On Wednesday, February 19, 2025, Acting Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) Chair Andrea R. Lucas announced the EEOC plans to target employers that “illegally prefer non-American workers,” as well as “staffing agencies and other agents that unlawfully comply with client companies’ illegal preferences against American workers” through increased enforcement of Title VII’s national origin protections.
Allan Bloom
Allan Bloom is the co-chair of Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Law Department and a nationally recognized litigator and advisor who represents employers, business owners, and management in a broad range of employment and labor law matters. As a litigator, Allan has successfully defended many of the world’s leading companies against claims for unpaid wages, employment discrimination, breach of contract and wrongful discharge, both at the trial and appellate court levels as well as in arbitration, before government agencies, and in private negotiations. He has secured complete defense verdicts for clients in front of juries, as well as injunctions to protect clients’ confidential information and assets.
As the leader of Proskauer’s Wage and Hour Practice Group, Allan has been a strategic partner to a number of Fortune 500 companies to help them avoid, minimize and manage exposure to wage and hour-related risk. Allan’s views on wage and hour issues have been featured in The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg and Fortune, among other leading publications. His class-action defense work for clients has saved billions of dollars in potential damages.
Allan is regularly called on to advise operating companies, management companies, fund sponsors, boards of directors and senior leadership on highly sensitive matters including executive and key person transitions, internal investigations and strategic workforce planning. He has particular expertise in the financial services industry, where he has litigated, arbitrated, and mediated disputes for more than 20 years.
A prolific author and speaker, Allan was the Editor of the New York State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Journal from 2012 to 2017. He has served as an author, editor and contributor to a number of leading treatises in the field of employment law, including ADR in Employment Law (ABA/Bloomberg BNA), Employment Discrimination Law (ABA/Bloomberg BNA), Cutting Edge Advances in Resolving Workplace Disputes (Cornell University/CPR), The Employment Law Review (Law Business Research, U.S. Chapter Author), and The Complete Compliance and Ethics Manual (SCCE).
Allan has served as longtime pro bono counsel to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Public Theater, among other nonprofit organizations. He is a past Vice Chair of Repair the World, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes volunteers and their communities to take action to pursue a just world, and a past recipient of the Lawyers Alliance Cornerstone Award for extraordinary contributions through pro bono legal services.
Allan is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been recognized as a leading practitioner by Chambers since 2011.
DOL’s Power to Set Salary Minimum for Overtime Exemption Ripe for SCOTUS Review
On February 14, 2025, the Fifth Circuit denied the appellants’ petition for rehearing en banc in Mayfield v. United States Dep’t of Labor—a September 2024 decision holding that the U.S. Department of Labor’s authority to “define” and “delimit” the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions includes the…
DOL Appeal of Decision Invalidating 2024 Overtime Rule Likely on Last Legs
On November 15, 2024, in State of Texas v. United States Dep’t of Labor, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) exceeded its rulemaking authority by issuing a rule in April 2024 raising the minimum salary for exemption as an executive, administrative…
White House “Regulatory Freeze” Directive Pauses Most Federal Rulemaking
As expected, the White House issued a directive to the heads of all executive departments and agencies within the first few hours after President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, requesting that they halt all non-emergency rulemaking and regulatory activity pending review by the new administration.
The order directs the executive agencies, which include the U.S.