Employment Law Report

By George J. Miller

Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board issued two decisions rejecting procedural motions filed by McDonald’s, USA in the pending unfair labor practice cases filed against it and certain McDonald’s franchisees.  As background, in December 2014 the NLRB’s General Counsel issued 13 complaints involving ...

By Amanda Warford Edge

For nearly forty years, the Supreme Court’s decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), has reigned. Under Abood, unions are permitted to collect agency fees from public employees who are not union members, as long as the fees go toward the costs of collective bargaining and not politics. But a group ...

By Douglas L. McSwain and Michael D. Hornback

Every business would like to avoid class actions. Even if an individual class plaintiff’s damages are small, aggregated damages across a sizable class can be staggering.  Of late, businesses have utilized a defense strategy to offer the individually named class plaintiff(s) all of the relief ...

By Michael D. Hornback

On January 5, 2016, the Sixth Circuit answered that question with a “No” under the facts and circumstances presented in Morton v. The Vanderbilt University, 2016 WL 52439 (6th Cir. 2016).

The Sixth Circuit began its opinion by noting the unusual circumstances presented.  The plaintiffs in the case consisted of 194 ...

By Matthew M. Lubozynski 

On December 18, Congress adjourned for the year without enacting any new patent legislation.  This is despite the fact that late in 2014, members of Congress stated that patent reform was a priority for the 114^th Congress, and particularly for 2015.  Many commentators believed that significant patent reform was likely ...