Bloomberg Big Law reports that a 56-year-old female in-house lawyer in Texas sued Nokia Corp, accusing it of age and sex discrimination. The suit says that the company fired her when she complained about it. The suit, by Sharan Rene Boudreau, alleges that she was passed over for advancement despite award-winning performance reviews. She says […]
You might think that now that women are finally scaling the heights of the legal profession that they are no longer experiencing sexual harassment. And you would be wrong. A recent survey of almost 7,000 attorneys conducted across 135 countries by the International Bar Association found that, in fact, a third of female attorneys have […]
Microsoft Corp.’s legal department sets high standards for itself and its contractors, including outside law firms. Company president and chief legal officer Brad Smith has been championing diversity for years, loudly and publicly, including once dressing down attendees at a black-tie awards dinner. His successor in the general counsel slot, Dev Stalkopf, is following in […]
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Employment
Litigation
NLRB doesn’t “like” employee’s Facebook video, says it’s not concerted
One of the thorniest issues employers, courts and the National Labor Relations Board have had to deal with in recent years is social media and how it interacts with U.S. federal labor law. Employees, who may have a grievance yet who aren’t schooled in the nuances of labor jurisprudence often vent online, either in comments […]
Employment
Legal Industry
News
Maura Smith’s post-GC life: Private practice, both commercial and matrimonial
When we usually report on the career path of prominent general counsel, the story generally ends with the lawyer either retiring from a large department or leaving one at retirement age to a plum rain-making job at a big corporate law firm. Maura Smith did none of the above. She recently joined the Law Offices […]
The winter federal government partial shutdown slowed some reports, but they’re coming out now. One of them is eagerly awaited by labor and employment lawyers: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for Fiscal Year 2018 (you can find the complete report here). The report, later than usual, but it came out last […]
Every so often, the National Labor Relations Board issues guidance on workplace issues. The guidance is not meant to be black-letter law, but it tells local boards how they should handle various complaints. The latest crop is about workplace confidentiality, for want of a more precise term. Specifically, are employee handbooks and salary information privileged? […]
