Hello! Welcome to KCNBLAWG, the blog of law firm Kalijarvi, Chuzi & Newman, P.C. Located in downtown Washington, D.C., this firm was founded thirty years ago by June Kalijarvi, one of the first women to graduate from Georgetown University Law Center. When she graduated, June found that literally no employer was willing to hire her because she was a woman, her Georgetown law degrees notwithstanding. Thus, she had no choice but to start her own firm, and she decided to specialize in the then-brand new field of employment discrimination. Thirty years later, we’re still going strong, and still practicing in the ever-evolving and absolutely crucial area of employment law – the one practice area which impacts nearly every person in this country every day.
Due to our location, we specialize in federal employment cases but we also represent private sector clients as well. We represent employees, agencies, private-sector employers and non-profits. Our practice is nationwide: we travel to all fifty states and abroad for federal cases and have worked with local counsel in jurisdictions where our attorneys are not licensed to practice. Just FYI, the attorneys of this firm are licensed to practice in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, California, and, of course, the District of Columbia.
The “vision” for this blawg is to be a weekly-updated employment law blog which will point out interesting developments (okay, “interesting” to people who care deeply about employment law) either by posting our own content or by providing links to other websites or articles of interest. We will of course also provide you with our take on the issues, because (we are constantly told) we are extremely argumentative. (Hello, we’re litigators!) We won’t be discussing our own cases unless and until there is a final disposition that is a matter of public record and/or a settlement that is not subject to a confidentiality clause.
Caveats: Please note that this blawg will emphatically NOT be providing legal advice. Employment law, like most practice areas, is extremely fact-specific. Title VII, the ADA and the ADEA are complicated, to put it mildly. Even the most basic considerations – like the deadlines for filing complaints – can vary depending on what seems like negligible details to the average person. If we happen to discuss a certain case (or statute or reg) herein and it sounds like the case might have some applicability to problems you are experiencing at work, please do not think that you can rely on the blog entry as legal advice. Just to be clear: you can’t rely on the advice of anyone who isn’t your attorney. And you aren’t our client unless you have (1) called us to make an appointment, (2) come in for a consult, (3) received an offer by us to represent you, and (4) signed a retainer agreement. So, if you think you may have an employment claim or lawsuit, even if you don’t call us, please contact an attorney and be prepared to pony up the money to get professional advice about your individual case. Even if you find out that you don’t have a case, it could be the wisest money you’ve ever spent because you won’t spend the next two years trying to convince a judge that your case should not be dismissed even though you missed a filing deadline or forgot to mention something crucial until a year into the case (e.g., that in addition to being a racist/sexist/ageist jerk, your boss also demoted you two years ago after you refused to go out with him (or her)).
Also, please don’t assume that we will be posting everything that you need to know about current developments in employment law. Frankly, there will be weeks when we’ll simply be too busy to fiddle with the blog, for which we apologize in advance.
Last of all, the editor for KCNBLAWG is me, Heather White. I’m an associate attorney at KCN and have practiced both labor and employment law for the last four years, in New York and then D.C., since graduating from Tulane Law School. Your emails, should you choose to send us any, will come to me. And most of the time, our blog entries will be posted by me, thus the “HGW” signature.
Any questions? Let us know! And thanks for stopping by. Check with us on Mondays for the latest, and bookmark us if you like what you read – or if you at least find it interesting. You don’t have to like us. You just have to read us.
