Michael Starr

April 19, 2004 | National Law Journal

This year, the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on an issue of sexual harassment jurisprudence that has divided the lower courts. In its review of the decision by the 3d U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, the court will consider whether "constructive discharge" of an employee constitutes a "tangible employment action" that precludes an employer from raising the affirmative defense that it took reasonable steps to prevent and correct the harassment.

By Michael Starr and Amy L. Strauss

8 minute read

July 15, 2013 | National Law Journal

Two employment law decisions handed down in the last week of the 2012-2013 term have quite significant implications for employment discrimination law — consequences that are favorable to employers.

By Michael Starr

8 minute read

September 28, 2009 | National Law Journal

Some cases apply the Ledbetter law to employer actions not related to pay, such as failures to promote.

By Michael Starr and Frank M. Nardulli

7 minute read

April 20, 2009 | National Law Journal

A venerable principle of the common law of employment is that all employees owe a duty of honesty and loyalty to their employers. So strong is this duty that employees who are placed in a position of trust and, on that account, receive confidential information from their employer, may not use that information in competition with the employer or to the employer's detriment — even after the employment relationship has ended. Then comes along the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which has a broad pre-emption clause that, generally speaking, displaces prior common law relating to the misappropriation of trade secrets. But what happens when the UTSA intersects the prior common law of employment?

By Michael Starr and Christopher N. Franciose

8 minute read

January 09, 2006 | National Law Journal

Employers often assume that they may freely terminate the employment of their at-will employees without consequence as long as the decision is not based on a discriminatory or other illegal reason. This ain't necessarily so.

By Michael Starr and Adam J. Heft

8 minute read

July 21, 2008 | National Law Journal

Anti-retaliation provisions are increasingly invoked in a new context: by disciplined employees who didn't complain about discrimination but are connected in some way to another employee who did. Plaintiffs have been mostly family members who work for the same employer. The high court will hear a case that would extend such third-party retaliation claims further — to unrelated co-workers who participated in an internal investigation of a bias complaint but who did not ever object to perceived discrimination.

By Michael Starr and Christine M. Wilson

8 minute read

August 09, 2004 | National Law Journal

If a supervisor demands sexual favors of his subordinate and she silently acquiesces to keep her job, does she have a claim of sexual harassment against her employer? Despite the Supreme Court's many pronouncements on sexual harassment, the answer to that precise question is still unresolved.

By Michael Starr and Adam J. Heft

8 minute read

September 12, 2012 | Daily Business Review

Employers should maintain uniform policies for employees to record their work time to rein in unapproved off-hours work and avoid the obligation to pay for that work — sometimes at the overtime rate, write Michael Starr and Katherine Healy Marques of Holland & Knight.

By Michael Starr and Katherine Healy Marques

5 minute read

August 23, 2010 | National Law Journal

'Rent-A-Center' held that arbitrator can rule on an agreement conferring his own authority.

By Michael Starr and Cassaundra Manning

6 minute read

September 11, 2012 | Daily Report Online

The proliferation of smartphones and personal digital assistants has afforded many American workers the ability — for good or ill — to stay connected to their work when they are not actually in the workplace.

By Michael Starr and Katherine Healy Marques, Special to the Daily Report

7 minute read