January - February 2005
Volume 29 Number 3Highlights:
It’s about time: Managing and documenting employees’ work hours
Overtime. Comp time. Exempt. Nonexempt. How do you make sense of it all, especially with the recent revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act? See how some of your colleagues manage and document their employees’ time.Got a problem employee? Read this before you fire
How do you fire someone without winding up in court? One key is to attempt to help the employee improve before you show him or her the door. That’s a good policy anyway, says labor and employment lawyer Bob Stevens; after all, turnover is expensive! See what measures you can try short of firing, and if you do need to fire someone, how you can do that without inviting a lawsuit.
ABA Kennedy Commission recommends criminal justice reform, seeks state support
The ABA may soon be in touch with you, seeking your bar’s support for reforms to the criminal justice system an effort that was touched off by a speech by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. The recommendations are largely aimed at addressing problems created by mandatory minimum sentences, removing legal barriers to former inmates re-entering society, and, from the day someone enters prison, helping him or her prepare to be a productive member of society. Read more about the recommendations and how they’ve been received thus far.
Wait ... Isn’t that for doctors? Yes, which is why Allan Head, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services, was surprised when a judge used this theme in swearing in new attorneys. In fact, the judge noted, lawyers can do either great good or great harm to themselves, the profession, their clients, and their community. What else did the judge say on what Head calls "a great day to be a lawyer?"
