Law And More

Facebook Follows Google in Ending Policy of Mandatory Private Arbitration for Sexual Harassment Complaints

Employees outside the tech industry should feel emboldened to also push back against required private arbitration in general.

Usually they have to sign the agreements the day they are hired. Those tend to be comprehensive, covering matters ranging from compensation to inappropriate conduct. 

Inside tech, employee discontent increasingly has resulted in the end of those policies in situations of sexual harassment/assault. That opens the door to blowing up that mandate for other types of employee complaints.

Earlier this week, Google announced employees were now free to take their grievances about inappropriate sexual behavior to court. Its employees - called "googlers" - had walked off the job. Among the demands was that right.

Yesterday, Facebook also lifted the mandate that employees submit sexual harassment allegations to arbitration. Here are more details from The Wall Street Journal. 

Beyond employee complaints there are those by consumers, such as against the practices of financial services corporations. Frequently they opt into agreeing to binding confidential arbitration and don't even know it. That's because the clause about that is buried in pages of a contract filled with legalese.

Of course, they should take the time to read the contract. For years consumer advocates have been lobbying against corporations' preventing consumers from their day in court, especially as part of a class action.

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Google - CEO Sundar Pichai Giveth & He Taketh Away

Yesterday, Googlers won a big one.

The chief executive officer of Google Sundar Pichai ended the policy of mandatory private arbitration for alleged sexual harassment/assault. 

However, today that's followed by another policy he issued. That's an official limit on what he terms as "excessive drinking." As BusinessInsider reports, Google found that 20% of reported sexual harassment/abuse incidents involved alcohol. 

Pichai has instructed leaders and managers to ban that excess both in settings within the corporation and at offsite events. "Excess" seems to mean more than two drinks.

The threat in this announcement is that if the new policy isn't effective in preventing inappropriate behavior, then the presence of all alcohol could be prohibited. 

Like much of Silicon Valley, Google has nurtured a hard-partying culture. That's no surprise since the tech industry tends to be dominated by youth. 

One wonders if the fun is sucked out of working at Google talent will exit. They can start their own enterprises and enjoy all the fun they want.

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Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Fatal Bus Accident at Google Mountain View Campus

Last Monday, Googler Emily Hong was crossing a walkway on the corporation's Mountain View campus. At the time she was employed in the finance department.

During the process she was fatally struck by one of the campus' shuttle buses. Although she received CPR she died at the scene. The bus driver remained there. No drugs or alcohol were found to be involved. 

Here are more details from the media. And investigation is taking place. 

A crass but necessary issue to bring up is liability. Obviously, Google is a deep pocket. The family of Hong will likely be soon contacted by personal injury lawyers in the area. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Googlers' Protest Effective - End of Mandatory Arbitration for Sexual Harassment/Assault Allegations

Recently, Googlers risked their goodwill (and maybe even job security/upward mobility) by doing a global walkout.

The trigger for that had been the $90 million exit payout to alleged sexual harasser Andy Rubin. However, as the Googlers made known, they were also protesting the mandatory requirement for private arbitration for allegations about sexual harassment/assault.

Well, protest has proved an effective tool for change.

As the Financial Times reports, Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai announced an end to that policy.

However, that shift is no longer a radical move in the tech industry. Already, Microsoft and Uber have abandoned it for sexual misconduct. 

Some contend that also ended should be the mandatory arbitration mandate for other kinds of alleged employee abuse. For example, what about employee complaints contending racial bias?

That could happen, sooner than later.

Employees in industries where human capital is put at high value now recognize they have the power to disrupt human resources approaches. This sense of empowerment can extend beyond tech to professional services ranging from management consulting to the stodgy field of law. 

Recently, former partner at Winston & Strawn Constance Ramos won the right to go to court against that former employer. She contends gender discrimination on compensation and also retaliation.

The California appeals court ruled the terms and conditions of the law firm's arbitration procedures were not legal. For instance, Ramos would have been forced to pay her own legal costs. Also, the confidentiality clause banned her conducting informal pre-discovery interviews of possible witnesses. Here is the analysis in The Recorder. 

Litigation Communications

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The Flashing Blue Light - Drudge Report Brings It Back for Midterms

Conservative Drudge Report is playing it smart.

Its headline, without the usual link to someone else's coverage, is:

"Exit Polls Show Dem Wave Building"

That all comes with a flashing blue light.

When the Drudge Report launched years ago that flashing blue light had been its signature. Now it only uses it on occasion. This midterm is obviously an occasion.

The Drudge Report has managed to survive because it has sensed when political winds were shifting and it modified its hard-edged conservative stances.

It will be interesting to analyze how the digital native news site actually positions and packages the election results.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Gab Back Online - Hosted by Epik.com

After the alleged murder of 11 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Gab poster Robert Bowers, the alt-right social network went dark. Its domain host GoDaddy dropped it. 

But, tonight it's back online.

The new host is Epik.com.

And, BusinessInsider reports that the anti-Semitic commentary is also back. For example, well-known white nationalist Christopher Cantrell posted  a disparaging remark about the large sympathetic response made about the Pittsburgh deaths. 

Meanwhile, there have been non-gun attacks on Jewish places of worship in New York City. The most recent was that a pole was thrown through a window of a Brooklyn temple when the members of the congregation had been praying. Here are more details from the New York Post. 

There is a line between rhetoric and taking action or motivating action. In these upside-down times the troubled might find it satisfying to cross that line. After all, like Bowers, they can become a celebrity doing that. 

It's not just hate speech which should be discussed as a possible factor in mass murders. Members of the media also seem to treat these tragedies as the gift which keeps giving. 

The issue is not really the constitutional right to freedom of speech. It's more about leveraging the darkness in mankind for clickbait as well as influence. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

All-Business - So, Of Course, We're Lonely

One-third of those interviewed in the BBC Loneliness survey admitted two things.

One, they felt isolated from other humans.

And, two, there was shame in disclosing that condition in public.

Here are more details from The Guardian. 

What's driving the loneliness syndrome essentially are three factors.

More of us live alone.

In digital times, there is less in-person contact. 

Social media creates the illusion that we are interacting.

I would add a fourth: the hyper-competitive work world. It's been years since I have developed a friendship with a colleague, client, or contract employee I hired.

My assumption is that everything said can and will be held against us. So much of professional life is being perceived as a zero-sum game. My vulnerability can be transformed into your win.

The effects of being lonely are not only emotional.

Medical experts document that there are also negative physical impacts. Actually, we knew about the latter for years. The classic example is the spouse who dies soon after the soulmate passes away. 

The good news is that there are exit ramps out of extreme loneliness. I set out on them in April 2014. That's when I relocated from the careerist ethos of the Gold Coast of Connecticut.

It took a while but away from all that I began to trust my neighbors. Soon enough I realized that when loneliness overtook me what I should do is put a leash on the dog and start walking. Yes, I would run into another pet parent. We would start talking. Our four-legged children would butt-stiff. 

Those positive experiences, though, haven't warmed up professional relationships. That's sad. I recall less tense times when part of the fun of working was the interaction with colleagues. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Googlers' Walkout - Will Alphabet Cave, Ending Forced Arbitration for Sex Harassment Complaints?

Googlers understand how to do political performance art. Their walkout over issues such as the $90 million payout to alleged sexual harasser Andy Rubin generated plenty of media coverage.

But that could turn out to be simply great theatre and no reforms.

One reform that employees in many other industries throughout America are waiting for is the end of forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints. Googlers are demanding that. 

However. they might have expanded that requirement for all employee beefs, not just those associated with alleged sexual misconduct. 

From the get-go on hiring day, so many employees have to sign agreements surrendering their right to collective action such as a class action lawsuit for alleged abuses. Employers know, of course, how much negative publicity such a class action lawsuit would generate. 

Currently, employment law is a popular subject for the media to cover. But members of the media don't have access to what goes down in arbitration hearings because those are confidential.

In California there is one way to bypass those signed arbitration agreements. That is to leverage the CA Private Attorneys General Act. 

Here is a simplified explanation how PAGA facilitates getting around forced arbitration.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Section 230 of Telecommunications Act of 1996 - Push to Repeal

There was really a time - it seems light years ago - when idealism was high about social networks.

The assumption was that those digital platforms for self-expression and connecting could and would regulate themselves. In the worse-case scenarios, if posters proved to be rhetorical miscreants, the network's powers that be would remove the content.

Yes, the bad guys would be banned temporarily or even permanently. If the members of the media covered that banishing from Paradise, there would be public shaming. Not only branding but actual business revenues could be hurt.

That mindset shaped Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Essentially, social networks were not responsible for what was posted. However, if they observed material which threatened violence and so on, they was accountable for taking appropriate legal action.

Post the Synagogue shooting, there is a growing outcry for repealing Section 230. The assumption is that networks are unable to self-regulate and/or if they do it is too little too late. 

In addition, just about everyone in the loop of facilitating those platforms is being put under a public relations and legal microscope.

For example, should payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe had acted sooner in suspending extreme network Gab?

Should GoDaddy had ended its domain registration as soon as the tone and content of Gab were documented as standard fare.

The world knows that alleged synagogue murderer Robert Bowers had been a "regular" on Gab. Here are more details from Phillip Bantz at Law.com.

The ugly underbelly for all this is the fragile right to freedom of speech, both personal and commercial. That is not an abstract matter. Progress in a society - cultural, social, technical, and economic - depends on being able to put out there all kinds of ideas. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

IBM Red Hat Acquisition - Cravath, Swaine & Moore Out of the Loop

The $33.4 billion acquisition which could change the cloud niche has reinforced that Scott Barshay is the star in the M&A niche. Currently with Paul, Weiss he is the lead legal counsel on IBM's purchase of open source cloud software company Red Hat.

Meanwhile his twinkle could be throwing shade on law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Cravath is not in the loop on this deal. That's despite the reality that Cravath has been a long-time legal guide to IBM, including its earlier M&A strategy and moves. Part of that partnership was Cravath's hiring one-time IBM in-house IP counsel David Kappos. Here are more details from Brian Baxter at Law.com.

Much of the business of law is based on an adversarial model. That's binary. You win or you lose.

In this situation, as far as we know, Paul, Weiss has won. Cravath has lost. The implications for Cravath branding could be profound. This also makes for grand theatre in the media.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.