Expert Analysis

• Pa.'s Changing Employment Laws In 2022 And Beyond

  

  With pandemic concerns no longer drowning out other topics in Pennsylvania employment law, 2022 instead saw a variety of worker-friendly changes introduced at the state and local levels, a trend that may continue to grow in 2023 under Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, say J.T. Holt and Claire Throckmorton at Reed Smith.

• A High-Profile Year For The WARN Act

  

  The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act, received an uncharacteristic amount of attention in 2022, which saw the resolution of several earlier filed pandemic-related cases and a nascent class action filed by former Twitter employees, say Tyler Hendry and Barbara Roth at Herbert Smith.

• Opinion

  Increasing Law Firm Polarization Will Degrade Rule Of Law

  

  As evidenced in recent instances of law firms separating from attorneys who represented certain industries or espoused certain views, firms and the legal practice itself have grown troublingly polarized and intolerant of dissent, says Rebecca Roiphe at New York Law School.

• Musician Classification Pointers For Wash. Hospitality Cos.

  

  Following a recent increase in audits by the Washington State Employment Security Department concerning hospitality employers’ classification of musical performers, businesses are strongly encouraged to assess state law requirements governing their relationship with hired talent and ensure written contracts are in place, say Emily Bushaw and Shannon McDermott at Perkins Coie.

• Consumer Analysis Techniques For Partitioned Pricing Cases

  

  Against the backdrop of recent regulatory and litigation activity targeting add-on charges for products and services, it is important to understand the role of economics and marketing data in assessing whether and how a challenged partitioned pricing design affected consumers, say Ashish Pradhan and Alex Yavorsky at Cornerstone Research.

• How To Deal With Difficult Clients, Practically And Ethically

  

  Meredith Stoma at Lewis Brisbois discusses common obstacles for counsel working with difficult clients and provides guidance on ethically managing or terminating these challenging relationships — as, for example, counsel for Ye have recently done.

• Opinion

  Federal Courts Should Adopt Supreme Court's Amicus Stance

  

  The federal courts of appeals should adopt the U.S. Supreme Court's new approach to amicus curiae briefs, which allows the friend-of-the-court submissions to be filed without consent from the court or the parties, says Lawrence Ebner at Atlantic Legal Foundation.

• What New Federal Child Sex Abuse Law Changes For Plaintiffs

  

  Though the recently passed Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act now gives adult abuse survivors an alternate venue for seeking justice by filing federal civil suits decades after childhood incidents, the law is not without faults, says Douglas Rochen at Abir Cohen.

• 3 Pricing Trends In Law Firm Use Of Litigation Funding

  

  As BigLaw firms increasingly include litigation funding as a financing option for clients, internal pricing groups are taking the lead on standardizing and centralizing firm processes, and aggregating risk budgets, says Brendan Dyer at Woodsford Group.

• 6 Ways Hotel Management Agreements Changed In 2022

  

  While the hospitality industry has climbed back from — and in some ways surpassed — pre-pandemic metrics, this year’s backdrop of global financial instability has led hotel owners and operators to change how they address hotel management agreements in a few key areas, say Michael Kosmas and Heather Purdy at Stroock.

• Safeguarding Attorneys' Greatest Asset: Our Mental Health

  

  Attorneys who understand that mental fitness is their most valuable characteristic should prioritize mental health care accordingly, including with certain activities they may not realize qualify as self-care, says Wendy Robbins at Holland & Knight.

• NYC's New Law Is A Game Changer For Short-Term Rentals

  

  On Jan. 9, strict new regulations controlling New York City's short-term rental industry will take effect, likely giving landlords the upper hand in addressing what has been one of the city's least-regulated industries, say Adam Lindenbaum and Collin Chipetine at Rosenberg & Estis.

• A Promising Structure For Multiunit Franchise Acquisitions

  

  For investors looking to capitalize on the continued strength of franchise businesses, one potential acquisition structure based around an operating company and a property company may allow for efficient and flexible operations, say attorneys at Allen Matkins.

• Opinion

  Law Schools Are Right To Steer Clear Of US News Rankings

  

  By opting out of participating in the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings, law schools abandon a profoundly flawed system and free up their resources to adapt to the tsunami of changes overtaking the profession, says Nicholas Allard at Jacksonville University College of Law.

• Opinion

  Litigation Funders Seek Transparency In Disclosure Debate

  

  Litigation funders want to correct the record on calls for funding disclosure in the name of transparency, as this purported justification obscures the disclosure's adverse effects — prejudicing plaintiffs' cases and discouraging the assertion of meritorious legal claims, say Dai Wai Chin Feman and William Weisman at Parabellum Capital.