by Michael E. Barnsback
Jonathan Mook (one of our intrepid Virginia Employment Law Letter editors) and I recently taught a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Master Class. As with all of our FMLA classes, the major concern among the participants was how to curb abuse and prevent claims. One of the recent cases we discussed [...]

by Jonathan R. Mook
Even though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hasn’t issued final regulations on the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) yet, you still must comply with the ADAAA, which took effect at the beginning of last year. In this article, we’re addressing the defense of claims under the new Americans with Disabilities Act [...]

A federal judge blocked parts of Arizona’s new immigration law on Wednesday, the day before the rest of the measure went into effect. But legal challenges are already flying and many are waiting to see what happens next.
Last year, a record number of immigration-related laws were considered and passed in the 50 states. Over 222 [...]

Nearly two years after Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced recently that employers should not expect to see new regulations providing a more detailed explanation of the law’s requirements anytime soon.
To understand the reasons for the delay and how it may affect employers, we spoke with nationally [...]

by Hillary J. Collyer
As a good employer, you certainly have the right to make sure your employees are physically capable of doing their jobs. Thus, you may require an employee to undergo a medical exam when you have legitimate objective concerns about her continued ability to do the job. That’s fine if the exam is [...]

by Stephen Stine
We aren’t getting any younger, and neither are your employees. As a result, employers are increasingly having to confront age-related issues that may lead to legal liability. These issues arise not only in the context of hiring and firing decisions but also in the design of benefit plans. To ensure your benefit plans [...]

by Hillary J. Collyer
Given the current economic slump, there is a particularly high rate of unemployment among younger workers. Accordingly, employers may be receiving an increased number of resumes or job applications from recent graduates who are still looking for their first job out of college. Also, in recent years there’s been a lot of [...]

by Hillary J. Collyer
Over the past two decades, the American workforce has enjoyed a significant increase in family-friendly policies in the workplace. Yet are those “family-friendly” benefits fair to all employees? Employees without children wonder whether they receive less valuable corporate benefits than their counterparts with children. Employers are prohibited from providing unequal benefits [...]

(Updated May 2010)
By Hillary J. Collyer
Summer is here, which means that student interns are arriving for their summer internships — and many of these internships are unpaid. Internships afford students the opportunity to gain practical, real world experience, as well as explore various career paths and develop potential contacts.

Workers who are the most innovative or productive or those who possess visionary leadership are inevitably propelled to the top. That’s the image many of us have of the workplace. In reality, the practice of favoring and promoting relatives or paramours, more commonly known as nepotism, is widely practiced in companies large and small across [...]