Employment Discrimination Litigation

A Early Morning Social Media Strategy Session

July 30, 2012, 7:10-9:10 a.m. (registration and coffee opens at 7 a.m.)

Best Practices for Establishing a Social Media Employee Policy and Minimizing Your Exposure to Employment Litigation Arising From the Use of Social Media

Teresa Hutson
Senior Counsel
Microsoft

Thomas S. Grow
Senior Labor Counsel
FedEx Express Corp.

Pamela Samuels
Managing Counsel
Toyota

A. Kevin Troutman
Fisher & Phillips LLP

Eve I. Klein
Duane Morris LLP

Gregg Brochin
Davis & Gilbert LLP

Your clients must make use of social media without exposing themselves to an increased risk of litigation from employees. Participants will come away from this session with a nuanced and detailed understanding of the ways in which employees use social media, both during and before and after working hours, as well as the types of claims that employers can face from employee use of social media. You will also obtain the key insights and strategies needed to develop an effective social media policy as well as defend against any claims that may arise. Benchmark your social media policies and strategies (or those of your clients) against those of other defense attorneys and ensure that you are up-to-date on this critical and emerging area of employment law. Topics to be addressed include:

• Assessing an employee’s rights to deal with his or her employment concerns, including discrimination and retaliation issues, in a public forum (e.g. posting on a blog, Facebook, or Twitter)
• Evaluating the NLRB’s position on the rights of both union and non-union employees to engage in online social activity
• Assessing the merger of traditional labor law with social media in the employment context
• Lessons learned from use of social media in the workplace
• Policies and practices relating to technology: “Bring your own device” policies
• Pitfalls to avoid when using social media to screen potential and current employees: Minimizing exposure to potential privacy and discrimination claims; Best practices regarding accessing information that would otherwise not be readily available to an employer
• Determining whether and when to use information obtained from social media sources to make employment decisions
• Assessing the potential for employer liability arising from employee use of social media, both on and off of corporate time
• Developing and implementing a social media policy that will adequately protect the company without stifling employees: Monitoring and enforcing the policy; Responding to employee misconduct
• Privacy concerns that can arise from employer and employee use of social media
• Managing and defending against claims arising from the use of social media

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