Welcome back to Labor of Law. This week, we've got arbitration on the mind, new guidance on sexual harassment, and a university says no thanks to graduate student union efforts. Send me your story ideas or just say hi: [email protected] or @erinmulvaney on Twitter.

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Arbitration on the Mind (and at SCOTUS)

No doubt, arbitration has played a key role in the corporate landscape in recent decades. More than half of private-sector employers have mandatory arbitration procedures, and 30 percent of these include class action waivers, the Economic Policy Institute reported in a study last year. All of this is high on the minds of lawyers as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether these agreements violate labor law. We'll get a decision soon—well, at least before the end of June. Dozens of major companies have disputes on hold—waiting for the high court.

Where do law firms come in? Many big firms have teams of attorneys who specialize in arbitration matters, and these issues will come into greater play soon as the justices resolve the trio of cases they heard back in October. Jackson Lewis, Seyfarth Shaw and Littler Mendelson, for instance, have practice groups for alternative dispute resolution or arbitration.

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart recently announced its arbitration and alternative dispute resolution practice. Christopher Murray, along with Jennifer Santa Maria, will lead the practice group. They told me the publicity driven by the Supreme Court litigation pushed the firm to concentrate on the area. Arbitration agreements will proliferate, Murray says, if the court upholds the class action waivers. If the ban stands, he says it will be relatively easy to create a class action and provide “an escape hatch.”

“There is quite a bit of uncertainty,” Murray tells me. “Everyone is just kind of waiting to see what happens. It's hard to launch a new program and then the court rules and changes the game.”

Last week, former Obama-era NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin, who argued the consolidated case before the Supreme Court in October, said on a Bloomberg Law panel that the #MeToo movement put the court case in a new light.

Trump's NLRB will have to face the fallout from however the Supreme Court rules this term on arbitration agreements. Speaking of the NLRB: Here's my report on the ethics agreement and financial disclosure from Morgan, Lewis and Bockius partner John Ring, picked to replace Philip Miscimarra.

Ring reported $2.7 million in partner and bonus income and disclosed a host of big-name clients, including Google, Amazon.com and Marriott International.

New Guidance on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will issue guidelines for the first time in two decades to address questions about harassment in the workplace. A panel of Littler Mendelson attorneys this week offered management perspective of what to consider. Littler shareholder Barry Hartstein in Chicago, co-chair of the firm's EEO and diversity practice group, put together a report outlining some of the highlights.

Here are some takeaways:

➤➤ “Zero tolerance” policies can pose problems. Some harassment claims might not be reported if the accuser does not want a colleague to lose his or her job.

➤➤ Harassment litigation: In the 2017 fiscal year that ended in September, 30 percent of the lawsuits filed by the EEOC alleged harassment. The Littler attorneys say this is sure to spike when the numbers roll in for 2018. Major cases included a $10 million settlement against two Ford Motor facilities in Chicago. (The New York Times had a takeout on that case.)

➤➤ “Superstar” employees, left unchecked, can foster harassment. Companies should avoid creating any special privileges that let some employees believe they are so valuable to the company they are above the rules.

Around the Water Cooler

Here's a rundown of headlines and happenings in the labor & employment world I'm reading right now…

Columbia University Says It Won't Bargain With Graduate Student Union
Columbia University said it would not bargain with its graduate students who voted to unionize more than a year ago—forcing the issue to the courts. This is one of the issues the NLRB will surely take up once it has a Republican majority. Other private universities may play similar stalling tactics. [NYT]

How the Finance Industry Is Trying to Cash In on #MeToo
Robert Kraus, an employment lawyer in New York, told the New York Times: “I would never recommend an individual finance his or her recovery. It is inconsistent for a lawyer, if he believes in a client's case, to recommend that he or she should limit their recovery.” [NYT]

Lawyers Faced With Emojis and Emoticons Are All ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
More ever than before, emojis are posing challenges for lawyers and judges, often in employment-related cases. “There are no limits to the emoji possibilities,” Debra Katz of Washington's Katz, Marshall & Banks said. “The reality is people are just going to keep using their technology to communicate.” [Wall Street Journal]

Three Considerations for Employers Conducting Harassment Investigations
“When did you know it? What did you do to prevent it? There is a whole host of things that companies need to be thinking about moving forward, given the current environment,” said Janie Schulman, a Morrison & Foerster partner in Los Angeles. [Corporate Counsel]

Contractors Get First Sit Down With Labor Dept. Auditor
Ondray Harris, director of the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, was set to meet this week face-to-face with contractors. “Stakeholders are looking forward to finally speaking with the person vested with power to address their concerns, which has included an industry-wide unease over the OFCCP's transparency and efficiency.” [Bloomberg Law]

Courts Get Discovery Guidance for Federal Wage Cases
The management of wage and hour cases just got a little easier for the federal judiciary. “The judiciary's research and education agency, the Federal Judicial Center, recently developed a set of protocols for plaintiffs and defendants in wage and hour cases to exchange information and documents early in litigation. [Bloomberg Law]

Trucks Headed for a Driverless Future
“Self-driving trucks threaten to disrupt the careers and lives of millions of professional truck drivers,” Steve Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, said. [Financial Times]

Abercrombie Agrees to Pay $25M Over Staff Clothing Claims
Requiring employees to wear clothes from the store pushed them below the minimum wage. The settlement reached in an Ohio appeals court covers 258,000 employees. [Law 360]

That's all for this week! Thanks for reading. Shoot me a note with story ideas or feedback. Always welcome: [email protected]