Latest Blog Posts

• Blog: Labor & Employment
  Date: March 03, 2021 Title: It’s Official: EEOC Adopts New Rule Updating Conciliation Procedures
  Summary: In welcome news for employers, on January 11, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) adopted its final rule updating its conciliation procedures for the first time in more than 40 years. The rule is designed to ensure transparency, consistency, and fairness in the conciliation process between employers and the EEOC. Best of all, the process is informal and confidential, and can help employers to improve the workplace and address specific grievances with less risk of litigation....
• Blog: Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
  Date: March 02, 2021 Title: Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act: Not Quite The CCPA
  Summary: Though it seems Virginia is following California’s lead by becoming the second state with its own comprehensive data privacy legislation, Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) diverges from the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) in that it is far more business-friendly and does not have the “teeth” that the CCPA does. ...
• Blog: Labor & Employment
  Date: March 01, 2021 Title: What Labor & Employment Changes to Expect Under The Biden Administration
  Summary: Throughout his campaign and first weeks in the White House, President Biden has laid out plans to promote an ambitious labor and employment agenda during his administration. We expect President Biden’s agenda to continue to be crafted though his issuance and repeal of Executive Orders, and will further advanced through the his cabinet picks and agency appointees. This post includes a top-level summary of key labor and employment changes from the Biden Administration that we are following....
• Blog: Labor & Employment
  Date: February 22, 2021 Title: Ignoring Employee ADA Accommodation Requests Can Be Costly – A Cautionary Tale
  Summary: As all employers should well know by now, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and many state and local counterparts may require employers to engage in an interactive process in response to a disabled employee’s request for a workplace accommodation. A recent ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals illustrates why employers have a very strong financial incentive to be proactive in adopting and rigorously enforcing their disability accommodation policies....
• Blog: Labor & Employment
  Blog: ADA Compliance & Defense
  Date: February 17, 2021 Title: Fourth Circuit Clarifies Employers Not Required to Abandon “Disability Neutral” Competitive Hiring Systems to Reassign Disabled Employee
  Summary: The Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) reasonable accommodation duty often creates frustrating uncertainty for employers and employees. Reassignment, a term used in the ADA’s statutory language as an example of a potential reasonable accommodation, is fraught with uncertainty when evaluated by employers and employees as a potential accommodation. The Fourth Circuit recently addressed the reassignment dilemma in Ellege v. Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC....
• Blog: Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
  Date: February 16, 2021 Title: Canada Introduces Legislation to Revamp Federal Privacy Landscape
  Summary: The Canadian House of Commons introduced draft legislation that, if enacted, would align federal Canadian privacy law with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The draft legislation, titled the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), proposes significant advancements to the current legal regime governing personal data. ...
• Blog: Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
  Date: February 12, 2021 Title: Top Five Cybersecurity Suggestions for 2021
  Summary: As hard as it is to believe, we are already more than a month into 2021 – and our Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Team is well on its way to managing over 2,000 data security incidents this year. It serves as an important reminder that a few cybersecurity suggestions can have a big impact as we embrace the months to come. The following are our top five suggestions to enhance the security of your network, detect intruders more quickly, and reduce the scope and expense of data security events this year....
• Blog: Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
  Blog: Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance
  Date: February 10, 2021 Title: Don’t Forget the HIPAA Small Breach Notification Deadline of March 1, 2021. It’s Right Around the Corner!
  Summary: Despite all that made 2020 an unusual year, data security incidents did not slow down. For organizations that are covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the deadline to report small incidents is fast approaching. Organizations that experienced a data security incident in 2020, which affected the protected health information (PHI) of less than 500 individuals, have until March 1, 2021 to submit their notification to the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services....
• Blog: Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
  Date: February 08, 2021 Title: CCPA 2.0 and the Changing Privacy Landscape, Part V: New & Expanded Consumer Rights
  Summary: The newly-passed California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) includes additional and expanded consumer rights not currently existing under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This fifth installment in our series about the changes to the CCPA brought by the CPRA focuses on consumers’ new rights of correction and access to certain personal information and revisions to certain existing consumer rights in the CCPA, including rights to know (and access), deletion, non-discrimination, and rights for minors....
• Blog: Intellectual Property & Technology
  Blog: Trade Secrets & Non-Compete Disputes
  Blog: Intellectual Property Team
  Date: February 03, 2021 Title: Trade Secrets Litigation Just Got More Complicated
  Summary: In January, federal courts around the country issued new security procedures intended to protect highly sensitive documents (HSDs), following a cybersecurity breach at an electronic filing system vendor. Now, HSDs must be filed in person or via mail and, once received by the court, will be stored in a secure stand-alone computer system. While the concept it straightforward, its implementation is far from simple, as the court orders vary widely and leave a lot of open questions....