Insights

Washington – August 15, 2024: The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 42 Crowell & Moring lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 29 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

San Francisco – February 23, 2022: Christopher J. Banks joins Crowell & Moring’s San Francisco office as a partner in its Litigation and Labor & Employment groups, bringing more than two decades of experience litigating commercial and labor and employment matters, including employee mobility and trade secret misappropriation disputes. Banks is a trial lawyer who helps companies--from startups to the Fortune 500--solve problems concerning founders’ disputes and “business divorces,” contract disputes, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition, employee departures, wage and hour claims, Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) lawsuits, and other commercial and labor and employment matters. He also advises clients and litigates in matters involving intellectual property rights, technology licensing and development arrangements, and breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is now batting .500 in its effort to defend its rule banning most employee non-compete agreements.  On July 23, 2024, Judge Kelley Hodge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied the request for a preliminary injunction to block that rule from going into effect pending a full trial.  This decision is at odds with the decision issued earlier this month by Judge Ada Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which found that the FTC had exceeded its statutory authority and issued a limited preliminary injunction that prevented the rule from becoming effective as to the plaintiffs in that case. 

On July 3, 2024, Judge Ada Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas temporarily blocked the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) from enforcing its recent rule banning virtually all employee non-compete agreements in the United States.  In its 33-page opinion, the court ruled that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the FTC lacks statutory authority to issue its non-compete ban via rulemaking and that the FTC’s decision to ban non-competes broadly was arbitrary and capricious. However, in a surprise twist, the court declined to grant nationwide preliminary relief, opting instead to limit its injunction to the specific plaintiffs in the action.  The court indicated that it intends to issue a final ruling by August 30, 2024—days before the non-compete ban is scheduled to take effect on September 4.

On April 26, 2024, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published the Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees Rule (“Final Rule”), which will increase the minimum salary thresholds for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional exemptions under the FLSA.  Effective July 1, 2024, the annual salary thresholds for these “white collar” exemptions will increase to $43,888 (from $35,568) and increase again on January 1, 2025 to $58,656 and the threshold for highly-compensated employees will also increase from $107,432 to $132,964.  Effective July 1, 2025, the methodology will change and these thresholds will increase again (to $58,656 and $151,164, respectively).

Employment law in California is constantly evolving, and 2022 was no different. Please join us on Thursday, January 19, 2023 for a complimentary one-hour webinar addressing several of the most important changes in California employment law from 2022.