Compliance Stuff

As 2025 drew to a close, we continued to see employers lose jury trials and face million-dollar verdicts because they i gnored the basics of the interactive process requirements under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Most often, the fact patterns involve an employee who is underperforming or struggling in performing their job or who refuses or is unable to perform certain job functions. Frustrated that the work is not being handled, these employers rush to terminate the employee’s job, often without following a systematic or logical approach and failing to document the process. For instance, in one recent case, an employee who was required to drive at night told her supervisor that she felt unsafe working at night and had difficulty driving because she had night blindness, where bright streetlights and traffic lights blinded her, created halos, and made it difficult to see. Her manager dismissed her concerns, noting that she had previously driven at night, and she was subsequ...

A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling could have broad implications for internet privacy, and employers should take note. The state’s high court ruled in December that individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their internet search activity for purposes of the Fourth Amendment and similar state constitutional protections. Although the case centered on a state police search in a criminal investigation, the decision will likely influence how courts applying Pennsylvania law analyze privacy expectations across a wide range of contexts, including matters concerning employment and the workplace. This Insight will discuss  Commonwealth v. Kurtz  and how this decision could impact private employers. Background on  Commonwealth v. Kurtz In an investigation into a violent crime, state police obtained a “reverse keyword search warrant” that instructed Google to identify anyone who searched the victim’s name or home address in the week before the assa...

What is it with universities in "M" states these days? Last week, it was the University of Michigan.  Now, it’s the University of Mississippi. A federal judge in Mississippi  ruled recently  that a race discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of Ole Miss will go to trial. The only surprise here is that the University even thought it had a shot at summary judgment. (My guess is that this was a "desperation" motion.) Here’s what happened. The school was hiring an intervention specialist for a student substance abuse program. Apparently most of those served by the program were white, fratty kids. Solo cup abuse? Our plaintiff (we’ll call her Dolores), a Black female, was one of three candidates for the intervention specialist position. She alleged that during her job interview, her future boss (we’ll call her Natalie) told Dolores that she really hoped to have a white male in the position. Natalie, who like Dolores is a Black female, denies having said this, ...

The New Year’s Resolution: Fixing the 1999 Infrastructure Governance Problem Before Data Velocity Fixes It for You As we enter 2026, some patterns are emerging with AI. What once failed slowly now fails at speed. Decisions propagate instantly. Harm scales before humans realize something is wrong. 2025 and the snowball effect of AI adoption is proving that artificial intelligence is no longer experimental. It is embedded in many organizations’ products, workflows, analytics, and decision-making systems across industries. Boards are asking harder questions. Regulators are accelerating guidance and enforcement. Engineering teams are moving faster than governance structures were designed to handle. Yet the central risk most organizations face is not new. We are entering the Age of AI while still carrying unresolved infrastructure governance problems from the late 1990s (cue lyrics from the Prince song: “2000, zero-zero, party over, oops, out of time…”). Back then, systems were connected be...

Under the new California “ Workplace Know Your Rights Act ” (Senate Bill (SB) 294), employers must provide a new notice to employees by February 1, 2026. Lawmakers drafted the legislation to ensure that employers inform their employees about labor protections, immigration-related rights, and workplace-based constitutional protections. The California labor commissioner has now provided a template notice in  English  and  Spanish . Quick Hits Under the new California “Workplace Know Your Rights Act,” employers must provide a stand-alone written notice to employees by February 1, 2026, detailing workers’ compensation, immigration-related protections, union organizing rights, and other key legal rights. The California labor commissioner has provided a template notice in English and Spanish, with plans to offer additional translations in several other languages soon. Employers must distribute the notice to current employees by February 1, 2026 , and annually thereafter, using ...

A California appellate court recently affirmed a jury verdict awarding $4 million to a police captain who was subjected to a hostile work environment after a sexually explicit, AI-generated image resembling her was widely circulated in the workplace, holding that the dissemination of such fabricated content constituted unlawful harassment under California law. In a separate case, a Washington State trooper filed suit alleging that a supervisor used AI to create and circulate a deepfake video of him intimately kissing a coworker; the officer is suing his employer for discrimination, retaliation, and invasion of privacy. These high-profile incidents highlight a disturbing trend: AI-generated content—especially deepfakes—is emerging as a powerful new form of workplace harassment.  As AI tools become more accessible and ubiquitous in the workplace, employers should prepare for the possibility that deepfake content could be weaponized to humiliate, retaliate against, or intimidate col...