Law Blog

It’s Friday. I like to post new blog posts in the middle of the week when readers are likely ready for a short break from the work in front of them. We all are too focused and busy on Mondays, and by Friday, we are trying to get things done before people shut down for the weekend. I missed that window this week. I could list the reasons this happened, but, if I�...

The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (the “TMA”) was buried in the enormous COVID relief and stimulus bill (i.e., the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2021), signed into law on December 27, 2020. The TMA amends federal trademark law in several significant ways of which trademark owners should take note. Rebuttable Presumption of Irreparable Harm. One ...

An employee refuses to come in to work or calls in sick or doesn’t show up or call in at all because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are plenty of excuses to do that, some real and some not so real. Many employees have been working from home these days, and they like it. Some may want to keep it that way by convincing the employer to embrace the economic virtues ...

Days before the January 20, 2021, presidential inauguration, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), under the outgoing administration, issued a flurry of new regulations, rules and opinion letters that could significantly impact the employment law landscape in the coming months or years. A gust of that wind stirs up new tipped employee regulations, set to take effec...

Unity in diversity is an old saying, which is true in many contexts. In the workplace, diversity makes for a better and stronger workforce. It means more than tolerance of differences. It is the recognition and understanding that differences provide ideas, create connections, and enrich the human connection. Diversity is broad and includes more differences than mos...

As 2020 closed, most people said “good riddance.” It was a year that few of us want to repeat. We had less control over many aspects of our lives, most of us faced paradigm shifts in how we worked, there were massive losses, and our social interactions were altered dramatically. It felt like we were riding in a bus without much control of where we were going an...

Beth S. Cohn was a featured speaker at Strafford Publications national webinar – Family Limited Partnerships in Estate Planning What: This webinar offered estate planners a practical guide to utilizing family limited partnerships under current tax law. The panelists discussed income tax and asset protections. Where: Live virtual event or available on-demand Wh...

If you’re working remotely, you know the line between work and home has become more blurred and, in some cases, no longer exists. When your home is your office, you are always at work. This is more than just checking email on your phone before going to bed (you know you do this!). So, what can you do to try and have some separation? The answer depends on you, but...

The EEOC has long waged war against “no-fault” or rigid employment policies. No-fault attendance policies penalize employees by issuing them points (also known as occurrences) for absences, late arrivals and early departures. It is the agency’s position such policies tend to violate the ADA. Treehouse Foods, Inc., a Georgia-based food manufacturer, had to lea...

The beginning of the new year is a great time for an annual checkup with your employment law attorney. Specifically, it’s a good time to evaluate what changes you may need to make on your employee handbook and to evaluate what policies or agreements you may need to adopt or update. A lot happened in 2020, and you may not have kept up. For example, the U.S. Supre...