Drop and Give Me Thirty (Or Fourteen If You’re a Woman)—Is This Discrimination?

the situation Physical fitness is a necessary component for certain jobs in your organization and so you develop a physical fitness assessment for prospective employees. Based on a thorough analysis of gender norms and abilities, you determine specific standards—which are different for men and women. A male is unable to complete one of the tasks […]

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Transgender Employee Fired for Clear Policy Violation—Is Employer Still At Risk For Title VII Claim?

the situation An employee informs you that she is going through a gender transition and then a few months later you catch her sleeping on the clock. After you terminate her (just like you have terminated others who engaged in similar conduct), she claims that you discriminated against her based upon her sex in violation […]

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Exotic Dancers—Independent Contractors or Employees?

the situation A private club enters into independent contractor agreements with a number of exotic dancers which state that they can choose the days they work, along with their dance routines and songs. The agreements also provide that the dancers keep all the tips they earn while performing and half of each “couch dance” fee […]

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Millions in Damages for Unpaid Bathroom Breaks?

the situation Your policy requires that each employee log in and out of his computer whenever taking any sort of break. Employees are then paid just for the time they are logged into their computers. Is this okay?

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Can a Temp From a Staffing Company Bring a Title VII Claim Against You?

the situation You engage a temporary staffing company to provide you with some temporary laborers to help during a particularly busy time period. Under the arrangement with the staffing company, you pay the staffing company only and they pay the temps. You are not responsible for setting the pay rate, paying the taxes, or getting […]

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Date of Mailing Doesn’t Save Payment Bond Claim

In a case of first impression in Virginia, the circuit court in Norfolk confirmed that the date of mailing is meaningless to satisfy notice requirements on a state law payment bond claim. The date that matters is the one on which the general contractor receives the notice. Under the Little Miller Act in Virginia, a […]

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Court Orders Arbitration of Patent License Dispute

Virginia federal courts still err in favor of arbitration in business cases, even where parties take measures to avoid it. In University of Virginia Patent Foundation v. DynaVox, where a patent licensee refused to pay royalties on grounds that its products were not covered by the patent, a Virginia federal court held that the dispute […]

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Your Employees Agreed to Comply with the Employee Handbook—So Can’t You Hold Them to it?

the situation Your employee handbook requires that employees submit all employment issues to an internal dispute resolution process and then arbitration and provides that employees waive all rights to bring a lawsuit and to a jury trial. You provide a copy of the employee handbook to all employees and require that they sign a statement […]

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Applicants with more than five years of experience need not apply. Could this be a problem?

the situation You have a job vacancy—and it is one that you think best suits an applicant without a ton of experience. In an effort to narrow the field to just those candidates who fit the bill in terms of experience, you post the vacancy online and include as one of the qualifications that the […]

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Best Law Firm Ranking by U.S. News

CWM earned a Tier 1 Metropolitan Ranking for the 2016 listing of “Best Law Firms” by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in three practice areas: Admiralty & Maritime Law, Eminent Domain & Condemnation Law, and Project Finance. The firm also received a Tier 2 Ranking in Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Law, Bankruptcy […]

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