Speaker Profile
SUSAN FAHEY DESMOND
Susan Fahey Desmond is a principal with Jackson Lewis PC. She has been representing management in all areas of labor and employment law for over 30 years. A noted author and speaker, Ms. Desmond is listed in Best Lawyers in America and has been named by Chambers USA as one of America’s leading business lawyers.
Susan Fahey Desmond
December 12 2024
01 : 00 PM EST
60 Minutes
Top 10 Employment Law Decisions in 2024
Federal agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and others have often guided employers of what their obligations are. For the past 40 years, courts were required to give “deference” to these agencies’ interpretation of the law. Some believed that this deference gave a sense of continuity across the country.&nbs..
Susan Fahey Desmond
December 18 2024
01 : 00 PM EST
60 Minutes
Legal Issues Regarding Service Animals in the Workplace
The public accommodation and the employment parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act have required public entities and employers to “think outside the box” when it comes to accommodating physical or mental impairments that may be considered a disability under the ADA. Does that include the family dog? In this webinar, you will be able to differentiate between a service animal and an animal that is..
Susan Fahey Desmond
January 28 2025
01 : 00 PM EST
90 Minutes
The Pregnancy Workers’ Fairness Act – Has It Impacted Employer Views on Pregnancy?
Anytime a new law is passed, there is a wave of uncertainty about what the new law actually requires. After all, could expect Congress to be able to publish regulations further identifying what the requires. Indeed, as with many over-employment laws, Congress delegated enforcement of the PWFA to the EEOC. The wait is now over, we finally have a set of final regulations? Or will we see challenges to the fede..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
2024 Independent Contract Rule by DOL Has Become a Deadline for March 11, 2024! Audits by Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) are Creating Havoc for Employers!
Learn How Misclassifications Can be a Legal Nightmare for Employers!The new independent contractor rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) could spark an increase in misclassification lawsuits and make businesses less likely to hire gig workers, according to some legal experts.The final rule restores an earlier standard that required companies to weigh a variety of economic factors together to determin..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
Bipolar in the Workplace under ADA and FMLA
We will discuss ways that employers can assist their employees with mental illness to ensure that mental illness is not getting in the way of your employee being one of the best of your employees. This can go beyond employee assistance programs. And, of course, you may have legal obligations under either the Family and Medical Leave Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act. Areas Covered Understandi..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
Complying with Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Many would think that the answers to how to accommodate the pregnant worker in the workplace would be a no brainer. Of course, it is not that easy – mostly because of a hodgepodge of cases over the years. Cases were so inconsistent that the Supreme Court became involved resulting in its decision of Young v. UPS. Maybe you thought that the Supreme Court would have the final say? No, Congress respon..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
Documenting Misconduct that Will Stand up in Court
It is estimated that 60-70%o f litigation is employment-related. Let’s face it. If you stay in business long enough, your company will inevitably be sued. The time to prepare your defense begins before that suit is filed. Juries look to your documentation when they are making the decision of whether you ran afoul of the law. At the same token, plaintiff attorneys try to pick apart your documentat..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
Employer Recordkeeping Obligations
There are many legal requirements for employers when it comes to record retention. Laws such as Title VII, the Immigration Reform and Control Act, and ERISA, to name a few. Employers must follow regulations published by many federal agencies: the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and more. How do you store these records? Can you store records..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
60 Minutes
Handling FMLA Abuse
Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to ensure job protection for those who needed to take leave from their employment due to serious illnesses. Most employees do not abuse this entitlement; however, there are a select few who always want to beat the system. Those who abuse FMLA are headaches for both the employer and co-workers who have to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, when an employ..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
60 Minutes
How to Navigate Political Speech in the Workplace
Political speech at work is creating more of a problem now than it did during the 2016 Presidential election!!! With the impeachment, divisive country, and upcoming 2022 midterm elections, it has escalated even more. A new survey has found that a significantly increased percentage of employees are feeling stressed and strained because of the political speech since the 2016 campaign! Employees are feeling mo..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
Legal Obligations for Employer Recordkeeping
We live in an electronic world. Everyone wants to go green. While employers can keep records electronically, there are legal requirements as to go about keeping these records electronically. It might be tempting to just keep the records indefinitely. Keeping records indefinitely, however, is costly and could hurt you later in court. How do you maintain these records and destroy them properly when they are n..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
90 Minutes
The Dos and Dont's of Documenting Employee Performance: What Employers Need to Know?
You’ve heard the statement, “If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen”. The human resources mantra to managers and supervisors is to "document, document, document", because disciplinary actions can often give rise to claims of discrimination, leading to high costs of litigation. But do your managers and supervisor know how, when, and what to document?Badly worded documentation and suspiciously timed admin..
Susan Fahey Desmond
Recorded Webinar
120 Minutes
Violence at Work: From Disgruntled Employees and Domestic Violence to Mass Murder
According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5% of U. S. businesses experience workplace violence yearly. The percentage of workplace violence increases to 50% for organizations with 1,000 employees. The FBI stated that in 2014 an active shooting incident occurred, on average, once every three weeks. However, given the size of the U. S., the chances of being a victim of a workplace shooting are statis..
Calculating Overtime Correctly under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act have reached an all-time high. The Department of Labor estimates that 87% of all employers are not in compliance with their obligations to pay overtime to non-exempt workers. Even employers with the best intentions find themselves violating some aspect of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition to misclassification issues, employers fail to recognize what time m..
Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Through Social Intelligence
For you to achieve outstanding diversity & inclusion results requires strong social intelligence, the ability to evaluate and influence other people’s social interactions. Our evolutionary background has resulted in unconscious bias and other problematic mental patterns (called cognitive biases) that lead to tribal behaviors, undermining D&I initiatives. To deal with tribalism, pioneering organizati..