July 30, 2024
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Berke-Weiss Law Summer 2024 Personnel Updates

We are pleased to introduce you to the growing team at Berke-Weiss Law! The Firm recently welcomed our newest associate, Melissa Romain. Melissa is an employment attorney who handles all aspects of labor and employment law, including discrimination, sexual harassment, requests for reasonable accommodation, wage and hour cases, workplace investigations, and severance agreements. Melissa graduated from Fordham Law School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University where she majored in Sociology. Melissa has experience drafting and responding to workplace discrimination complaints before various government agencies, including the U.S. EEOC, NYS Division of Human Rights and the NYC Commission of Human Rights, and has litigated employment and commercial disputes in federal and state court.  The Firm and its clients already have benefited from the valuable experience Melissa brings to the team.

In addition to Melissa, the Firm has gained the assistance of two 2024 summer law clerks, Katherine Kennedy and Eileen Farrell. Both Katherine and Eileen are rising 2Ls at Fordham Law School.  Eileen earned a place on the Fordham Law Review after her 1L year. She has an interest in workplace discrimination complaints and employment agreements. Prior to law school, she was a paralegal for two years at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, DC, working across the firm’s litigation and technology, media, and telecommunications groups. She is a graduate of Georgetown University. Katherine is a graduate of Binghamton University and is interested in employment contracts and salary negotiations, as well as transactional law. Katherine has experience working with commercial litigation, white-collar crime, and real estate law matters. She is a member of Fordham’s Dispute Resolution Society and Sports Law Forum’s Baseball Arbitration Team, and earned a place on the staff of the Fordham Urban Law Journal.

The Berke-Weiss Law team and our clients already have benefited from the knowledge, skill, and hard work of Melissa and our student law clerks.

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This Week’s FFCRA Complaints: The Wrongful Terminations Continue 

August 21, 2020
Leave
Disability Discrimination
Since we started this weekly blog post in May, we've read and summarized over 50 complaints filed under the new leave law. As we’ve pointed out, many of these complaints follow almost a template, with workers being terminated for either taking legally-allowed precautions to protect fellow workers from potential infection or for having legitimate reasons to take leave, often to care for a family member or child.

In an Uncommon Move, McDonald’s Sues Former CEO

August 20, 2020
Sexual Harassment
It’s not every day that a blue chip company decides to sue a former executive, let alone its erstwhile CEO, but this is exactly what McDonald’s did by suing Steve Easterbrook, who had been fired last year for inappropriate conduct, specifically, sexting with an employee.

The Art of the Doctor’s Note

August 19, 2020
Pregnancy Discrimination
We’ve all needed one at some point –– a doctor’s note explaining that we’re out for the count on some otherwise necessary aspect of work or school, at least temporarily. Many people are realizing that because of COVID, they don’t feel safe at work due to a disability, and need to modify their pre-pandemic job to accommodate this new reality. In this type of situation, what do you ask your doctor for? What does such a note need to include to help you successfully advocate for your rights?

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Knowing where to turn in legal matters can make a big difference. Contact our employment lawyers to determine if we can help you.