Janie F. Schulman

The world keeps changing, and a big part of Janie F. Schulman's job is helping employers navigate it. In the coming years, Schulman anticipates guiding more clients through issues that may arise from using artificial intelligence in employment settings. And over the past few months, much of Schulman's time has been devoted to counseling clients on their obligations as COVID-19 continues to change workplaces across the nation.

"That's really been fascinating," Schulman said of navigating the pandemic. "I had to get up to speed very quickly on the developing law, which is all brand new, and the answers to the questions are not set in stone unless you were alive for the 1918 pandemic."

"None of us have dealt with these issues before, and the employers and the employees are all aligned in what they want, which is to be able to go back to work in a safe environment," she added.

But COVID-19 doesn't account for all of Schulman's work this year. Two of her most compelling recent cases involve representing companies against whistleblower complaints brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower retaliation provision. The cases have been interesting, Schulman explained, because the whistleblower in the first case is an in-house lawyer, while in the second, "the whistleblower never worked in the United States, he worked... for a subsidiary of a U.S. public company and he's a citizen of another country."

The unique position of the whistleblowers means "these cases sort of test the limit of the law," Schulman said, adding she could not reveal the names of the cases or parties because of confidentiality reasons.

Schulman has been at Morrison & Foerster since she was a student at UC Berkeley Law, and has specialized in employment, whistleblower retaliation, and trade secrets litigation and counseling for more than three decades.

For the last two, she's also provided pro bono services to the Children's Bureau, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, and the Starlight Children's Foundation, and was the founding president of the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center. "That's all really important to me," she said of her pro bono work, "And something that I hope to continue doing as long as I'm practicing law and beyond."

-- Jessica Mach