Civil Law

State AG Updates: March 31-April 6, 2022

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.

Multistate

  • A multistate coalition of 23 attorneys general led by New York Attorney General James and California Attorney General Bonta filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in support of the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to restore access to Title X federal funding for family planning services. The Biden-Harris administration is attempting to
… Read the rest
Civil Law

Employee Terminations: Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Firing an employee can be much like breaking up with a significant other– stressful, messy, and awkward. No one wants to be the “bad guy,” and oftentimes it feels kinder to sugarcoat the facts rather than telling an employee the real reason for termination. But those good intentions may land employers in hot water.

A recent case serves as a potent reminder that an employer should always give the real reason or reasons for termination. As a result of failing … Read the rest

Civil Law

FERC Approves Civil Penalties for Alleged Violations of CAISO and PJM Market Rules

On March 28, 2022 and March 29, 2022, FERC issued two orders approving stipulation and consent agreements between FERC’s Office of Enforcement and Dynergy Marketing and Trade, LLC (“Dynergy”) and Constellation NewEnergy Inc. (“Constellation”), respectively. Among other things, Dynergy agreed to pay a $ 450,000 civil penalty for alleged violations of PJM Interconnection LLC (“PJM”) capacity tariff requirements and Constellation agreed to pay a $ 2.4 million civil penalty for alleged violations of California Independent System Operator (“CAISO”) resource adequacy … Read the rest

Civil Law

NLRB GC Seeks to Curtail Employers’ Defenses to Union Organizing Amidst Huge Increase in Union Election Petitions

On April 6, the National Labor Relations Board announced that union representation petitions filed with the agency during the first six (6) months of the fiscal year had increased 57% from the previous year.[1]  The very next day, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced yet another policy initiative to hamper employer efforts to resist union organizing.  See GC 22-04, “The Right to Refrain from Captive Audience and other Mandatory Meetings.”

Specifically, the GC announced that she would seek to overturn … Read the rest

Civil Law

ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting: John Villafranco On Monetary Redress and FTC Enforcement Post-AMG

Q: It has been nearly a year since the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC foreclosed the FTC’s ability to pursue monetary remedies under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.  How has AMG affected the FTC’s enforcement program, particularly in consumer protection cases. 

A: As an initial matter, it’s Important to emphasize that the Supreme Court did not take any authority away from the FTC; it concluded 9-0 that the FTC did not have the authority … Read the rest

Civil Law

Strategy in the workplace Part 2: a framework for strategic thinking

In our first blog of this series, we highlighted that strategic thinking is a skill and one that can be improved and developed.

So, what is strategy? What does it mean?

The word “strategy” comes from the ancient Greek word strategos meaning “general or leader of the army”, being a union of the words stratos “army” and agein “to lead”.

From the Oxford Dictionary, a modern definition is “a plan designed to achieve a long-term aim.” Synonyms of strategy include … Read the rest

Civil Law

Washington State to Require Employers to Provide Salary Ranges and Other Compensation Information in Job Postings

On March 30, 2022, Washington Governor Inslee signed into law a bill that will require employers to include a salary or pay range, as well as information about other compensation and benefits, in each job posting. The bill revises the existing state law that requires only that employers provide the minimum wage or salary for a position to an applicant after an offer of employment has been made.  The new law takes effect on January 1, 2023.

Specifically, the new … Read the rest

Civil Law

E. coli Outbreak linked to French Pizza

According to French health authorities, as part of the investigations carried out on the cases of serious haemolytic and uraemic syndromes (HUS) reported since January 1, 2022, the analyzes (epidemiological, microbiological and traceability) carried out suggest, at this stage, a possible link with the consumption of frozen pizzas from the Fraîch’Up range of the Buitoni brand. Investigations are continuing to determine the origin of the contamination, including for other products, as well as epidemiological investigations in order to establish potential … Read the rest