Business
HR Alert: Independent Contractor Changes
Federal Enforcement Paused – But Don’t Get Comfortable On May 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2025-1, directing its Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigators not to a…
Law Firms Fight Back
As we recently discussed, President Trump has signed many Executive Orders (EOs). They are designed to swiftly administer changes that the Trump Administration wanted immediately to go into effect. Several EOs have targete…
HR Alert: Disparate Impact – Does it Exist Anymore?
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) entitled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, which set out as the Administration’s policy a goal: to eliminate the use of di…
HR Alert: [Mis]Calculating Overtime Pay
A chronic challenge is ensuring you and your payroll company calculate compensation correctly, especially for non-exempt employees. Companies run into sometimes-difficult hurdles when non-exempt, also known as hourly, empl…
What’s the Rule of Law – and Why Should You Care?
In the day-to-day chaos of running a business – managing employees, meeting payroll, juggling clients, delivery hiccups and other deadlines – it’s easy to take for granted the legal system that underpins everyt…
HR Alert: The Future of Non-Compete Clauses
As discussed previously, in May 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized a regulation that would ban non-compete clauses for any employee who isn’t a senior executive. Later, in August 2024, the proposed FT…
HR Alert: Travel Time Compensation
We hear an awful lot of questions about paying workers for their travel. So we thought that addressing the questions in a blog with some practical examples would be useful to our readers. In general, employees must be comp…
HR Alert: Local Business Settles For $225k in Discrimination Damages
A local tavern is paying two of its former bartenders $225,000 after being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC filed a lawsuit on behalf of the bartenders, alleging that New York Beer Proje…
HR Alert: Fourth Circuit Reinstates Executive Orders Targeting DEI Programs
In a pivotal development last night, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a previous nationwide injunction, issued by Judge Adam B. Abelson of the District Court in Maryland. We talked about Judge Abelson’s tem…
At The Coppola Firm, we’re celebrating Women’s History Month by shining a light on the incredible women making a difference in our Buffalo community and beyond. Their stories of strength, determination, and leadership have…