EEOC Charges: What They Are, and How to Deal With Them

This is notice that a charge of employment discrimination has been filed against your organization… Getting an EEOC charge is a moment most employers would rather avoid, but it is also a familiar part of managing a modern workplace. EEOC charges of… Read More
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Don’t Take It Personally: Handling Workplace Complaints Without Creating Liability

Business owners pour years of blood, sweat, and tears into building their companies. Managers invest their time and energy in leading and supporting their teams. Given that level of personal investment, it is understandable that workplace complaints… Read More
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Paying De Minimis Overtime

How granular is the FLSA’s requirement to pay overtime? Let’s say an employee is in the middle of editing a document for work and, rather than stopping short at 5pm, goes until 5:05. Do you have to pay time-and-a-half for those extra five minutes… Read More
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How To Reduce Legal Risk With Consistent Consistency

Consistency in employment practices is a strong safeguard against legal risk. Nine out of ten employment attorneys agree that consistency is crucial to avoiding liability. Ok, that’s not true. Ten out of ten employment attorneys agree that “it de… Read More
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When Restrictive Covenants Meet Reality: A Maryland Trade Secrets Case Study (Part II)

In Part I, I examined the court’s March 2025 opinion in TK Elevator Corporation v. Drzewiecki, which granted injunctive relief on TKE’s claim for breach of a restrictive covenant but denied relief on its trade secret claims for lack of specificit… Read More
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When Restrictive Covenants Meet Reality: A Maryland Trade Secrets Case Study (Part I)

Employers often view restrictive covenants like insurance—a protective measure you hope never to need, but that helps you sleep at night. Their real value, though, is measured not when they are signed, but when they are tested in practice. That tes… Read More
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When Off-Duty Behavior Follows Employees Back to Work

Can a company discipline, or even terminate, an employee who misbehaves outside of work? Here’s the scenario: a warehouse operations supervisor at a Maryland distribution company disciplines an employee for repeated safety violations and insubordin… Read More
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Reducing the Risk of and Surviving a DOL Wage and Hour Audit

What risk does an employer face from failing to pay employees correctly under the federal minimum wage and overtime laws of the Fair Labor Standards Act? Companies who are interested in the answer might ask one of the 176,957 employees who received b… Read More
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Protecting Your Company’s Competitive Edge: Trade Secrets, Confidentiality, and Employment Restrictive Covenants

We live in a data-driven and informational world. It is no surprise, then, that for many companies, the most valuable asset is information. Think customer lists, pricing strategies, internal business processes, and proprietary technology. This inform… Read More
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What Employment Agreements Are, and What They’re Not

“Employee is expected to serve as a positive role model.” Employers often ask the wrong question when it comes to drafting their employment agreements: Is this legal? The real question is: Do you really want it in there? That’s because the purp… Read More
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