Welcome to Labor of Law, and we hope you, family, friends and colleagues are safe in the virus era. On tap this week: How law firms are managing their workforce amid the coronavirus crisis. Plus: two new arbitration rulings in the U.S. appeals courts caught my eye, and the big U.S. Soccer pay-bias trial is pushed back. Scroll down for headlines and Who Got the Work.

Have you bought anything for your home office? And what will the workplace look like when we all return?

Thanks for reading, and your feedback is appreciated. I'm Mike Scarcella in Washington, and you can reach me at [email protected] and on Twitter @MikeScarcella.

Pay Cuts, Layoffs, and More: How Law Firms Are Managing the Pandemic

Reduced draws and salaries. Furloughed staff. Freezes on discretionary spending. Diminished work hours.

Major law firms are adopting drastic measures to shore up their finances and mitigate the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, businesses across industries are confronting workforce issues as the coronavirus crisis deepens.

ALM's posted a roundup—read it here on Law.com—showing how firms are responding to the virus threat. We will continue to update the list as the crisis continues.

Meanwhile, small and midsize law firms are rushing to claim a share of $350 billion in government-backed loans to keep their payrolls afloat, but some are finding that their business models pose a special obstacle, my colleague David Thomas reports at Law.com.

Over at ALM's Property Casualty 360, two Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker partners have an expert piece up titled Managing Employer Risk in the Age of the Coronavirus.

Two New US Appeals Court Arbitration Rulings

Federal appeals courts recently issued two rulings on arbitration matters—both in favor of management—that caught my eye. The Fifth Circuit withdrew a panel decision that benefited the worker; the new panel that heard the case, ruling on the briefs, sided with the employer. In the Fourth Circuit, a panel reversed a trial judge's ruling that stopped arbitration.

>> Cathy Bowles v. OneMain Financial (Fifth Circuit): "We hold that the district court correctly rejected Bowles's meeting of the minds argument and correctly held that her procedural unconscionability1 challenge must be decided by an arbitrator, not the courts." The court stated in a footnote about the odd posture of the case: "Further examination of Mississippi law has given us a more complete view and convinced us that the earlier opinion was in error." Bowles was represented by Kenneth Rector of Bailess & Rector.

OneMain Financial was represented by Kim Hodges of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. Read the new opinion (and the older, now withdrawn one).

>> Shannon Ashford v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (Fourth Circuit): "The Federal Arbitration Act expresses a strong policy in favor of arbitration. Based on that, the Supreme Court and our Court have consistently held that contractual provisions capable of being reasonably read to call for arbitration should be construed in favor of arbitration. Following our precedent, we construe the arbitration provision in the employment agreement between Shannon Ashford and PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP to require arbitration of Ashford's Title VII claims," the appeals court said. Read the opinion.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Helgi Walker, co-chair of the firm's administrative law and regulatory practice group, argued for PwC. Walker faced off against John Ormond Jr. of the Columbia, South Carolina, firm Ormond Dunn.

If you missed it, check out this recent NYT piece: 'Scared to Death' by Arbitration: Companies Drowning in Their Own System. "Travis Lenkner, a lawyer in Chicago, had a similar realization. Arbitration clauses bar employees at many companies from joining together to mount class-action lawsuits. But what would happen, Mr. Lenkner wondered, if those workers started filing tens of thousands of arbitration claims all at once? Many companies, it turns out, can't handle the caseload." [NYT]

While we're here talking about federal appeals courts… there's a new First Circuit ruling this week that addressed a non-solicitation clause. The employee lost.

U.S. Women's Soccer Trial Is Pushed to June

A federal trial judge has moved from May to June 16 the trial in the U.S. women's soccer case against the U.S. Soccer Federation. A pretrial conference is scheduled for June 1.

The firms in the case—Winston & Strawn for the plaintiffs and Latham & Watkins for U.S. Soccer—had asked the cour

"This matter is currently set for trial on May 5, 2020. The parties have been working diligently to comply with all deadlines in this case leading up to the trial, notwithstanding the current COVID-19 pandemic. They have taken two expert depositions via remote technology and have several more scheduled in the coming days. They have conducted necessary meet-and-confer discussions remotely. They have also complied with other deadlines, such as those governing exhibit and witness lists, depositions designations and objections, jury instructions, memoranda of contentions of fact and law, among other things. They intend to continue their efforts to advance the litigation as much as possible under the current circumstances."

The Winston & Strawn team for the plaintiffs: Jeffrey Kessler, co-executive chairman of the firm; David Feher; Cardelle Spangler; Diana Leiden; Jeanifer Parsigian; and Lev Tsukerman. The Soccer Federation is represented by Latham & Watkins, including partners Jamie Wine and Michele Johnson, global chair of the litigation and trial department.

Who Got the Work

>> DLA Piper partner Anthony Todaro and associate Joseph Davison represented Community Health Systems, Inc. and Rockwood Clinics P.S. in a whistleblower case at the U.S. Labor Department. Mary Schultz in Spangle, Washington, represented the complainant. An administrative panel said the case recently settled.

>> Kirkland & Ellis partner K. Winn Allen argued for Honeywell International in a benefits dispute in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The panel concluded Honeywell collective bargaining agreements did not provide full, lifetime costs of its retirees' health insurance premiums. John G. Adam of Legghio & Israel argued for the UAW,

>> Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart shareholder Elizabeth Falcone represented Target Corp. in an EEOC settlement. The company "will pay $45,000 and make changes to its hiring and training practices to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission," the agency said. Read the consent decree here.

>> "General Electric Co. and Canon Business Process Services Inc. failed to protect the personal information of hundreds of thousands of current and former GE employees and their beneficiaries, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court," Bloomberg Law reports. The California firm Bursor & Fisher filed the complaint. The firm, working with Mason Lietz & Klinger, filed a related complaint Tuesday in the Southern District of New York.

Around the Water Cooler…

Covid-19

Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky Over Fired Employee: 'I Let My Emotions … Get the Better of Me'. In response to reports that he derided a Long Island warehouse worker who organized a strike over working conditions, Amazon Inc. general counsel David Zapolsky said he was "frustrated and upset." "My comments were personal and emotional," Zapolsky said in a statement. "I was frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus Covid-19. I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me." [Law.com] More reading here at Law.com: Amazon General Counsel's Leaked Comments Could Fuel Retaliation, Race Discrimination Claim

Gaps in Amazon's Virus Response Fuel Warehouse Workers' Demands. "The challenge is keeping enough people on the job to fill those orders, according to more than 30 Amazon warehouse workers and current and former corporate employees who spoke with The New York Times. (Many requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and feared losing their jobs.) For all of its high-tech sophistication, Amazon's vast e-commerce business is dependent on an army of workers operating in warehouses they now fear are contaminated with the coronavirus." [NYT]

As Coronavirus Spreads, So Do Reports of Companies Mistreating Workers. "Since the viral pandemic started ravaging the country in recent weeks, workers, unions and attorneys are seeing a dramatic rise in cases they say illustrate a wave of bad employer behavior, forcing workers into conditions they fear are unsafe, withholding protective equipment and retaliating against those who speak up or walk out." [The Washington Post]

Emergency Paid-Leave Law Could Trigger 'Big-Time Litigation.' "Attorneys on both sides of labor and employment cases warn that companies should prepare for a potential onslaught of private litigation from workers covered by new paid-leave mandates under federal coronavirus-relief law." [Bloomberg Law]

As Virtual Happy Hours Get Old, Employers Seek Fresh Ways to Engage Remote Workers. "As many companies start to contemplate working from home for a few more weeks at least, they are trying to find strategies beyond virtual happy hours to keep their workers feeling connected. Employees' experiences at work affect business results, executives say—including, and perhaps especially, when nobody can actually go to work. Companies should be flexible on deadlines and other matters, offer useful perks such as gift cards to local restaurants that deliver, and communicate as much as possible without making everything a video call, said Roberta Matuson, an executive coach." [WSJ]

How Gig Workers Are Weathering the Virus Shutdown. "From a caterer whose event-based business lost the next two months of bookings, to a production assistant hoping his food-delivery gig allows him to keep paying the bills, workers have had to adjust their routines—sometimes drastically—as they cope with economic uncertainty. Here are their stories." [NYT]

Gig-Worker Classification in the Age of COVID-19. "Of course, gig workers, like other Americans, are feeling the strain of the COVID-19 health crisis and economic slowdown, and gig-economy companies should do all they can to help the workers through these trying times. But no gig worker will lose his or her job because of the crisis—not in any traditional sense. Rather, when the demand for rideshare and other services returns, they will be able to provide their services by clicking on the app, just as they did before. That is the hallmark of an independent contractor," Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Joshua S. Lipshutz and Michael Holecek write. [The Recorder]

'Contact Tracing' Could Free America From Its Quarantine Nightmare. Millions of Americans—many of whom might be deeply skeptical of government surveillance, or Big Tech—may become participants in a national project to track their own movements and interactions, to help public-health experts map out the spread of an invisible enemy. [The Atlantic]

Workers' Leave, Sick Pay Among Top Employer Concerns in Age of COVID-19. One of employers' biggest concerns these days is figuring out leave and sick pay policies for the workplace under ever-changing federal guidelines, according to a new flash survey, my colleague Sue Reisinger reports. Nearly 9 out of 10 respondents said they were grappling with whether to pay employees during absences related to the coronavirus, according to Littler Mendelson's COVID-19 survey. [Corporate Counsel]

Federal agencies

EEOC Picks Mix Civil Rights, Business Litigation Experience. "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with combating workplace discrimination, is poised for a revamp of its leadership panel if the Senate signs off on a three-nominee package that balances Republican and Democratic interests in an effort to avoid partisan pitfalls. Two Republican nominees—Gibson Dunn lawyer Andrea Lucas and Labor Department official Keith Sonderling—have experience defending corporate clients like Ford Motor Co. against accusations of bias from women and minority workers, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of their case work. But neither has litigated a discrimination claim on behalf of a worker." [Bloomberg Law] Read the financial disclosure here filed by Lucas.

How Justice Alito Signaled Defeat for the Justice Dept. in Key Age-Bias Case. There are rare moments in oral arguments when a U.S. Supreme Court justice's statement becomes a "make or break" sign for an advocate's case. Justice Samuel Alito Jr. signaled the government's defeat during such a moment in a key job bias case the court decided on Monday—and written by Alito, my colleague Marcia Coyle writes. [Law.com]

Thomas Balks as High Court Rejects Challenge to Agency Power. "Justice Clarence Thomas signed a plaintive dissent Monday as the Supreme Court turned down a challenge to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's investigatory powers." [Courthouse News Service]

Companies Cite New Government Benefits in Cutting Workers. "Equinox joins a number of companies, including Macy's Inc. and Steelcase Inc. that are citing the federal government's beefed-up unemployment benefits as they furlough or lay off staff amid the coronavirus pandemic. The stimulus package is changing the calculus for some employers, which can now cut payroll costs without feeling they are abandoning their employees." [Wall Street Journal]

The Federal Government, Stressed by the Coronavirus, Seeks to Hire and Retain Workers Through Incentives. "With many federal agencies taking on increasing workloads in response to the coronavirus, the government has opened a tool kit of exceptions to its standard policies on hiring, assigning and paying federal employees. However, the government is not yet ready to make available to its employees new paid sick leave related to the pandemic that took effect, on paper at least, last week." [The Washington Post]

Courts and cases

Walmart Faces Lawsuit Over Worker's Death From Coronavirus Complications. "The legal complaint, one of the first such cases publicly known against the retailer, alleges that Walmart failed to properly respond to symptoms of COVID-19 among several workers at the store. It also alleges the company failed to share this information with workers and to safeguard them with gloves and other protections, or to enforce appropriate distancing, among other measures." Walmart said in a statement: "We take this issue seriously and will respond with the court once we have been served with the complaint." [NPR]

Court Orders Maryland Company to Restore $28 Million to Employee Benefit Plans. "A federal judge in Maryland has ordered a Bethesda-based company to restore more than $28 million to health benefit plans it sold to more than 100 employers. Brendan Turner and Susanne Sheil, former executives of the now defunct WH Administrators, failed to pay millions in medical expenses for plan participants and denied legitimate claims from plan holders, according to the court order." [The Washington Post]

'No Heroes in the Story of This Case': Judge Turns Back Bid for Injunction Against Lyft. A federal judge denied an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction on behalf of Lyft drivers asking the court to reclassify them as employees to qualify for California's emergency sick leave. In an order chastising both plaintiffs and the ridesharing company, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California on Tuesday affirmed his tentative ruling issued prior to a hearing last week, my colleague Alaina Lancaster reports. [Law.com]