This is the format of an ideal blog post. The most important part of writing an ideal blog post is to, you know, actually write it. Your thoughts are brilliant, I’m sure, but when you keep them within your head you miss out on the discussions that your ideas could generate, that could subsequently help shape your own thoughts further.
Continue Reading The ideal blog post
However long it takes to say what you have to say. No more. No less.
Everywhere I talk these days I am asked what’s the proper length for a law blog post. I give this answer everytime.
Continue Reading How long should a law blog post be?
Hamza Mikou (@hamzamikou), COO of Boostsquare and veteran blogger, shared yesterday 3 tips for the naming your blog.
With a little commentary from me, here they are:
Continue Reading 8 factors to consider when naming your blog
It used to be you just added a .com to what you did as a lawyer and you had a domain name for your blog. But with four new law blogs coming online each day, that’s easier said than done these days. Not to worry.
Continue Reading Choosing a domain name for your law blog when domain names are scarce
I’ve concluded that there are three basic blog layout types. This, after twelve years and several thousand blogs designed. Fixed width, Full width, and a Hybrid layout that combines elements from the first two. Each layout type has its advantages.
Continue Reading Blog layouts: Nothing new under the sun
A law blogger publishes an awful lot of content. They put in a lot of time. But is anyone listening? Is the insight you’re sharing helpful?
Continue Reading Is your law blog having an impact? Ask your audience
Law blogs published by practicing lawyers, particularly blogs published on niches, improve people’s access to legal services.
“People” refers to any and all of us—consumers, small business people, executive directors, corporate executives and in-house counsel.
Continue Reading Law blogs improve access to legal services
Syndication as we’ve come to known it is akin to the TV show Seinfeld. When the show ended in 1998, folks like me saw it for the first time in reruns on various stations other than NBC, where it originally ran.
Continue Reading Syndication of law blogs a real plus for bloggers
On Aug. 7, 2018, Missouri residents voted by a 2 to 1 margin against Proposition A, which would have made Missouri a right-to-work state.
The ballot measure asked voters whether they wished to enact Senate Bill 19, which the state legislature passed and former Gov. Eric Greitens signed last year. If enacted, that bill would have prohibited “employers from requiring employees to join or refrain from joining a labor organization, requiring employees to pay any money to a labor organization, or requiring employees to pay any charity or third party the equivalent of money required to be paid by members of a labor organization.”
Before the law went into effect, labor groups successfully collected signatures to put the law’s future before voters in a statewide referendum, originally scheduled for November. The referendum was later moved to the August primary ballot.
The defeat of Proposition A was a triumph for unions, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which held that nonunion members of public employers cannot be required to pay union fees.
If you have questions about how state labor laws affect your business, please contact one of the attorneys in our Employment & Labor practice group.
In an age when companies are more progressive than ever and employers are focused on keeping employees happy and healthy, employee benefits such as vacation days and paid leave are on the rise. Bloomberg reports that more than one in three U.S. employers now offers paid maternity leave beyond the amount required by law, up from one in six earlier this decade. Similarly, benefits such as paternity leave for new fathers and parental leave for new adoptive parents and same-sex couples have become more common.
But the employers offering these types of benefits should be cautious in drafting and administering their paid leave policies. More and more employers are finding themselves in the middle of discrimination claims for offering new dads less paid parental leave than new moms.
On July 17, 2018, the EEOC issued a press release indicating that Estée Lauder has agreed to settle a class lawsuit by paying $1.1 million to 210 men who claimed sex discrimination under the company’s paid parental leave policy. The lawsuit alleged that the policy favored women over men in that it granted women six weeks of paid leave for child bonding, after medical leave for pregnancy. New fathers, however, could only claim two weeks of paid time off to bond with new children.
Last year, the ACLU filed a charge with the EEOC against J.P. Morgan for denying male employees the same amount of paid parental leave as female employees. Specifically, the company offered 16 weeks of paid parental leave but gave one new father only two weeks of paid leave under the presumption that he was not the primary caregiver.
Although court cases on the paid parental leave issue are limited, in 2005 the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit gave some helpful direction. In Johnson v. Univ. of Iowa, 431 F.3d 325, 328 (8th Cir. 2005), a biological father brought a class action challenging the University of Iowa’s parental leave policy that allowed biological mothers and adoptive parents to use accumulated sick leave upon arrival of a new child without extending the same benefit to biological fathers. While the court’s finding had constitutional considerations not applicable to private companies and employers, the court’s rationale in finding the policy was not discriminatory can be indicative of how other courts would decide the issue. The Eighth Circuit said: “If the leave given to biological mothers is granted due to the physical trauma they sustain giving birth, then it is conferred for a valid reason wholly separate from gender. If the leave is instead designed to provide time to care for, and bond with, a newborn, then there is no legitimate reason for biological fathers to be denied the same benefit.”
Employers that offer paid parental leave or are considering offering it should evaluate their rationale for providing the leave. If it is to give new parents time to care for a new baby, male and female employees should receive the same amount of leave. Being more generous with paid leave to new mothers could mean discrimination claims by new fathers are looming.
If you have questions about paid leave policies or need help drafting your own policy, please contact one of the attorneys in our Employment & Labor Practice Group.