New York City Enacts Law Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Weight and Height
On May 26, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill into law expanding the list of characteristics that are protected under New York City's discrimination laws to include a person's weight and height. Weight and height now join 27 other characteristics including, race, gender, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, national ...
Georgia Lawyers seek Class Certification in Racial Bias in Attorney Discipline Suit
A group of Georgia lawyers, led my Marsha W. Mignott, seek class certification in their attempt to establish a unlawful pattern of discriminatory conduct toward African American attorneys under the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 42 U.S.C. 1981 in what they are describing as an "apartheid disciplinary process." Mignott is currently appealing ...
Texas Federal Judge Orders Lawyers to Certify Accuracy of Filings Drafted with Artificial Intelligence
Judge Brantley Starr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has issued a standing order requiring attorneys to include in all filings a certificate attesting either that (a) no portion of the filing was drafted by artificial intelligence (i.e., ChatGPT), or (b) that any language drafted by artificial intelligence was ...
Au-Pair Agency Not Entitled To Immunity For Violating Rights Under Fair Labor Standards Act
Morales Posada, an au-pair who worked through Cultural Care, Inc. initiated a lawsuit alleging that Cultural care is liable, as an employer of au-pairs, for failing to pay minimum wages and overtime pay under New York State law. Posada also alleges that Cultural Care failed to provide au-pairs with proper wage statements and failed to inform ...
SEC Issues Record-Setting Whistleblower Award
Earlier this month, the SEC announced its largest ever whistleblower award – nearly $279 million – which "led to the successful enforcement of SEC and related actions." SEC Press Release, accessible here. The nearly $279 million award is more than double the prior record of $114 million set in 2020. Further, there have only been three ...
Criminal Conviction in First NFT Insider-Trading Trial
On May 3, 2023, Nathaniel Chastain, former product manager of OpenSea, the largest market for non-fungible tokens ("NFTs"), was convicted by a jury of wire fraud and money laundering. The conviction was the first of its kind. As Bloomberg Law explained, "[u]nlike most traditional insider-trading cases, which are centered around securities-fraud ...
U.S. Supreme Court to Address Causation Standard for SOX Whistleblower Claims
On May 1, 2023, the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former UBS Securities LLC ("UBS" or the "Company") researcher, Trevor Murray. As such, the Supreme Court will soon hear argument in the whistleblower retaliation lawsuit filed by Murray against UBS, Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC. At ...
ANOTHER SUIT AGAINST CRYPTO: SEC SUES CRYPTO TRADING PLATFORM BEAXY
The negative press for crypto companies continues. On March 29, 2023, the SEC filed suit against Beaxy Digital, Ltd., a crypto trading platform, in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, "for failing to register as a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency." See SEC Press Release, "SEC Charges Crypto Trading ...
Anticipated Supreme Court Decision May Have a Significant Impact on an Employee’s Right to Receive a Religious Accommodation
On April 18, 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, a case involving (1) whether an employer can deny an employee a religious accommodation if the accommodation imposes "more than a de minimis cost" on the employer, and (2) whether an employer can demonstrate "undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business" ...
FTC Finalizes Consent Order against HomeAdvisor, Inc. For Deceptively Marketing Home Improvement Project Leads
On April 20, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final Decision and Order against HomeAdvisor, Inc., settling allegations that HomeAdvisor made various false, misleading, or unsubstantiated representations to service providers – including small businesses operating in the gig economy – about the quality, characteristics, and sources ...
Multiple Federal Agencies Address use of Artificial Intelligence in Business and Employment Practices
Several government agencies have recently announced plans to use existing regulatory structures to limit the extent to which automated systems and artificial intelligence are potentially resulting in illegal and unfair practices in both business and employment. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), ...
New York Expands Nursing Mothers’ Rights at Work
On December 9, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law expanding nursing mothers' rights at work. The new law (SB 4844B) will take effect June 7, 2023 and amends New York Labor Law § 206-c which only requires employers to give reasonable break times and make reasonable efforts to provide a private area for nursing mothers to take ...
U.S. Regulators Are Considering Revamped Rules After The Failure Of Silicon Valley Bank
According to statements by Michael Barr, the Federal Reserves' top regulator, made at a March 28, 2023 hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Fed is considering the possibility of new regulations following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") and follow-on ...
Can NFTs Be Securities? An Analysis of Friel v. Dapper Labs
In Friel v. Dapper Labs, Inc., 2023 WL 2162747 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2023), the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in denying a motion to dismiss a class action Complaint, held that sufficient allegations were made against Dapper Labs for violation of the securities laws by offering for sale certain non-fungible ...
State Attorneys General Advocate for Right-to-Repair Legislation
On March 24, 2023, the attorneys general of twenty-eight states sent a joint letter urging Congress to pass expansive Right-to-Repair legislation that would prevent original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") of automobiles, agricultural equipment, and digital electronic equipment from creating products as a closed system that cannot be repaired ...
Recent SDNY Case Highlights the Broad Protections that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act Provides to Victims
A recent decision in the action Teyo Johnson v. Everyrealm, Inc., et al. before the Southern District of New York demonstrates that broad protections victims are afforded under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act ("EFAA"). The EFAA makes a pre-dispute arbitration agreement invalid and unenforceable in ...
FTC Announces Proposed “Click to Cancel” Rule
On March 23, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") announced that it was proposing a new rule which would, among other things, make it easier for consumers to cancel certain subscriptions involving recurring payments. According to FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, "[t]he proposed rule would require that companies make it as easy to cancel a subscription ...
New York Paid Family Leave Law Expanded to Include Siblings
As of January 1, 2023, the New York Paid Family Leave Law (the "NYPFLL") expanded its protections to allow eligible employees to take paid time off to care for their siblings. Previously, the NYPFLL only allowed employees to take paid time off to care for spouses and domestic partners (of any gender), children, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, ...
Superseding Indictment Reveals Details Behind Sam Bankman-Fried's Alleged Scheme To Influence Washington Politics
A new indictment revealed last Thursday in the Southern District of New York charged Sam Bankman-Fried ("SBF") with additional financial crimes, and notably provided expansive details related to an unlawful political campaign donation scheme. The unsealed indictment provides details on how SBF allegedly donated tens of millions of dollars ...
Supreme Court to Decide Constitutionality of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Funding
On February 27, 2023, the Supreme Court agreed to decide a major case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ("CFPB") funding. The CFPB is a federal agency created under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank Act") in response to the 2008 financial crisis. It is an ...