Blog: The California Workplace Advisor

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has formally withdrawn its defense of the nationwide non-compete ban, a signature rule of the Biden-era agency. The ban, intended to curb restrictive employment contracts and enhance worker mobility, faced immediate legal challenges—most notably from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business coalitions—which questioned the FTC’s authority to impose…

Last week, the Trump administration introduced a series of executive orders aimed at reducing the scope of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives within federal agencies and among private employers working with the government. These new orders focus on curtailing programs that the administration believes may lead to reverse discrimination or violate principles of merit-based…

In a dramatic expansion of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault & Sexual Harassment Act (“EFAA”), two recent California Court of Appeal decisions have held that plaintiffs can avoid being compelled to arbitration so long as their lawsuit contains at least an allegation of sexual assault or harassment. Background In the wake of the…

OVERVIEW Opportunities for student-athletes to benefit from use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) have opened up under new NCAA rules adopted in the face of pressure from state laws challenging NCAA’s former prohibition on student-athletes profiting from their own NIL. As of July 1, 2021, student-athletes who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent…

Overlapping but fundamentally different legal developments in the last few weeks have transformed how the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) defines and applies “amateurism” – the core concept by which the NCAA’s more than 1000 member institutions and conferences collectively relate to college athletes, define and limit their rights, and seek to differentiate college athletics…