Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the legal rules that govern the employment relationship. In general, the course will focus on (1) the formation of the employment relationship and the consequences that flow from classifying the relationship as “employment”; (2) job security, including the at-will doctrine and its exceptions, employment contracts, and tort-based employee protections; (3) workplace torts; (4) workplace privacy and speech protections; (5) workplace property protections – such as protection of employer trades secrets and intellectual property; (6) certain statutory protections for workers – such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and workers’ compensation schemes; and finally, (7) various risk management techniques – such as internal investigations of alleged wrongdoing, arbitration agreements, and severance agreements.
