Our Litigator of the Week is Pratik Shah, the head of the Supreme Court and appellate practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Shah led a team at the firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups in a lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Texas challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s new “joint employer” rule. The rule, which was set to go into effect this week, could have held companies liable as the employer of workers provided by staffing agencies or hired by franchisees.
But U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler found last week that the proposed rule “would treat virtually every entity that contracts for labor as a joint employer” and that it “exceeds the bounds of the common law.”
