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Jennifer Trulock advises companies on managing workplace legal issues, conducting investigations into employee misconduct, and preventing employment lawsuits. She also is experienced in handling acquisition/divestiture employment issues, including due diligence, pre-merger planning and post-merger integration issues. Jennifer counsels employers on developing and applying personnel policies and in responding to and resolving complaints before reaching litigation. She also assists clients in negotiating employment agreements, as well as separation agreements.

For years, menopause and its related symptoms have been treated as a taboo subject. That is changing fast. Celebrities and public figures have put their own experiences with menopause and perimenopause into the national conversation, and workers around the country are pushing for better workplace support as a result. State legislatures have taken notice: As…

Last year, we wrote about the growing trend of managers using artificial intelligence to make employment decisions and the significant legal risks that can arise when employers rely too heavily on AI-generated recommendations. At the time, our advice was straightforward: AI can be a useful tool, but it should never replace human judgment, particularly with…

Religious discrimination and accommodations have quietly become some of the EEOC’s enforcement priorities, and a string of recent lawsuits shows the agency is not shy about pursuing those claims. For employers, this is a good time to revisit how religious accommodation requests are being handled on the ground, not just on paper.

Background

Title VII…

Sexual harassment has been in the headlines again in recent weeks. Just last week, the EEOC filed suit against a trucking company in Michigan over alleged sexual harassment. The EEOC claims that the president of logistics, who was also a member of the board of directors and part owner, passed over more qualified candidates to…

The Dangers of Joint Employment

Employers sometimes are named in employment litigation or agency investigations for employees who never actually were on their payroll. All sorts of uncomfortable issues, such as confidentiality issues, insurance issues, and indemnity issues, can arise when this happens. The same problem can occur in a union organizing or collective bargaining…

Four recent decisions by federal courts show just how much weight an employer’s investigation can hold in litigation, for better or worse. Investigation quality does not operate on a simple pass/fail switch. It moves along a spectrum, and where an employer’s investigation lands on that spectrum — from “feeble” to “flawed” — can decide a…

Remember when half the workforce went home in 2020 and, somehow, the work still got done? Employees remember, too, and many have used that history as ammunition today when employers ask them to return to the office. If an employee teleworked successfully for two years during COVID-19, the argument goes, doesn’t that prove they can…

On August 26, 2026, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Crystal S. Carey released Memorandum GC 26-04, “Further Guidance Regarding General Counsel Priorities.”  The memo provides important insight into the general counsel’s enforcement and litigation priorities and identifies several recent NLRB decisions that her office intends to challenge.

The memorandum does not mandate submission…

Unless and until there is binding federal law governing noncompetes in all 50 states, noncompete agreements will continue to be governed by state law. In recent years, state legislatures have been increasingly active in regulating noncompetes and imposing minimum requirements that must be met before a court even reaches the question of whether the specific…