October 2018 Federal Employment Law Training Group Newsletter

I was called to jury duty recently. As luck would have it, I was selected from a venire of about 80 fellow San Franciscans to be in in the first group of 12 to be screened to possibly become a juror. I sure was hoping to be excused. For the self-employed, jury duty puts a hole in the receivables for however long it lasts. The judge’s questions were relatively standard: What kind of work do you do? Have you any problems with the legal system? Know anybody involved in the litigation? When she got to me, I told her I was an employment lawyer and I was concerned that I might be familiar with a potential witness. I explained that the leadoff witness appeared to be wearing a National Park Service uniform and that I routinely teach classes for federal supervisors in that agency, among others. She asked, “What do you teach?” I replied with my practiced elevator-ride shorthand summary, “I teach how to fire bad government employees.” Her response was quick: “Professor, you have important work to be doing. You are excused.” The whole room broke into applause. As I walked down the aisle toward the back door, people reached out to give me high fives. So, how’s your day going? Anybody thank you for being in our business? If not, come to one of our seminars. We’ll clap for you every day because if you’re working in Federal employment law, you are working on the right side of history.Bill Signature

Why Not an Administrative Jury? (Part 2)

By William Wiley, October 17, 2018 This is the second part of a three-part series. In a previous article, we explained how the American jury system could be used to demonstrate the differences among three standards of legally required proof: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt:...

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The #MeToo Movement by the Numbers

By Meghan Droste October 17, 2018 This year, I have logged thousands of miles traveling to various parts of the US and Japan to teach courses on several different topics.  One area that I have covered in nearly every course is sexual harassment — what it is, when an...

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The Danger of a Bad Investigation

By Deborah Hopkins, October 19, 2018 Have you ever conducted an administrative investigation? Depending on the allegations at issue, even if you haven’t yet, you might one day find yourself in a Sherlock Holmes hat and cape, tasked with discovering the truth. You have...

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FELTG Training is not Like Law School

By Deborah Hopkins, October 19, 2018 If you’re like me, you don’t have the fondest memories of law school. Sure, there were classes I enjoyed and professors who challenged me (in a good way), but there were a lot of things I didn’t enjoy. I think I started my...

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Scheduling the Oral Response Meeting

By William Wiley, October 17, 2018 As we all know, once the supervisor serves the notice of proposed removal on the mischievous employee, the employee has the right to make an oral response and defend himself to the deciding official. About 10 years ago, we started...

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Tips from the Other Side, Part 10

By Meghan Droste October 17, 2018 The idea of how to substantiate a claim of harassment is never far from my mind as a complainant-side attorney.  I have to consider from the very beginning what evidence a potential client has and what evidence we are likely to...

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