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 – June 6, 2024: Crowell & Moring earned 78 rankings for 67 lawyers, as well as 41 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2024 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

Underscoring the Administration’s intention to eradicate DEI preferences and mandates, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (Initiative) to be co-led by DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and Fraud Section. In response, Crowell launched its own DEI and Civil Fraud Initiative to support clients in managing the heightened risks associated with this new enforcement landscape.

On May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a Memorandum creating the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative that will “utilize the False Claims Act to investigate and . . . pursue claims against any recipient of federal funds that knowingly violates federal civil rights laws.” According to the Memorandum, though racial discrimination has “always been illegal,” the Administration posits that “many corporations and schools continue to adhere to racist policies and preferences—albeit camouflaged with cosmetic changes that disguise their discriminatory nature.” In an effort to prevent federal funds from being used in connection with or support of these purportedly racist policies and preferences, the Initiative will wield the power of the False Claims Act, the government’s most powerful tool to fight fraud, waste, and abuse.

The classification of “independent contractors versus employees” – a political football that has undergone many iterations as the White House switched between political parties – has again changed hands. The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has now introduced new guidance, consistent with earlier Republican iterations, while rejecting the 2024 Democratic formulation. It remains to be seen whether the courts will give DOL much deference in this area.

The issue of pay equity between women and men has been garnering a growing amount of attention from a variety of quarters, making litigation of pay-equity claims—from class actions to individual cases—an increasingly common occurrence.

This retailer-only roundtable discussion provides a safe space to take a deeper dive into the issues discussed in the morning’s plenary session on union organizing. We will provide attendees an opportunity to share experiences and exchange best practices on responses to the current wave of union organizing and more aggressive union demands, including an increased willingness to engage in economic strikes. Are you contemplating a different strategy regarding union organizing and, if so, what are the core principles? How are we, as employers in a time of dramatic change and economic uncertainty, able to address concerns that are front of mind to employees? 

Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring’s Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law and emerging compliance issues. Only five months in, 2014 has already been a very busy year for the Office of Federal Compliance Programs (OFCCP).  This month’s program will focus on recent developments in affirmative action and OFCCP enforcement initiatives. 

Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring's Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law, emerging compliance issues, and best practices.

In Collaboration with the IBJDuring this webinar we will dive into the European Directive on pay transparency that entered into force in June 2024 and has to be transposed for June 2026 in all EU Member States. This European Directive has the ambition to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women, for all employees in all sectors. The Directive brings significant new reporting obligations and assessment obligations on employers that the EU Member States will publish. How will you have to calculate the threshold to know if your company as an employer falls under the scope of the Directive? And what happens when there is a gap in the equal pay? What will you have to do as an employer? What kind of enforcement does the Directive foresee? Lastly, did you know that in the US there is an Equal Pay Act that has been in force since 1963? How has that statute been applied in the US and what are the differences and similarities with the European Directive? Our special US guest will teach us some interesting US-insights.  

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