PA’s Prevailing Wage Law Shows Its Teeth
5/7/21
By: Joshua Ferguson and Courtney Mazzio
Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Law was enacted in 1961 to protect construction workers from out-of-state competition, mandating those contractors pay the wages that “prevail” in each region on all government construction projects more than $25,000.
Violations of this state labor …
Arbitration – Is it the Happiest Place on Earth?
5/4/21
By: Anna Drake
A recent lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania state court involves the important topic of dispute resolution and how it can play out in an employment setting. It can be specifically important in terms of employment agreements that include …
The Supreme Court Considers Discipline for Off-Campus Student Speech
5/3/21
By: Rachael Slimmon
Last week the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that tests the boundaries of a school’s right to control the off-campus speech of its students. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.,a Pennsylvania public …
4/30/21
By: Kirsten Patzer
In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States(the “Court”) reversed the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., holding Google’s use of Oracle’s Java Application …
Departing Lawyers’ “Theft of Files” May Lead to a Violation of M.G.L.c. 93A
4/29/21
By: Nancy Reimer, Jennifer Markowski and Lori Eller
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently held in Governo Law Firm LLC v. Bergeron, 487 Mass. 188 (2021), that the inapplicability of G. L. c. 93A, § 11, to disputes …
Client Update – MS Exchange Server Mass-Hack
4/28/21
By: John Ghose
In March 2021, government and private sector sources estimated that 30,000 U.S. organizations, and 100,000 organizations worldwide, were hacked by a Chinese state-sponsored group known as Hafnium. The mass-hack exploited previously unknown “zero-day” vulnerabilities of Microsoft Exchange …
4/28/21
By: Steven Grunberg
Do you ever feel like your dedication to your job is questioned? For one employee of a garbage and recycling disposal company there is little doubt surrounding the answer to this question. In March 2018, Lorenzo Bucknor …
Clemson University Settlements Highlight Trends in Title IX Sports Claims
4/27/21
By: Candice Jackson and Wayne Melnick
As colleges and universities face budget shortfalls that may be especially sharp due to challenges posed by COVID-19, two pre-litigation settlements reached by Clemson University last week highlight the risks to educational institutions of …
FMG Education Law Blog Series: Special Education Issues Facing Schools in the COVID-19 Era
4/22/21
By: Tia Combs and Candice Jackson
Part 2: “A Year Online”
A New and Deadly Virus
In January 2020, few Americans were aware the outbreak of a novel coronavirus that was about to dramatically alter how nearly every person …
4/20/21
By: Kirsten Patzer
Even before Robinhood made headlines with the GameStop debacle earlier this year, the Massachusetts Securities Division and Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Galvin, had Robinhood in their sight. On December 16, 2020 the Massachusetts regulators brought their …
A Quick Summary of the Ethics Rules on Discrimination for California Lawyers
4/20/21
By: Greg Fayard
For decades, the California State Bar had an anti-discrimination ethics rule applicable to lawyers. That rule prevented lawyers from unlawfully discriminating in hiring, promoting, firing, or accepting or not accepting cases based on certain protected characteristics—the big …
4/19/21
By: Candice Jackson and Robert A. Cutbirth
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On the first day of this important month, the California Supreme Court issued Brown v. USA Taekwondo. Arising from allegations of sexual assault by members of the United States’ women’s taekwondo …