Get fast-breaking new information to advise client employers and employees with the ISBA's informative hot-topic online seminar held from 1-2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12.  Civil litigators, business counselors, human rights attorneys, and labor/employment practitioners with basic to intermediate practice experience who attend this seminar will better understand: pandemic preparedness in the workplace and the American Disabilities Act; coronavirus and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act; new FMLA rules, including who is covered and what is available; concerted actions by angry employees; discrimination claims with selective stay-at-home orders and layoffs; employee healthcare privacy for workplace notices and statements; unemployment compensation benefits from a COVID-19 layoff or furlough; False Claims Act cases on the horizon; FLSA/IMWL wage issues; employer obligations to reimburse employees for necessary expenditures; First Amendment free speech rights under 42 USC §1983; workplace torts not covered by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation comparison of the Illinois and federal administrative processes; federal and state court venue options; federal court removal and arbitration considerations; and remedies available under the state and federal acts

In this Quick Takes for Your Practice video, attorney Rory Weiler discusses how to manage client relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorneys and their firms operate on both sides of the online consumer and data-collecting divide. We interact with all manner of websites and services, and therefore care that private information is safely managed. We also operate websites and services where consumers and our clients expect the same. Government regulation of personal information at state, national, and supranational levels is just beginning and cannot be ignored. Since websites know no geographic boundaries, attorneys—particularly those with firms that operate in multiple states or internationally—must educate themselves about these issues. In April’s Illinois Bar Journal’s Practice HQ column, “Don’t Be a Cookie Monster,” Affinity Consulting Group’s Jeffrey Schoenberger summarizes how website cookies work and an attorney’s obligation to be aware of the internet’s data-collecting nature.

Effective Jan. 1, 2020, Illinois’ Workplace Transparency Act requires employers to make changes to anti-harassment policies, incorporate an annual training program, make changes to employment and severance agreements, and report annually to the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Join us online from noon until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6 for this introductory look at the rights of employees and the new obligations of employers; how to identify harassing behaviors as defined by federal, state, and local laws; the venues, remedies, and damages available to current and former employees; and how to advise your clients on employee handbook revisions.