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 – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

San Francisco – February 23, 2022: Christopher J. Banks joins Crowell & Moring’s San Francisco office as a partner in its Litigation and Labor & Employment groups, bringing more than two decades of experience litigating commercial and labor and employment matters, including employee mobility and trade secret misappropriation disputes. Banks is a trial lawyer who helps companies--from startups to the Fortune 500--solve problems concerning founders’ disputes and “business divorces,” contract disputes, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition, employee departures, wage and hour claims, Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) lawsuits, and other commercial and labor and employment matters. He also advises clients and litigates in matters involving intellectual property rights, technology licensing and development arrangements, and breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts.

Employers should be aware of several California laws that were recently enacted or went into effect. These laws expand the scope of care recipients that can trigger paid family leave obligations, extend the statute of limitation for survivors of sexual assault, strengthen protections for tipped workers’ wages, increase minimum wage statewide, provide collective bargaining and organization rights to rideshare workers, and prohibit “stay-or-pay” clauses in employment contracts. 

On April 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) outlining a new standard for “joint employment” — under which separate entities will be found jointly liable for the other’s violations — under the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MPSA). The Proposed Rule purports to standardize the definition of “joint employment” across all three laws to create “clarity” and “uniformity” for employers and employees alike.

In about a year’s time, all worker noncompetition and nonacceptance of business provisions in Washington state will become void and unenforceable unless they qualify for one of the limited exceptions to the ban, thanks to a new law signed by Washington’s Governor Bob Ferguson on March 23, 2026. The new law takes effect June 30, 2027.

Employment law in California is constantly evolving, and 2022 was no different. Please join us on Thursday, January 19, 2023 for a complimentary one-hour webinar addressing several of the most important changes in California employment law from 2022.