President Trump endorses the RAISE Act, which would clamp down on legal immigration. The RAISE Act legislation, among other things, would give immigration priority according to a skills-based "points" system and to individuals who speak English. If enacted in its current form, it would be expected to reduce legal immigration to the United States by about 50 percent. Will ...

(When I think out loud, beware.)

Ellen Kearns' discussion of last week's decision in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that employers may have to accommodate employees who use medical marijuana, got me thinking about whether we need to revisit some of our assumptions about marijuana in the ...

Constangy is #1 midsize law firm for women! Law360 has ranked us number one among law firms with 150-299 attorneys. Firms were not even eligible to be ranked if they didn't have at least 49 percent female attorneys, so we are the creme de la creme. Heather Owen, proprietor of FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, has more here.

Like no business I know . . . In our latest installment of ...

Reason No. 4: We have an all-star team of co-bloggers.

To wit (in alphabetical order): Ken Carlson, Cara Crotty, Louise Davies, Tommy Eden, LaLonnie Gray, Billy Hammel, Ellen Kearns, Damon Kitchen, Angelique Lyons, Bob Ortbals, Alyssa Peters, Kristine Sims, Sandra Sok, Jill Stricklin, Spring Taylor, Stephanie Underwood, Heidi Wilbur, and Jon Yarbrough. (Thanks, you guys!)

You ...

The U.S. Department of Labor submitted its brief today in Nevada v. U.S. Department of Labor, the case involving the challenge to the Obama Administration's overtime rule.

Some very quick background: The overtime rule, which would have more than doubled the salary threshold for administrative, executive, and some professional exemptions from the minimum wage and overtime ...

On November 23, 2016, we issued a Client Bulletin titled “Employers Can Breathe A Sigh of Relief Come December 1: Court strikes down overtime rule.”  But a new lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey puts a gulp in that sigh of relief.

Background

As previously reported, regulations that would have more than doubled the salary threshold for Administrative, Executive and ...

Trump DOL removes Obama DOL guidance on independent contractors, joint employment. On Wednesday, Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta removed two Administrator's Interpretations on independent contractors and joint employment issued during the Obama Administration. Here is our Client Bulletin, which I wrote with Jim Coleman, co-chair of our Wage and Hour Practice Group. The ...

As most readers know, the U.S. Department of Labor’s overtime rule, which was set to take effect yesterday, was preliminarily enjoined (temporarily blocked) on November 22 by U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant III. The injunction in Nevada v. Perez applies nationwide, but the court’s decision is not final, and the DOL appealed yesterday. An article in the Washington Post

Thank you all very much for helping elect us to the American Bar Association Blawg 100 for 2016. We were one of only five employment law blogs to make the list, out of approximately 4,000 blogs in all legal categories. Your support and your readership are greatly appreciated!

We had a lot of guest bloggers this year, and they also deserve credit for our success. So thank you very much (in ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: As I posted last night, the U.S. Department of Labor Overtime Rule, which would have taken effect a week from tomorrow, has been preliminarily enjoined. I am re-posting here a client bulletin by Jim Coleman, co-chair of our Wage and Hour Compliance and Litigation Practice Group, and me. This went out to our clients this morning.

The new regulations that ...