Welcome to Labor of Law. This week, we spotlight the emergence of lobbying practices at labor & employment firms and introduce you to the nominee for EEOC general counsel. Scroll down for who got the work on some of the biggest cases and scandals at Uber, Family Dollar and Fox News.

I'm Erin Mulvaney in Washington, D.C., covering labor and employment from the Swamp to Silicon Valley. Follow this weekly newsletter for the latest analysis and happenings. If you have a story idea, feedback or just want to say hi, I'm at [email protected] and on Twitter @erinmulvaney.

 

Lobbying On Labor Law

➤➤ Labor law firms are talking ever more publicly about boosting their lobbying games. The latest is Fisher Phillips, which this week announced the firm's new “advocacy program.” Seyfarth Shaw recently started a new government affairs and policy practice. Call it what you want—advocacy or influence—these firms are making it clear that having a voice in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill is a way to get ahead for clients. Other labor firms, including Ogletree Deakins and Littler Mendelson, have established lobbying practices.

State and local governments are moving quickly on issues including paid leave, minimum wage, right-to-work and equal pay. Law firms are responding to the call from companies who want a voice on these issues. Seyfarth hired Randy Johnson, former senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber.

Fisher Phillips announced this week it will launch FP Advocacy LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the national labor and employment firm. Benjamin Ebbink, of counsel in Sacramento, and Rick Grimaldi, partner in Philadelphia, will lead the group, which vowed to provide “premier legislative and regulatory advocacy.” The firm's internal announcement touted the decades of “inside” experience in the political process.

“The inner workings of government and the legislative process can be difficult to navigate for anyone who is not intimately familiar with the way these bodies work,” Ebbink said. “It is important that our business clients have representation from experienced professionals who essentially know how the sausage is made.”

Ebbink and Grimaldi have experience representing clients before regulatory agencies. Ebbink spent 15 years as the chief consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, where he played a role in major labor and employment issues in the progressive state. Grimaldi is former deputy general counsel to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge and former Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Grimaldi said clients called for a lobbying group as new laws and regulations have a significant impact. “These impacts can be positive or negative, so we work with our clients to ensure that they are heard before governments make changes that seriously impact business operations.”

Is your firm looking at the influence market? What are clients asking for? I'd love to hear some of your thoughts.

A 'Non-Traditional' Pick for EEOC General Counsel? Some Early Commentary.

➤➤ Sharon Gustafson, the Trump administration's pick for EEOC general counsel, began her career at Jones Day, but she has spent the last 20-plus years as a solo practitioner in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. and is widely known for her advocacy in a pregnancy discrimination suit against United Parcel Service that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gustafson isn't the management-side lawyer some might have expected from the Trump administration—as evidenced by picks for other key slots, including Peter Robb for NLRB general counsel. Gustafson has long represented both employers and employees.

There is already some skepticism about Trump's choice. “To the extent employers had expected the president to announce the appointment of a management-side defense lawyer as the next general counsel of the EEOC, this announcement is sure to prompt discussion amongst the employer community,” Seyfarth Shaw's Gerald Maatman andAndrew Scroggins said in a post. They added: “Ms. Gustafson's nomination continues the Trump administration's trend of somewhere non-traditional appointment announcements related to the EEOC.”

Gustafson, if confirmed, will join the EEOC at a time when the agency is poised for change. Trump's nominees to the EEOC, Janet Dhillon, former Burlington Stores Inc. general counsel, and West Point professor Daniel Gade, have not yet been confirmed. Bloomberg Law has more here on Gustafson.

Meanwhile… Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the National Women's Law Center this week filed a lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget to obtain documents about why the office halted a measure that would have expanded the EEOC's pay-data collection. A team from Dorsey & Whitney was also on the complaint, lodged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump administration officials have argued in a related court case that the suspension of the Obama-era pay data rule was lawful. “The EEOC has never collected—let alone published—the pay data of which plaintiffs now claim to be deprived,” Justice Department lawyers told a judge in February.

Who Got The Work

–> Attorneys for Fox News and Bill O'Reilly are fighting disparagement claims in New York federal court and have accused the women suing them of violating the terms of their settlement agreements. O'Reilly is represented by a team from Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney and Fox News is represented by Williams & Connolly. The women who accused O'Reilly are represented by Neil Mullin and Nancy Erika Smith at New Jersey-based Smith Mullin. The New York Times has more on the latest in this case.

–> A $45 million settlement was reached over a Family Dollar Stores, Inc. in a claim that women were paid less than men. The class was represented by Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis and Greg Jones P.A. Lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcherand Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson represented Family Dollar. The plaintiffs lawyers were awarded $15 million in legal fees. The settlement was approved March 14 in Western District of North Carolina.

–> Uber has been accused of attempting to silence claim of sexual harassment. “Uber can hide for years in arbitration, allowing the horror stories of violent gender aggression to be silenced, while the harm increases,” Jeanne Christensen ofWigdor LLP said in an amended complaint against Uber. A team from Perkins Coie represents Uber in the case in San Francisco federal district court. The Guardian has more here on the litigation.

 

Around the Water Cooler

➤ Plaintiffs firms held in contempt over OT suit targeting Chipotle. U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in Texas handed down the contempt ruling against four lawyers from Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Outten & Golden, along with local counsel in New Jersey, Glen Savits of Green Savits. The suit against Chipotle tested the scope of an injunction freezing the Obama-era overtime rule. [American Lawyer]

➤ A problem for gig economy workers. My colleague Gabrielle Orum Hernández writes that managing cybersecurity risk is an increasingly difficult problem in the 21st century but the rise of the on-demand economy has made it even more unwieldy. [Law.com]

➤ Microsoft addresses sexual harassment in the workplace claims. Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan points to “misleading” information in the media about how the company handles complaints of harassment. She's referring to coverage of a class action suit against the tech giant. She makes her case here. [Microsoft News]

➤ Secrecy at the White House. President Trump has a long history of using nondisclosure agreements as a businessman. It's a common practice in business, but critics say they should stay out of the West Wing. [NPR]

➤ Joint employer drama with the McDonald's case. The National Labor Relations Board is pushing to settle a major workplace action involving McDonald's, which was the first test of a rule passed under the Obama-era board that defined joint employment. An administrative law judge plans to hold a hearing in April on the proposed resolution. [Bloomberg]

➤ Google touts equal pay but with an asterisk. Google released salary information disclosure that it said found no significant difference in what it pays its male and female employee. Yet, the data may be incomplete. [Bloomberg]

➤ White men put diversity in the spotlight. Two high-profile cases against YouTube and Google have been brought by white men, pointing to the major companies' efforts to draw more women and people of color. [Wall Street Journal]

That's all for this week! Shoot me a note with any tips or feedback: [email protected]. Thanks for reading.