As anticipated, on March 3, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“the Act”). As we discussed in a recent blog post, the Act limits the enforceability of U.S. employers’ mandatory arbitration agreements which require that all employment-related claims be arbitrated, rather than litigated. Under the new law, employees may now opt to pursue their sexual assault or sexual harassment claims in court even if they signed an arbitration agreement with their employer that waived their right to do so.
Employers who plan to use or who currently use arbitration agreements may want to consider drafting or revising their agreements to include an express “carve out” for claims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Please contact your OGC employment counsel for further guidance on this important issue.
Lorna Hebert [email protected] (617) 512-8401
Christy Kotowski [email protected] (510)-748-0930
Trish Lantzy [email protected] (804) 683-1737
Natasha Lipcan [email protected] (203) 820-6754
Margaret Scheele [email protected] (703) 408-4718
Lorna Hebert (New England team) is an employment, labor, higher education, and litigation attorney with nearly 30 years of experience handling a broad range of complex employment and labor matters. Lorna advises clients on a wide range of employment matters, including workplace investigations, dispute resolution, hiring, performance management, discipline, terminations, reorganizations, accommodations, employee benefits, wage and hour issues, discrimination claims, policies and procedures, and training.
Christy Kotowski (California team) Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Christy handles a broad range of complex workplace issues at the federal, state and local levels. Previously, she worked as in-house employment counsel for several large companies, and started her legal career in the Silicon Valley office of Morrison & Foerster, one of California’s oldest and largest law firms.
Patricia Lantzy (Washington D.C. team) is a labor and employment attorney with almost 30 years of experience. Trish works with a wide range of clients, from individual executives and small businesses to the Fortune 500, on employment-related issues across the employee lifecycle, including recruiting, hiring, workplace harmony and leave issues, performance and discipline/discharge, corporate reorganizations and reductions in force.
Natasha Lipcan (New York team) is an employment law attorney with more than 20 years of experience representing private employers in a broad range of employee-related matters. She handles a wide range of employment issues, including employment law compliance, organizational change, diversity and inclusion, employment-related agreements, arbitrations and litigations, wage and hour, workplace training and policies, and recruiting, hiring, managing and terminating employees.
Margaret Scheele (Washington D.C. team) is an employment law attorney with almost 30 years of experience. Margaret has represented a range of clients in a variety of industries, including aviation, food service, telecommunications, health care, and government contracting. Her practice includes the full range of advice and counseling work that arises within the employment context, including most recently COVID-related matters.
