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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

EVEN IT UP

- Pay equity litigation grabbed much attention in 2018, and that trend likely will continue this year.

Erin Mulvaney reports

that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected soon to announce whether it’ll take up a dispute over whether employers can use an applicant’s prior salary to justify paying men and women differently for the same jobs. In the meantime, state and local governments have moved forward to adopt new laws confronting salary disparities, pay transparency and paid leave.

MURKY

- One of the biggest unresolved labor issues facing employers in the new year is how federal regulators will determine the scope of “joint employment” business relationships—circumstances where one company can be held responsible for the workers of another.

As Michael Scarcella reports

, the situation just got muddier following a divided federal appeals court in D.C., which last week delivered a win for employees. The decision in Browning-Ferris Industries v. National Labor Relations Board comes as the Trump administration’s new leaders at the NLRB are aiming to undo the current rules and enforce a more business-friendly approach.

MORE AND LESS

- Of the $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments that the DOJ obtained last year through False Claims Act cases, more than $2.5 billion involved health care fraud—an increase of more than $329 million compared with the prior year,

Phillip Bantz reports

. Overall, however, FCA recoveries dropped by more than $584 million compared with 2017, when the DOJ’s recoveries totaled $3.4 billion, according to DOJ statistics. Two DOJ memoranda issued in early 2018 indicated changes in the DOJ’s view of the FCA, which were perceived as more industry-friendly.

SETTING IT STRAIGHT

- An item in the Dec. 27 Morning Minute misidentified Robert Mueller III’s position when he recruited Leslie Caldwell, now a partner at Latham & Watkins, to join the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California in 1999. Mueller was the U.S. Attorney in that office at the time.

EDITOR’S PICKS

'State of Legal Education is Excellent,' Says New Law School Association President

Parkland Health & Hospital System Names New General Counsel

Instant Insights: Business, Tech and Regulation … What’s Ahead for the Legal Industry in 2019

Pelosi Picks Ex-DOJ Appellate Vet Douglas Letter as House General Counsel

University of Kansas School of Law Brings AI to the Classroom

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

FIRMED UP

- Squire Patton Boggs has made a

double hire

from the Royal Bank of Scotland, including the bank’s former head of transaction management for real estate and housing finance, Nick Bell. He is moving to Squire’s Leeds office as a partner and is joined by Leanne Keyte, a senior director in the real estate finance transaction management team.

Story continues

WHAT YOU SAID

“It doesn’t matter what your wife thinks or what your mother thinks. The market will determine what you’re worth.”

—

KAY HOPPE

, PRESIDENT OF LEGAL RECRUITING FIRM CREDENTIA, ON THE CHALLENGE THAT MID-TIER LAW FIRMS HAVE IN DETERMINING

THE VALUE

OF ATTORNEYS RECRUITED FROM BIG LAW.

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