WSNYC Blog: The Latest in Employment Law

Partner Rachel Haskell was recently interviewed by Law360 about the federal discrimination lawsuit our firm filed on behalf of Brandon Padgett, a former paralegal at Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson LLP. Haskell’s comments were featured in an article discussing the case. Padgett is accusing the company of discrimination based on his non-binary gender identity and military status. In one instance, an employee in a different department allegedly called him “Beyonce.” After Padgett reported this comment to HR, the company organized a

Coinbase, the cryptocurrency start-up based in San Francisco, has recently made headlines following accusations made by current and former employees alleging racial and gender discrimination in the workplace. As we discussed in our previous blog on Coinbase, “the company’s internal racial tensions escalated in the wake of George Floyd and Brionna Taylor’s deaths as several black employees in the tech industry demonstrated their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.” Female employees have also spoken out about their experience with

Expertise, an online service that connects users with the best local services in a wide array of fields, recently included our firm on its list of “Best Employment Lawyers in New York” for 2021. The company scored 3,113 lawyers based on availability, qualifications, reputation, experience, and professionalism. 

We are proud to say that The Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis made the top 29 out of these 3,113 employment lawyers. Expertise gave us an A+ rating in the “reputation” category and

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their December data last Friday. In the United States, 140,000 net jobs were lost last month. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), a non-profit that fights against gender-discrimination, said that “All of the jobs lost were women’s jobs, with women losing 156,000 jobs and men gaining 16,000.” This data means that women account for 111% of the jobs lost in December of 2020. There is a clear disparity between the genders on this issue.

Google was subject to some criticism last month after firing one of its senior-level artificial-intelligence computer scientists, Timnit Gebru, for sending an email alluding to the company’s mistreatment of minority employees. Gebru, who held the position of a co-leader in Google’s Ethical AI Team in Silicon Valley, led and fostered research that assisted in raising the company’s status as a pioneer in the tech industry. According to the Washington Post, Gebru worked amongst a racially homogeneous group and was driven

As the Coronavirus Pandemic rages on, many people are wondering how life might change after a vaccine is widely available. Over the last ten months, the pandemic has drastically changed the American workplace, with 42% of the American workforce working remotely. While some employees enjoy the flexibility of working from home, others prefer a traditional office environment. Since many employees have shown that they can successfully work remotely during the pandemic, it’s likely that remote work will remain in some

Last Tuesday, a New York State appeals court denied Lyft’s attempt to overturn New York City’s minimum wage rules for e-hail drivers.  In 2018, the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) released guidelines establishing the first minimum wage for app-based drivers in the US, setting minimum per-trip charges that guaranteed drivers would earn at least $17.22, which includes minimum wage ($15) plus payroll taxes ($2.22). In 2019, Lyft had argued that the rules set forth by the TLC were biased towards

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the nation to its core, leaving virtually no one unaffected. Working women have been particularly impacted during this time. Not only have women been more likely to lose their jobs than men during the pandemic, but women working from home have also suddenly found themselves simultaneously juggling full time jobs and childcare as many schools move online. What are the results of these changes? According to an annual report published by McKinsey & Company and

On December 9, Mayor de Blasio announced that beginning January 1, 2021, New York City employers with 100 or more workers are now required to provide 56 hours of paid sick leave, an increase from the previous 40 hour requirement. He also stated that employers with four or fewer workers must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave. Additionally, domestic workers must be given up to 40 hours of paid sick time, an increase from the two days