Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
David C. SingerBLOG CONTACT INFO
E: Wirth.Gabrielle@dorsey.com
P: 714.800.1455
Sweeping amendments to New York’s whistleblower law took effect in 2022. The law was amended to provide significantly greater protection from retaliation for individuals who raise concerns of employer wrongdoing. The amended New York Labor Law § 740 is now one of the broadest and most powerful whistleblower laws in the U.S. How has New York’s whistleblower law changed? New...
Some of the trickiest employment decisions can involve employees who have made accusatory complaints against the company they work for. Many state and federal laws protect “whistleblowers” who try to bring to light illegal behavior by their employers. But in many instances employers legitimately wonder whether the complaint was made in “good faith,” or just to stir up trouble, or...
Question: We have an employee who we have been planning to terminate because of performance issues. This employee may have realized this was coming because he recently sent an email to a number of people claiming that our company policies violate the law. We have been aware of these possible problems before his emails were sent and already have been...
Question: I know you have written in the past about former in-house counsel suing their former employers in connection with their terminations. We have a slightly different twist on that situation. Our former in-house counsel has filed a qui tam lawsuit against our firm based on information he learned while employed and his supposition about what occurred after his employment...
Bill Wernz, the former Executive Director of the Office of Lawyers’ Professional Responsibility, has written an article for Minnesota Lawyer (July 12, 2010, Vol. 14, No. 28) that focuses on ethical issues recently addressed in our blog. With approval from Minnesota Lawyer, Bill’s article is reprinted below.
The Minnesota Supreme Court finally has ruled on Kidwell v. Sybaritic, Inc., Nos. A07-584 and 788 (June 24, 2010), the “in-house counsel as whistle-blower” case that was pending before it for more than 18 months. Unfortunately, the Court’s ruling has not brought clarity to this area of the law.
Quirky Question # 146: One of our employees recently complained about certain company practices that she contended were unethical. She did not contend the company engaged in illegal activity — just unethical conduct. We pointed out to her that we did not want someone working for the company if she truly believed we were engaging in unethical practices. Our anxiety about this situation...
Quirky Question # 74: We have been having some performance issues with one of our mid-level marketing managers. In October, we placed him on a performance improvement plan. He has not been meeting the expectations established by the plan. We are scheduled to meet with him about his performance again next week, and it is very likely that we will...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
