May 22, 2020
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Welcome Summer Law Clerks!

Our Firm is happy to have two Fordham Law students on board this summer. Please join us in welcoming Rafita Ahlam and Kacie Candela!

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Rafita Ahlam is a rising 3L at Fordham Law. She is currently the Writing and Research Editor for Volume 44 of the International Law Journal, where she works with students interested in publishing their notes. Additionally, she’s a member of Fordham’s Moot Court Board and the Board of Student Advisors. Rafita’s interest in employment and labor law arose from participating in discussions about Title VII in her classes and from competing in a Moot Court competition centered on an age discrimination claim under ADEA.Prior to joining Berke-Weiss Law, Rafita interned as an Immigration Intern with the International Rescue Committee and as a Fair Hearings Intern with the NYC Department of Social Services. Before law school, she worked for two years as a paralegal at a plaintiff’s side personal injury firm. She graduated from SUNY Binghamton in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Political Science. In her spare time, Rafita enjoys weight-lifting, traveling, and NYC’s restaurant scene.                                                                
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Kacie is a rising 2L at Fordham University School of Law, where she is the Employment Discrimination Chair of the Workers' Rights Advocates. Prior to law school, she covered New York City and State politics for NPR-affiliate radio station WFUV, where she produced and co-hosted the Prickly Politics podcast. Over three seasons, Prickly Politics took an in-depth look at local elections as well as workplace sexual harassment in the NYS Legislature and activist efforts to change the state's sexual harassment and discrimination law.Kacie is also a writer and podcast producer for the news site PassBlue.com, which covers the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. She produces UN-Scripted, a podcast that aims to make the UN comprehensible to the English-speaking global public and humanize the diplomats who serve there.Kacie is a proud alumna of the Fordham College of Rose Hill Honors Program, where she studied English and International Political Economy. She serves as a board member on the Fordham College Alumni Association. Kacie enjoys cycling, hiking, yoga and reading. She is an avid listener of WNYC and reader of the Atlantic Magazine.                                                                
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The Berke-Weiss Law Weekly Roundup: Black Pregnancy in New York City and School Reopening Reversals

August 10, 2020
Race Discrimination
Pregnancy Discrimination
We’re now a week into the expiration of the enhanced unemployment benefits of the CARES Act and the news is not good. Congress and the White House remain at least a trillion of dollars apart on a new deal, with the Senate GOP split, though their prized bit of the CARES Act, the corporate bailout, did not have an expiration date, unlike those parts aimed at protecting workers, such as the PUA and eviction moratoriums. Thus, with depressing predictability, there were a spate of alarming stories this week echoing the fears that tenant unions and activists have been voicing for months: by ending employment relief we are hurtling toward a cliff, over which lies massive, nationwide evictions.

The Week in FFCRA Complaints: Employers Do Not Seem to Understand Mandated Worker Protections

July 31, 2020
Leave
Disability Discrimination
t is starting to seem, from our perspective, that either employers have not been made sufficiently aware of the leave entitled to workers under the FFCRA or that they are willing to risk a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

The Berke-Weiss Law Weekly Roundup: While the Outlook Darkens, We Celebrate Some Small Victories

July 31, 2020
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The clock has essentially wound down on extending assistance for the 30+ million Americans currently on the unemployment rolls. White House officials and Congressional Democrats remain miles apart, with the latter rejecting a temporary extension of the benefits. There are also huge question marks over issues we focus on, particularly child care and employment law, both of which were in the news this week and are the subject of several of the stories we feature

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