Author: JGL Law

The Montgomery County Circuit Court recently overturned the county ban on certain lawn pesticides. All the pesticides in question are approved by the federal government, and the ban would conflict with pre-existing federal and state regulations.

Timothy F. Maloney, attorney for the plaintiffs, called the ruling a “significant victory for consumer safety.” If the ban had not been overturned, it would set a legal precedent which could allow for all the nearly 200 jurisdictions in Maryland, to create their own pesticide regulations.

To read the coverage of the case by The Washington Post, click on the following link:

Over ten members of the JGL community participated in the event including attorney Anne Grover and paralegal Jamerra Cherry.

The convention was held at the Columbia Sheraton and was also attended by Yvonne Johnson the national PTA representative and assistant state superintendent, Mary L. Gable. The event also included two keynote speakers, president of UMBC, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III and Maryland’s 2016 teacher of the year, Athanasia Kyriakakos.

Pictured Below: Brian Markovitz and Brenda Adimora at the JGL booth. 

 

JGL attorney Paul Riekhof hosted a seminar on July 27 that focused on federal estate, gift and trust taxation. The seminar, held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfax, gave attendees the skills necessary to be able to calculate estate tax, identify types of trusts and understand advanced trust planning, among other objectives. 

Throughout the day, Paul taught a series of the agenda’s various lectures, beginning with an overview of trust taxation, and ending with a lecture about life insurance trusts. The seminar was co-hosted by attorneys Aejaz A. Dar, David B. Wilks and Richard Phillips, all of whom taught lectures throughout the day, too. The seminar was sponsored by HalfMoon Education Inc., a company that provides seminars and webinars for licensed professionals. 

 

Trump continues to bash Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter. Law.com asked Jay Holland if these tweets are entering the arenas of defamation, invasion of privacy or harassment. Click below for the full article. 

 

Ten members of the JGL LAW community attended the joint anniversary celebration of the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association and the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission. Both organizations are dedicated to improving Prince George’s County, and they celebrated over 40 years of service to the county.

The J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association was created originally as the J. Franklyn Bourne Law Club in honor of Bourne, who was the first African-American to start a law firm in Prince George’s County. Bourne was also the first African-American chairman of the Maryland’s Women’s Compensation Commission and he helped create the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission.

The Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission is committed to protecting the civil rights of Prince George’s County residents. The commission investigates discrimination on the basis of education, employment, real estate, housing and law enforcement conduct. All with the aim that county residents can live, work and play free of bias, misunderstanding and conflict due to prejudice.

The anniversary celebration featured Yvette Lewis, DNC national committee woman, as the keynote speaker. Lewis also serves as director of external affairs and community engagement for US senator Chris Van Hollen.

The event was held Tuesday night at the Newton White Mansion in Mitchellville, MD. Congratulations and thank you to both organizations for their continued dedication to making Prince George’s County a better place for us all. Ten JGL representatives attended.

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The Third Circuit’s recent decision could have a wide-ranging impact on employers. They ruled a sole use of a racial slur could warrant a harassment claim. The ruling came following a case where two employees were fired after reporting the use of a slur. Click below for the full article. 

Maloney and his team of JGL litigation attorneys argued the victim’s apartment complex did not provide ample security despite frequent complaints from residents. The police had been called to the complex over 500 times in the five years before the incident. Timothy Maloney hopes that it will remind apartment managers that they have an “absolute duty” to ensure the safety of their residents.

Timothy’s team for the trial included litigator Matt Bryant, summary judgement opposition by Alyse Prawde and motions in limine by Levi Zaslow and Timothy Creed.

For more information click the image below. 

Police, legislators and judges are still trying to understand how new bail policies rolled out this month will affect the prison population. Maloney, a former delegate, weighed in with a quote.

The article is titled “High Court Term Ends with Little Fireworks.” Markovitz helps break down some of the Supreme Court decisions that may affect employment law. 

Principals, David Bulitt, Jeffrey Greenblatt and Anne Grover, were recognized by Bethesda Magazine as the area’s top divorce attorneys.

David Bulitt was commended for his work in cases involving children. A father of four daughters and married for 30 years, Bulitt has invaluable insights to the importance of family. Jeffrey Greenblatt was praised for his work on grey divorces, or cases involving those 50 years and older. And Anne Grover was recognized as a rising star, one of the top lawyers under 40, for her determination in providing clients with a favorable outcome.

The article ran in the magazine’s July/August edition, and can be read in full here. 

To learn more about David, Jeffrey or Anne, visit the following links:

• David Bulitt
• Jeffrey Greenblatt
• Anne Grover 

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday, June 26, that it plans to hear arguments later this year on a case that is of great importance to corporate whistleblowers and to people who support them.

The case centers on the Dodd-Frank law, which was passed by Congress in 2010 in the wake of the financial meltdown and provides major protections for whistleblowers, such as freedom from retaliation and potentially large cash awards for pointing out corporate wrongdoing.

The issue before the Court is who qualifies as a whistleblower under Dodd-Frank? Specifically, do the whistleblower protections extend to someone who reported the alleged wrongdoing internally, within the corporation, or do they only help people who choose to report the problems to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission?

In the case that the Court agreed to take, a company called Digital Realty Trust is facing off against a whistleblower, a former company vice president who was fired after complaining about Digital’s alleged violations of securities laws. The employee initially made his complaints internally, not to the SEC.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the employee qualifies for whistleblower protections. In two other cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled the same way, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that an employee must go to the SEC to qualify for whistleblower protection.  The Supreme Court granted Digital’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari to resolve this circuit split. 

The actual words of the Dodd-Frank law give whistleblower status to an employee who reports wrongdoing “to the commission,” in other words to the SEC. But the SEC itself, in regulations that it issued and in court, has consistently taken the view that people who report internally also qualify. 

In 2015, the SEC said that, if protections were to be limited only to whistleblowers who contact the agency, it would risk discouraging “some individuals from first reporting internally in appropriate circumstances and, thus, jeopardize the investor-protection and law-enforcement benefits that can result from internal reporting.” The 9th Circuit agreed and said that the term “whistleblower” needs to be read broadly so as to encourage people to report things that don’t appear to be right. It also said that since the SEC is the chief regulator of corporate malfeasance, its views are entitled to deference (known as “Chevron” deference, after the Supreme Court decision) from the courts.

If the Court decides that the only whistleblowers who are protected are those who report to the SEC, it’s not hard to imagine that people will go straight to the SEC when they spot a possible problem and skip the internal reporting process.  Not only will that reduce the options available to whistleblowers, but it will often make things more difficult for companies. After all, a lot of companies would rather handle an allegation internally than face a formal complaint from the SEC.  Indeed, there is some irony to the position being taken by Digital and its friends at the Chamber of Commerce.  In the context of False Claims Act whistleblower claims, the Chamber and the defense bar have bemoaned the lack of a requirement to report corporate fraud internally before filing a sealed Qui Tam complaint, arguing they should have an opportunity to remedy the alleged fraud internally prior to being subjected to litigation.  Yet here, they take the position that reporting internally provides no protection for whistleblowers. So, corporate defendants appear to have an appetite for having their cake and eating it too, when it suits them best.  

It’s not surprising that the Court chose to take the case. It’s an important question of federal law and one on which the courts of appeals are divided. It will certainly be interesting to see how the newly minted Justice Gorsuch approaches the issue; however, he has shown an outright hostility to the concept of deference to agency interpretation in the past. So it would be very surprising if he voted in favor of the whistleblower here.  It’s hard to predict what the Court as a whole will do, but as a lawyer who represents whistleblowers, I hope that the Court opts for maximum protection of these brave individuals.