Reminder: It’s not too late to RSVP for KJK’s Breakfast Briefing

There is still time to RSVP for KJK’s inaugural Employment Law Breakfast Briefing: The Top 10 Labor & Employment Law Issues to Face Your Business in 2009. We’ll discuss topics such as the recent ADA Amendments, the new FMLA regulations, legislation President Obama is likely to sign in 2009, the crush of wage and hour litigation, and handling employee layoffs and terminations in a difficult economy. Help prepare your organization for these issues by spending a couple of hours of your morning with KJK’s Labor and Employment Law attorneys.

The seminar will be held Wednesday, January 28, 2009, at The Club at Key Center located at 127 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44114. The agenda is as follows:

Presenters: Rob Gilmore, Alan Rauss, and Jon Hyman

Agenda
8:00-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-9:30 Presentation
9:30-10:00 Q&A

The event is free and parking will be provided.

If you are interested in attending, or for more information, please contact Andrea Hill, (216) 736-7234 or ach@kjk.com, by January 23, 2009.

Blawg Review of the Year nominations

For the uninitiated, Blawg Review is a weekly compilation of the prior week’s best posts from the legal blogosphere. It’s peer-reviewed, which means that each week a different blogger hosts the carnival. I had the pleasure of hosting Blawg Review #172 in August, which means that I’ve earned the right to vote for Blawg Review of the Year 2008. In chronological order, here are my votes:

Blawg Review #147, hosted by Rush Nigut of Rush on Business, for teaching me more than I ever thought I could know about Iowa’s geography.

Blawg Review #153, hosted by Declarations and Exclusions, because it’s always fun to talk like a pirate.

Blawg Review #164, hosted by cearta.ie, for transporting me back to the best vacation I’ve ever taken, my 2 weeks in Ireland.

Blawg Review #191, hosted by Likelihood of Confusion, for all of the little Jewish boys and girls who never had a Rankin-Bass holiday special to call their own.

Announcing the KJK Employment Law Breakfast Briefing

On Wednesday, January 28, 2009, Kohrman Jackson & Krantz will hold its inaugural Employment Law Breakfast Briefing: The Top 10 Labor & Employment Law Issues to Face Your Business in 2009.

Spend part of your morning with KJK’s Labor and Employment Law attorneys to learn about the emerging issues that will challenge your business and your employee relations in the coming year – the Employee Free Choice Act, the new FMLA regulations, the ADA Amendments Act, and other key issues. 2009 will likely be the most demanding year employers have faced in decades. Get a leg up on all of these changes in an informal discussion with KJK’s Labor & Employment team.

Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Time: 8:00-8:30 Continental Breakfast
          8:30-9:30 Presentation
          9:30-10:00 Q&As
Place: The Club at Key Center, 127 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44114

If you are interested in attending, or for more information, please contact Andrea Hill, (216) 736-7234 or ach@kjk.com, by January 23, 2009.

Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz

Blawg Review reminder

Just a quick reminder that I'll be hosting Blawg Review #172 this coming Monday, August 11. If you would like me to consider one of your posts for inclusion, or if you have a post that you've come across this week that you'd like to recommend, please follow this link to Blawg Review and for the submission guidelines.

Dads get FMLA leave too

Even though new dads have the same FMLA rights as new moms, technically I'm not on FMLA leave. I'll be in and out of the office over the next several weeks as we get acclimated to our new family member. New parents don't qualify for intermittent leave:

(a) Intermittent leave is FMLA leave taken in separate blocks of time due to a single qualifying reason. A reduced leave schedule is a leave schedule that reduces an employee's usual number of working hours per workweek, or hours per workday. A reduced leave schedule is a change in the employee's schedule for a period of time, normally from full-time to part-time.

(b) When leave is taken after the birth or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, an employee may take leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule only if the employer agrees. Such a schedule reduction might occur, for example, where an employee, with the employer's agreement, works part-time after the birth of a child, or takes leave in several segments. The employer's agreement is not required, however, for leave during which the mother has a serious health condition in connection with the birth of her child or if the newborn child has a serious health condition.

Donovan Joseph Hyman was born at 12:42 yesterday, 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and 18.25 inches. And, not that I'm biased, but he's the best looking baby in the nursery.

Two new ways to search the blogosphere go live

It's easy to get lost in the blogosphere. There are thousands of lawyers publishing blogs, and new blawgs launch everyday, each elbowing each other for room in an increasingly more crowded market.

Two services have recently launched to help keep it all straight. LexMonitor strives to be a comprehensive database of every blawg. It's organized by category, author, and tags, and is updated as frequently as blogs update their feeds. It touts itself as "a free daily review of law blogs and journals highlighting prominent legal discussion and the lawyers and other professionals participating in this conversation." It launched last Friday, and on my initial review over the weekend, I have to say I'm impressed so far, in its organization, scope, and what it hopes to achieve.

Law.alltop.com has been around a little longer. It thinks of itself as the “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. It imports the last five posts from the blogs it lists. It is not trying to catalogue every piece of information out there, but to provide a representative sample of the best of the blogosphere.

Because alltop.com is more selective in its listings than LexMonitor, it may be a less intimidating starting point for those starting out searching legal blogs. LexMonitor, however, is an ambitious project, and has real potential to become the portal for those searching for up to the minute legal information.

Because I'm listed on both services, I'm happy to plug them both. It's because I think that they each offer something of real value that I'm also happy to recommend them.

Carnival of HR #34 is available

Michael Moore's Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog is hosting this fortnight's Carnival of HR, the 34th edition, which is now available.

Everyone celebrate RSS Awareness Day

Today is May 1, which only means one thing -- it's RSS Awareness Day. For those of you who already subscribe to my feed, feel free to ignore this news. For those who don't, and either found me via a search engine, or maybe you just have me bookmarked and simply visit the site everyday, please click over to rssday.org and read about how subscribing to a blog's feed will greatly simplify your life. Then, please consider subscribing to the Ohio Employer's Law Blog to receive automatic updates of all of your employment law news.

Carnival of HR 30 is available

Please take a minute to surf over to Fortify Your Oasis and read this week's compilation of the blogosphere's best HR and employment relations posts.

Carnival of HR is available

Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Blog has posted this fortnight's Carnival of Human Resources. To quote Wally:

Stroll down the midway and you will find posts full of wit and wisdom that will delight, amaze, and educate. But wait, there's more. You'll also discover new blogs you'll want to read.

A couple of carnivals for everyone

Blawg Review #147 is available at Rush on Business, a friend of this blog that focuses on Iowa employment and business law. Blawg Reivew, for the unfamiliar, is a weekly review of the best law blog posts, hosted by a rotating cast of legal bloggers. Mark your calendars, as I'll be hosting Blawg Review #172 on August 11.

Meanwhile, HR Thoughts has this week's Carnival OF HR, highlighting various employment law and HR-related blog posts from the past 2 weeks.

Carnival of HR #26 is available

This post comes to you from the Holiday Inn Express in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Three Star Leadership Blog has posted the 26th Carnival of HR. It includes posts on predatory employees, the problems with bored employees, 10 ways to screw up a performance appraisal, and a post from yours truly on bullying bosses and unemployment compensation. I recommend that everyone take a few minutes to click over to the Carnival and read some of the best HR posts from the past few weeks.

Remedial measures do not have to be perfect to win harassment claim

Dan Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog posts today about treating harassment complaints seriously and taking appropriate action, but not overreacting.

Coincidentally, I make the same exact point in the February 2008 issue of InsideCounsel, discussing Brenneman v. Famous Dave's of America, a sexual harassment case I originally reported on in November:

The court recognized "a company doesn't have to be perfect," explains Jonathan Hyman, an employment lawyer with Kohrman Jackson & Krantz.

"So if a company gets a complaint of harassment, has an adequate policy, undertakes an investigation ... and then makes what it thinks is a reasoned remedial step to stop the harassment, courts much more often than not aren't going to second-guess what the company does. The remedial measures don’t have to be perfect either; they just have to be reasonable and adequate," he says.

Merry Christmas

To all of my readers who have made the first 7 months of the Ohio Employer's Law Blog such a success, and to those who have simply stumbled upon me by happy accident or random Google search, happy holidays and merry Christmas. Now put the mouse down, stop thinking about employment law, and enjoy your holiday. I'll be back on Boxing Day.

Some more shameless promotion

I commend to everyone's reading an article in this week's Business Insurance on the Huber v. Wal-Mart case that the Supreme Court last week decided to hear - High court to hear case on ADA job applicants. I has a collection of quotes from lawyers all over the country predicting how the Court will rule, including me:

Jonathan T. Hyman, an employer attorney with Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz P.L.L. in Cleveland, said he expects the court to rule in Wal-Mart's favor.

"I think it would be a dangerous precedent to write affirmative action into the ADA by saying you don't have to hire the most qualified person for a position," said Mr. Hyman. Hiring the most qualified person is "one of the cornerstones of employment law," he said.

Some shameless self-promotion

I'm quoted in an article in Business Insurance Magazine on the Greer-Burger vs. Temesi Ohio Supreme Court retaliation decision:

Jonathan T. Hyman, an employer attorney with Kohrman Jackson & Krantz P.L.L. in Cleveland, said the decision was correct.

The court “was basically balancing employees’ right against retaliation against anybody’s right under the First Amendment of the Constitution to petition the court and file a lawsuit,” said Mr. Hyman, who was not involved the case. “When you’re balancing degrees of importance, the Constitution is going to, and should, trump” the employee’s right against retaliation.

He added, though, that employers should “think long and hard” before filing such suits against employees. The employee’s attorney would likely allege that such a suit is retaliatory, he said.

Employers “face an uphill battle in the courtroom anyway” because those who serve on juries are more likely to be employees than employers, said Mr. Hyman.

To read the full article, click here.

Carnival of HR #21

The Carnival of HR (#21 for those keeping count) is available at Race in the Workplace. For those unfamiliar with the Carnival of HR, it is a traveling semimonthly compilation of the best HR-related posts in the blogosphere. Please jump on over to Race in the Workplace and support the efforts of the many bloggers who are linked.

Blawg Review #135 is worth your time

Blawg Review #135 is online, hosted this week on Transgender Workplace Diversity, a blawg devoted to law, politics, and policy issues for HR, diversity, and legal professionals. It is a conglomeration of an amazing number of posts from the past week on diversity, discrimination, and civil rights issues. Please jump on over and support the tremendous amount of effort Dr. Weiss put into this weeks Blawg Review.

Carnival of HR is available

This week's Carnival of HR is available courtesy of HRO Manager, a blog dedicated to information on human resources outsourcing. In addition to featuring two posts from yours truly, it discusses many other excellent HR and employment law posts from the blogosphere from the past two weeks. I encourage all of my readers to check out HRO Manager and the other blogs listed in the Carnival.

A little self promotion

I encourage everyone to check out this week's Carnival of HR hosted by The HR Capitalist, one of the truly excellent HR blogs. Kris has graciously linked to my post from a few weeks ago on Abdulnour v. Campbell Soup Supply Company and the importance of documenting performance issues.

If you want to stay on top of these posts, the best way to do it is by subscribing to my feed. I've made it easy for you by giving you two ways to have my musings delivered -- either in a reader (I'm partial to Google Reader), or by e-mail delivered to your inbox every time I post. I also encourage everyone to check out all of the links in my blogroll. The employment law and HR blogging community is flourishing, and all of the blogs listed have something worthwhile to read almost every day.