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
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City of Ontario vs. Quon, 560 U.S. ___ (2010) On June 17, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of City of Ontario v. Quon, No. 08-1332, 560 U.S. ___ (2010). The decision was unanimous, with the Court’s opinion written by Justice Kennedy. Justices Stevens and Scalia filed separate concurring opinions. The Court held that the City of Ontario’s...
Quirky Question # 138: I saw you recently described some legislation pending before Congress that could affect the employment relationship. I have a similar non-quirky question – what cases are before the U.S. Supreme Court that bear upon the employment relationship?
The Federal Trade Commission’s Sears Holdings Enforcement Action – Developments in Online Behavioral Advertising, Privacy and Social Media Companies engaged in online behavioral advertising – the practice of tracking an individual’s online activities to deliver advertising tailored to the individual’s interests – should review their privacy policies, terms of use and agreements and similar documents against their actual and contemplated...
Quirky Question # 129: One of our company’s employees apparently has a Facebook account. Many of her co-employees are her Facebook “friends.” One of our managers heard that at least some of these employees used the Facebook account to post very negative comments about the company and our managers, including him. Consequently, he persuaded one of the employees who was...
Federal and State Privacy Laws The number and complexity of federal and state privacy laws continue to increase. These laws affect a broad range of public and private companies, including U.S. companies as well as foreign companies that conduct business in the United States. Any company that possesses personal information relating to U.S. employees, customers, shareholders or others likely is...
Quirky Question # 116: I am the owner of a small private company. I was recently alerted by my secretary that various computers around the office, including some in private offices, have been used late at night to access the internet. The late-night use has included accessing pornographic websites from a couple of the offices. I need to discovery who...
Quirky Question # 85: We recently heard a rumor that a member of our software engineering staff is planning to leave and start a software company of his own that may compete with us. Further, we have heard that he is discussing his plans with others outside of our company using the desk phones in our San Francisco office. We...
Quirky Question # 49: We have had various situations where we have thought that secretly installing a video camera would help us identify individuals behaving inconsistently with our company’s workplace rules. We don’t know whether this is a good or bad idea and we don’t know what risks are associated with secret videotaping of our employees. Do you have any...
Quirky Question # 38: Our company is a food retailer. We hired a convicted sex offender, who, after serving time in prison for his felony conviction, had been released. Given that he had “paid his debt to society,” we felt that we should not refuse to hire him because of his prior conviction. Moreover, because the job for which he...
Quirky Question # 36: We recently learned that one of our employees has illegal pornography on his work computer. We know we can discipline him (up to and including termination).The police recently requested a copy of his computer hard drive. Can we turn the hard drive over to the authorities even if they do not have a search warrant? Do...
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...
