Geoffrey A Mort

April 17, 2019 | New York Law Journal

Lawyers who are used to litigating their cases in federal court—and are comfortable with attempting to dispose of the great majority of them through summary judgment or, to a lesser extent, motions to dismiss—have sought to use dispositive motions as a primary tool in arbitrations.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

9 minute read

April 03, 2018 | New York Law Journal

What originally was seen as one of the most restrictive medical marijuana laws in the country, viewed by some as so narrow and limited in scope that it was intended to fail, has evolved considerably as the atmosphere in the United States with regard to legal access to marijuana has changed.

By Geoffrey A. Mort and Desiree Gustafson

8 minute read

December 01, 2016 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort, of Kraus & Zuchlewski, examines prospects for the federal circuit courts of appeals to ban sexual orientation discrimination with a particular look at the Seventh Circuit decision in 'Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College'. The Hively decision ultimately concluded that sexual orientation claims are not cognizable under Title VII, but only after an unusually long and painstaking analysis of this issue in which the court opined that its finding "will not hold up under future rigorous analysis" and that "[i]t seems unlikely that our society can continue to condone a legal structure in which employees can be fired...and otherwise discriminated against solely based on how they date, love, or marry." Approximately 10 weeks later, however, the Seventh Circuit on Oct. 11 surprisingly vacated its prior ruling in a two-sentence order and granted the plaintiff's motion for an en banc rehearing.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

16 minute read

August 12, 2016 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort analyzes the Second Circuit's recent reversal of summary judgment granted in a Title VII failure-to-hire gender discrimination case. In doing so, the court focused on an issue that has arisen over the years in a number of other employment discrimination cases involving summary judgment motion—the extent to which a district court must view the plaintiff's evidence as a whole, as opposed to in fragments, in deciding such motions.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

14 minute read

March 04, 2016 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort writes: After nearly three years of political skirmishing, the state Legislature passed and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed, on Oct. 21, 2015, a package of eight bills known collectively as the Women's Equality Act. Taken together, the new laws seem likely to change the employment law landscape in New York, almost certainly in favor of employees.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

11 minute read

November 05, 2015 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort writes: Although courts commonly enforce restrictive covenants if an employee voluntarily leaves and uses skills developed at the prior employer to establish a competing business, situations where an employer terminates an employee and then seeks to enforce a restrictive covenant present a more difficult and troubling question.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

9 minute read

November 04, 2015 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort writes: Although courts commonly enforce restrictive covenants if an employee voluntarily leaves and uses skills developed at the prior employer to establish a competing business, situations where an employer terminates an employee and then seeks to enforce a restrictive covenant present a more difficult and troubling question.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

9 minute read

November 03, 2014 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort discusses the National Labor Relations Board general counsel's July ruling that McDonald's is a joint employer of those who work for its roughly 14,000 franchised restaurants in the United States, which continues to send ripples through both the legal and business worlds.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

10 minute read

May 21, 2014 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort writes: There is little doubt that the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act has had a fairly significant impact on the workplace in New York state, where the courts have, for the most part, been willing to enforce it.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

9 minute read

February 10, 2012 | New York Law Journal

Geoffrey A. Mort, of counsel at Kraus & Zuchlewski, writes that although executives and senior managers are infrequently defendants in faithless servant actions, those who are encompass a fairly wide range of mostly mid-level employees.

By Geoffrey A. Mort

13 minute read