Protecting Employees in the Workplace – 101

Maria C. Rodriguez
Yesenia M. Gallegos
Megan A. Lee
Maria C. Rodriguez | McDermott Will & Emery
Yesenia M. Gallegos | McDermott Will & Emery
Megan A. Lee | McDermott Will & Emery

On-Demand: March 5, 2025

2 hour CLE

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Program Summary

Federal and state regulations in 2024, and now in 2025, are shining a spotlight on the interaction of employees’ personal lives with the workplace and employers’ obligations to foster safe, resilient workplaces. States like California and New York are enacting groundbreaking legislation and increasing pressure on employers to create comprehensive plans to address workplace violence. These plans necessarily implicate organizational culture; employers must implement effective strategies for risk assessment, training, and incident response.

At the same time, President Donald Trump has issued executive orders rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and accessibility initiatives and advancing his immigration agenda. Now, in addition to addressing violence in the workplace, employers must prepare to comply with a myriad of regulations affecting their DEI programs, protections for LGBTQ+ Workers, and procedures related to immigration enforcement.

This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.

Key topics to be discussed:

  • Workplace violence prevention
  • Immigration enforcement for employers
  • The future of DEI

Closed-captioning available

Speakers

Speaker_Maria C. Rodriguez_FedBarMaria C. Rodriguez | McDermott Will & Emery

Maria C. Rodriguez advises US and international corporations with regard to employment law compliance and mergers and acquisitions, and defends employment cases and class action litigation. She is a trusted advisor to clients helping them avoid or resolve disputes and protect resources through proactive and strategic planning. Maria is experienced working with clients in the sports, media and entertainment, technology, food and restaurant, airline, transportation and distribution, healthcare and fashion industries.

Maria advises on and defends against class, collective, representative and individual claims arising under state and federal employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Her litigation experience includes wage-and-hour, harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of employment contract, unlawful business practices, non solicitation, trade secrets and other employment-related cases.

She has successfully litigated dismissals by way of, early motions to dismiss, summary judgment and leveraging cases early to produce nuisance value resolutions. At trial, she has produced wins in multiple-plaintiff wage-and-hour, retaliation, discrimination, and wrongful termination cases and achieved a defense verdict in a high-profile, eight-week jury trial involving UNRUH civil rights claims brought by 26 plaintiffs against eight defendants.

Maria has extensive knowledge in the complexities involved in doing business in California, across the United States, and abroad, and her fluency in Spanish supports her work with Spanish and Latin America based clients. She defends employers in proceedings before governmental agencies, such as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the California Labor Commissioner, the US Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and city and state government agencies that enforce employment.

Maria serves as the global co-head of McDermott’s Employment Practice Group.

 

Speaker_Yesenia M. Gallegos_FedBarYesenia M. Gallegos | McDermott Will & Emery

Yesenia M. Gallegos is the co-office managing partner for McDermott’s Southern California offices and a partner in the Firm’s Employment Practice Group. She has over two decades of litigation experience representing employers in wage and hour class actions, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) class actions, California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) representative actions, embezzlement disputes, restrictive covenants, and also defends against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims.

She is also an experienced counselor who provides strategic advice to employers and the C-Suite on mitigating risk in mergers and acquisitions, pay equity, executive compensation and executive employment agreements, employment investigations, enforcement or avoidance of restrictive covenants, managing leaves of absence, and reductions in force.

Yesenia advises an array of domestic and international companies, from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies. She assists employers in establishing work rules and registering such with local labor regulatory agencies in Latin American countries.

She also conducts and oversees workplace harassment and discrimination investigations and conducts wage and hour audits. Yesenia provides organizations with English and Spanish training on sexual harassment prevention; employment law for managers and supervisors; compliance with California wage and hour law; and the interplay between disability law, reasonable accommodations, and leaves of absence.

Yesenia is a frequent author and speaker on labor and employment topics, including those pertaining to the defense of wage and hour class actions and California PAGA representative actions and restrictive covenants. She also often speaks on diversity topics in the legal profession.

 

Speaker_Megan A. Lee_FedBarMegan A. Lee | McDermott Will & Emery

Megan A. Lee focuses her practice on labor and employment matters.

While in law school, Megan served as a board member for the Womxn of Color Collective and graduated with Moot Court Honors.

Agenda

I. Workplace violence prevention | 1:00pm – 1:40pm

  • Federal regulations
    • Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and General Duty Clause
  • State-specific laws on workplace violence prevention
    • Industry specific guidelines (e.g., healthcare, education, retail, construction)
    • California’s new workplace violence prevention mandate
    • NY new workplace violence prevention law
    • Other states?
  • Developing a workplace violence prevention plan
    • Policy statement on zero tolerance for violence
    • Risk assessment and hazard identification
    • Incident response protocols
    • Establishing clear roles and responsibilities
    • Tailoring the plan to specific workplace needs
    • Incident response and post-incident actions
  • Training and education for employees and management
    • Mandatory training topics
    • Scenario-based training

II. Immigration enforcement for employers (Part I) | 1:40pm – 2:00pm

  • Preparing for workplace raids
    • Response plans
    • Employee training

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

III. Immigration enforcement for employers (Part II) | 2:10pm – 2:30pm

  • Annual audits
    • Preparing for a paper audit
    • Best practices
  • DOL and ICE enforcement interconnectivity
    • Staffing company immigration issues
    • Best practices

IV. The future of DEI | 2:30pm – 3:10pm

  • The rescission of Executive Order 11246 and other diversity executive orders
    • “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity” Executive Order
    • Possible False Claims Act claims
  • Legal v. illegal diversity programs
    • Navigating Title VII protections for LGBTQ+ workers
    • Legal DEI measures
    • Best practices for messaging, hiring, and retention

Credits

Alaska

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Our programs are CLE-eligible through Alaska’s recognition of multi-jurisdictional reciprocity.
Alabama

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Arkansas

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Arizona

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

California

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Colorado

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Connecticut

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

District of Columbia

No MCLE Required
2 CLE Hours

Delaware

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Florida

Approved via Attorney Submission
2.5 General

Receive CLE credit in Florida via attorney submission.
Georgia

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Hawaii

Approved for CLE Credits
2.4 General

Iowa

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Idaho

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Illinois

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Indiana

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Kansas

Pending CLE Approval
2 Substantive

Kentucky

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Louisiana

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Massachusetts

No MCLE Required
2 CLE Hours

Maryland

No MCLE Required
2 CLE Hours

Maine

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Michigan

No MCLE Required
2 CLE Hours

Minnesota

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Missouri

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2.4 General

Mississippi

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Montana

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

North Carolina

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

North Dakota

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Our programs are CLE-eligible through North Dakota’s recognition of multi-jurisdictional reciprocity. Section 1, Policy 1.14
Nebraska

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

myLawCLE reports attendance to Nebraska on each attorney’s behalf for all programs. Please do not self-report.
New Hampshire

Approved for CLE Credits
120 General Minutes

As of July 1, 2014, the NHMCLE Board no longer provides pre- or post-approval of courses. Attendees must self-determine whether a program is eligible for credit, and self-report their attendance online at www.nhbar.org, based on qualification provisions of Rule 53.
New Jersey

Approved for CLE Credits
2.4 General

Our programs are CLE-eligible through New Jersey’s recognition of multi-jurisdictional reciprocity, except for the courses required under BCLE Reg. 201:2
New Mexico

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Nevada

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

New York

Approved for CLE Credits
2.4 General

Our programs are CLE-eligible through New York’s Approved Jurisdiction Group “B”.
Ohio

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Oklahoma

Pending CLE Approval
2.5 General

Oregon

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Pennsylvania

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Rhode Island

Pending CLE Approval
2.5 General

South Carolina

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

South Dakota

No MCLE Required
2 CLE Hours

Tennessee

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

Texas

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Utah

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

Virginia

Not Eligible
2 General Hours

Vermont

Approved for CLE Credits
2 General

Washington

Approved via Attorney Submission
2 Law & Legal

Receive CLE credit in Washington via attorney submission.
Wisconsin

Approved for Self-Study Credits
2 General

West Virginia

Pending CLE Approval
2.4 General

Wyoming

Pending CLE Approval
2 General

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