For my in-house counsel friends, here is a great article from Law360 on ways to demonstrate and quantify your value to the company and resist the drive to outsource legal services.
Four key elements: there are some tasks that you can do more cost effectively; you know and understand the business better; you are more accessible; [...]
How should in-house lawyers demonstrate their value?
Would you like to test-drive an executive?
Business Week reports that companies are now “auditioning” top executives before offering regular employment. Why get married after only a few dates? As one CEO put it: “It’s foolish of any of us to think our interview skills are so great we can predict how well someone is going to work in terms of the dynamics [...]
Is E-Mail on its way out?
So says the Wall Street Journal. Its reign as the king of communications is over. In its place, services like Twitter and Facebook are profoundly rewriting the way we communicate.
“Email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether [...]
Did Letterman violate any employment laws?
Lots of articles today, including this one and this one from the star Tribune, discussing the fall-out from David Letterman’s admission that he has had sexual relations with several of his employees.
The law, of course, is clear: in order for such a relationship to constitute sexual harassment, it must be “unwelcome” by one of the [...]
Will it soon be easier to prove age discrimination?
The NY Times reports that Congress is considering legislation to reverse a Supreme Court decision that made it harder for employees to win age discrimination claims.
The Court’s decision in June changed the burden of proof for plaintiffs. Previously, if an employee could prove that age was a factor in an adverse employment decision, the burden shifted [...]
Tips for Lawyers (and others) to get the most out of LinkedIn
From Law360:
Fill out your profile and use key words to maximize search hits
Be selective regarding contacts
Become a resource
Small is the New Big
What’s true in advertising is also true in law. Smaller firms are closer to their clients, more responsive, and more efficient.
No Surprise Here: Employment Retaliation Claims on the Rise
This article from today’s Wall Street Journal provides statistical back-up to what many practitioners have been noticing on a more anecdotal level: claims of workplace retaliation are on the rise. Retaliation claims are often harder to defend against than the original claim which precipated it; very often, the original discrimination claim will be dismissed pre-trial, while the retaliation [...]
Employment Cases Before the Supreme Court
Today is the first Monday in October, the traditional start of the Supreme Court’s new term. After a couple of years in which employment cases dominated the Court’s docket, this year is a very light one for human resource issues. The most interesting won’t be argued and decided until early next year: Lewis v. City [...]
