Where To Learn About Employment Law

In the field of law, professionals must stay up to date on recent laws that have been passed and lawsuits that have been filed. Staying aware of changes to employment law is particularly important, as employment laws are updated regularly and have a broad impact on every industry.

Changes to the law in one state can lead to changes in other states soon after. Federal laws, once enacted, can impact you and your organization swiftly, so you must prepare for them in due course. It’s vital to know what is occurring in your field, so you can stay in compliance and avoid issues or even fines.

Here, we’ll explore some of the best locations online to learn about new changes to employment law, whether you are a student, a member of an HR department or part of a law practice that engages in employment law.

The Bloomberg publication is oriented towards employers and businesses. In addition to regular business news, Bloomberg also publishes information relating to legal issues through its secondary publication, Bloomberg Law.¹ This publication is updated daily.

Bloomberg Law doesn’t report solely on employment law. It includes articles from major legal cases as well as legal commentary on headline news items. It’s three main pages are “Bloomberg Law News,” “Bloomberg Law Analysis,” and “Podcasts.” The Podcasts page contains some worthwhile podcasts to listen to, including podcasts about tax law, Supreme Court decisions and the shifting landscape of the legal industry.

Bloomberg Law provides additional products for users with business and academic accounts. To sign up for an academic account, you must have a valid “law school email address” according to the form.

This website is the online home for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a professional HR association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.² The website provides resources for HR and employment law professionals in the form of tools, templates and educational guides. It also provides a portal for SHRM members.

SHRM also has a dedicated page to employment law, updated with new content multiple times per week.³ This page contains information about changes to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) policies and commentary on developments at other regulatory bodies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state employment regulatory agencies. You can even find resources for specific challenges related to employment law, such as workplace harassment.

The ABA is an association of lawyers and law students. It has been active in the United States for over 140 years. The ABA website provides links to the ABA’s advocacy initiatives as well as to resources for lawyers and prospective lawyers.⁴

The ABA website also houses a Labor & Employment Law page, which is oriented towards employers.⁵ This page provides links to labor and employment law resources, event pages, webinars and publications. If you want regular labor and employment law information from the ABA, you can sign up for their Labor and Employment Law Newsletters. These newsletters are dedicated to employee benefits information, federal labor standards and international employment law.

Law360 is a legal news website owned by LexisNexis providing readers with the latest business law information.⁶ It includes news articles about legal developments as well as educational resources. Law360 also has a dedicated employment law page updated with news stories and articles every day.⁷

Law360 was built for lawyers, but it also provides some of the most recent headlines on changes to employment law. This makes it relevant to HR professionals and business managers as well.

Law360 has a sister site called Law360 Pulse.⁸ This site combines journalism and research from Law360 with the data analytics capabilities of LexisNexis.

Thomson Reuters Westlaw provides content and insights for practitioners of law.⁹ The main site provides links to civil rights information and news, as well as links to legal forms and advice on practicing law.

Westlaw also contains a labor and employment law database that is searchable.¹⁰ The database is updated multiple times per month, providing users with an analysis of the most recent changes in labor law. You can use this site to find practice notes, checklists and information about specific topics like employment litigation.

Fisher Phillips is one of the largest law firms in the U.S. to exclusively represent managers and employers in areas of labor and employment law.¹¹ The Fisher Phillips website contains resources and information related to employment law that are of most interest to employers and HR professionals but would also be relevant to anyone interested in employment law.

Fisher Phillips provides three key resources for labor and employment law students. The firm sends newsletters multiple times per month containing up-to-date information about developments in employment law. Fisher Phillips also has a dedicated articles page for analysis by its legal experts, and it has a blog page for information on specific topics like wage and hour laws.¹²

Unlike many other resources on this list, the LexisNexis Labor and Employment Bulletin is a paid service. It is also somewhat expensive. However, it could be a significant resource for anyone dedicated to studying employment law.

The bulletin, known as “Bender’s Labor and Employment Bulletin,” is a monthly newsletter covering issues important to labor practitioners, employers, HR professionals and legal scholars.¹³ The articles within the newsletter are written by leading employment and labor law experts. You’ll also find analyses of recent labor law developments, including information about new regulations and case decisions.

The newsletter comes in an eBook format. Given the price, this could be a good option for groups of students, classrooms or organizations.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in employment law, the resources listed above are a good place to start. But if you want to be on the cutting edge of the field, consider pursuing an Online Master of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law (MJ-LEL) from Tulane University Law School. Tulane University Law School can help you bring your knowledge and skills up to date and prepare you for what’s next in the legal field.