The federal government established the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”) to create rules that maximize workplace safety. Given the hazards of heat stroke and heat exhaustion to employees, OSHA requires employers to provide water on the job site.
Continue reading “Is My Employer Required to Provide Water on the Job Site?”
More than 131 million Americans use prescription drugs. Studies have shown that there were 2.74 million serious adverse drug reactions in 2014 and around 128,000 people have died from drugs prescribed to them. So, what happens when drug manufacturers fail to warn consumers of dangerous and deadly side effects? Consumers are able to sue the drug manufacturer, but they must come prepared because the drug manufacturer will already have the argument that the consumer’s suit is preempted. A lot of times this argument will force the case to be dismissed, leaving consumers hanging out to dry.
Continue reading “Federal Preemption in Pharmaceutical Cases: What is “Newly Acquired Information?”
COMES NOW, PLAINTIFF in the hereinabove case, by and through the undersigned counsel of record, and WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, files the aforementioned MOTION TO …
Yikes. Between the case caption, the title, and the procedural throat-clearing of the introductory paragraph, the readers of a legal motion usually spend the first-page thinking, “Get to the point!” Bryan Garner, editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary and longtime proponent of using plain English in legal writing, refers to this as “filibustering boilerplate” and “time-wasting guff.”[i] It’s true that many lawyers enjoy the pomp and circumstance of formal legal writing. But a good writer can make a pleading, motion, or brief both elegant and readable—and in the process, make it more persuasive.
Continue reading “Legal Writing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them”
It has been proven that women work harder and are more productive than their male counterparts in the workforce.1 Yet still, women continue to fight gender gaps and glass ceilings to achieve their positions and when asking for promotions, women do not receive the same outcomes as their male counterparts.2
The American Bar Association Journal recently published an opinion article by Susan Smith Blakely based upon the thesis that being a lawyer-mom has significant impacts on a woman’s professional upward mobility in a law firm. In it, the author colors the lawyer-mom as a perfectionist who cannot help but “sacrifice good performance on the altar of perfectionists,” is a mediocre team player, skips lunches, and fails to idle the day away by conversing with colleagues, developing clients, or attending firm social functions, all of which could propel her to the coveted equity-partner position.
Continue reading “A Response to the ABA Journal by Shelly Sanford”
