#employment-termination

#employment-termination

That's a lesson attorney Shannon Kobylarczyk is learning the hard way. Kobylarczyk *was* the associate general counsel at ManpowerGroup, a staffing agency. But that changed after she attended Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. Kobylarczyk, a Brewers fan bedecked in all the gear, was upset when the Dodgers took a 3-1 lead and took that anger out on a Dodgers fan in the stadium.

Ocean Valentine was working at Urban Assembly Early College High School of Emergency Medicine when she kicked off a totally inappropriate fling with a teenage student back in May 2022. She was 22. He was 17. And they weren't exactly hiding what they were up to. According to an official report, it all started when Valentine told the student she was active on Instagram. He hit her up, they swapped numbers, and things escalated fast.

Newscasters. Columnists. Professors. Flight attendants. Comic writers. Late-night talk show hosts. Dozens of people have lost their jobs in the past week for criticizing Charlie Kirk in the wake of his death, some after conservatives mobilized online to find and report posts they deemed were not sufficiently mournful. Many of these people have been reprimanded not because they advocated violence, but simply because they posted Kirk's own words.

If an attorney chooses to publicly air controversial opinions, they can expect to get fired. Law firms are a business first, and if their public-facing professionals make statements that alienate clients or create the whiff of a hostile work environment, the firm can cut ties to protect its business. It's not a free speech thing, it's just business. That said, firing someone over their remarks is always a question of "coulda and shoulda."

Shakira Zahiruddin, 32, of the Bronx, had been employed at the all-women's institution on Manhattan's Upper West Side until Aug. 26, when she was abruptly terminated via email. The decision left her without income or health coverage for herself, her two children, ages 7 and 13, and her unborn baby, the single mother said, noting that her medical benefits expired six days after her firing.

Erez Reuveni highlights the pressure on career attorneys within the Justice Department: "Career attorneys can't...go to court and parrot these similar talking points that have no basis in law and have no support."