Local Markets

  

  The Biden administration should implement an indexed minimum wage based on the average wages in each local labor market instead of mandating a $15 federal minimum wage in all metro areas, which could grossly distort service sector compensation and discourage bidding on federal contracts, says Stephen Bronars at Edgeworth Economics.

• Font Considerations To Give Your Legal Briefs An Edge

  

  Following the D.C. Circuit’s recent notice discouraging use of the font Garamond in legal briefs, Jason Steed at Kilpatrick looks at typeface requirements and preferences in appellate courts across the country, and how practitioners can score a few extra brief-writing points with typography.

• Discerning Need For 2nd COVID Workers' Comp Claim In Calif.

  

  Diana Tsudik at Gilson Daub explains how California employers can determine whether an employee’s second round of industrial COVID-19 leave requires a new workers' compensation claim form, and how a secondary filing could unnecessarily expose the company to double liability for one injury.

• Tips For Navigating The Visa Processing Backlog

  

  The pandemic has caused U.S. embassies and consulates to fall far behind in visa processing, but new information from the U.S. Department of State can help practitioners determine where a client is in line and whether it's time to use other tools to reduce wait time, says Dominique Pando Bucci at Kurzban Kurzban.

• Make Profitability Management Part Of Your Law Firm Culture

  

  As the legal industry continues to change in the post-pandemic world, law firms should adapt to client demands by constantly measuring and managing the profitability of their services, says Joseph Altonji at LawVision.

• Series

  Winner's Playbook: Behind The Scenes Of Lamps Plus

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision on class arbitration in Lamps Plus v. Varela two years ago. Now, attorneys at Lewis Brisbois and Mayer Brown explain how their work for Lamps Plus developed the law on interpreting arbitration agreements that exclude language expressly addressing class arbitration.

• The Biden Administration Is Sharpening The TSCA's Sword

  

  The Trump administration implemented the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act in a way that critics felt benefited chemical companies, but the Biden administration can be expected to use the amendments to broaden risk reviews and impose new requirements on the regulated community, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

• 4 Trends In Discoverability Of Litigation Funding Documents

  

  Recent rulings shed light on how courts and international arbitration tribunals decide if litigation funding materials are discoverable and reaffirm best practices that attorneys should follow when communicating with funders, say Justin Maleson at Longford Capital and Michele Slachetka and Christian Plummer at Jenner & Block.

• Bio-Rad Ruling Highlights IP Assignment Clause Limits

  

  The Federal Circuit's recent holding in Bio-Rad v. International Trade Commission, that an assignment clause wasn’t enough to claim patent ownership where the conception date followed former inventors’ employment, shows companies and workers the importance of specificity in drafting contractual limitations, say Bryan Vogel and Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

• Cannabis Legalization's Effects On Insurance Industry

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  Resolution of the legal uncertainty presented by the dueling federal and state approaches to cannabis will pave the way for legal cannabis businesses to access the insurance protections the industry needs for everything from workers' compensation to auto insurance to general liability, says Christy Thiems at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

• 7 Lessons For Young Lawyers Starting Their Careers

  

  This year's law graduates and other young attorneys must recognize that the practice of law tests and rewards different skills and characteristics than law school, and that what makes a lawyer valuable changes over time, says Vernon Winters, retired partner at Sidley.

• Opinion

  Justices Should Clarify Securities Fraud Loss Causation

  

  At its May conference, the U.S. Supreme Court should agree to review BofI Securities Litigation, to clear up a circuit split on how to assess loss causation in securities fraud cases, as shareholder class actions increasingly focus on external events that led to a stock drop, says Lyle Roberts at Shearman & Sterling.