New York Locke Lord Partner Richard Reibstein Quoted by Law360 on Impact of DOL’s Independent Contractor Rule

Richard Reibstein, a New York Partner in Locke Lord’s Labor and Employment Practice Group and co-head of the Firm’s Independent Contractor Compliance and Misclassification Practice, was quoted by Law360 on the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule regarding independent contractor status, which became effective on March 11, 2024. The regulation, which faces growing lawsuits and scrutiny on Capitol Hill, overturned the final rule issued by the Trump Administration in 2021, and returns to a test that pre-dated the 2021 regulation. Despite the differences between the 2021 and 2024 versions, Reibstein notes the newly issued rule itself is unlikely to have a big impact as “courts rely on their own precedents instead of looking to a DOL rule for guidance on worker classification.”

“Our review of reported case decisions shows that no federal judge ever cited to the official citation to the 2021 rule in the three years in which it was in existence,” he says. “I would expect the courts to give the 2024 rule the same lack of attention.”

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