Our new president has us all hopping . . .

Andrew Puzder's advocacy for franchises makes him a target. Dan Murphy and Jeff Rosin from our Franchise Industry Group talk about the Puzder nomination (he's President Trump's choice for Secretary of Labor) and the groups seeking to block his confirmation. As we've noted a couple of times this week, Mr. Puzder's confirmation hearing, most recently scheduled for February 7, has now been postponed again with no new date while he divests his holdings in CKE Restaurants, Inc.

What the President's latest immigration order means for employers -- and for the foreign nationals they employ. Will Krasnow and Jeanette Phelan have an excellent summary of the key provisions of President Trump's Executive Order (the one issued last Friday, which caused the protests), as well as practical advice for employers. In 25 words or less, the advice is "Keep 'em here."

Daily Trumpdates for the week. We had a "Daily Trumpdate" every business day this week, including the White House statement on President Obama's LGBT Order (President Trump is going to leave it in place), the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and a close-up review of some of Judge Gorsuch's opinions that might be of interest to employers. Just enter "Daily Trumpdate" in the search field, and they'll all be there for you. (The pace of these may be slowing down from here on out - we'll see.)

The latest edition of ConstangyTV's Close-Up on Workplace Law is on the air in cyberspace! Host Leigh Tyson interviews Jim Goh, head of our Denver Office, about what employers can expect in the coming year. I'm so nice, I'll save you the trouble of having to go all the way over to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSIALsVeVFk&t=25s

And for those of you who would like to hear about something other than this Administration, we aim to please . . .

Employee cyber theft and the fascinating case of Sergey Aleynikov. Billy Hammel has an outstanding discussion of the successful (so far) prosecution of Mr. Aleynikov under New York state law for "borrowing" the Goldman Sachs high-frequency trading code so that Mr. Aleynikov's new employer could use it. (A conviction under federal law was reversed on appeal.) The critical legal question: Does uploading a bunch of code onto a server make the copy "tangible"? Billy also has some good tips for employers who want to protect themselves.

National Interest Waivers for permanent resident status in the United States may be easier to get now. Hard to believe, but not when you realize that the standard for these waivers was relaxed in late December, before President Trump took office. Barbara Kihumba of our Immigration Group has the details.

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by Jelene Morris.