O'Connor Completes Acquisition of Marathon by Silvercrest And Returns to Full-Time Practice

OCM congratulates its partner, Tom O'Connor, on completing the acquisition of Marathon Capital Group, LLC by Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC ("Silvercrest"). Tom co-founded Marathon in March 2000, and helped build its assets to approximately $600 million at the time of the acquisition. Tom's experience as COO, compliance officer and general counsel of Marathon, in addition to his nearly 30 years of complex litigation and workout experience will be invaluable to OCM's clients as Tom returns to the full-time practice of law in October 2008.

EEOC Provides Guidance on Increasing Number of Religious Issues in the Workplace

This past July 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance concerning religious discrimination in the workplace. According to the EEOC, the new guidance reflects a growing number of questions about religion in the workplace. In a 2001 survey of human resource professionals conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, 36% of human resource professionals who responded reported an increase in the religious diversity of their employees in the preceding five years. In fact, religious discrimination charges filed with the EEOC have more than doubled from 1992 to 2007. Many employers seek legal guidance in managing the issues that arise as religious diversity in the American workplace continues to increase.

In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court has addressed religious discrimination in two cases this year. In January, the SJC ruled against the MBTA in a suit brought by a Seventh Day Adventist who requested a schedule change to accommodate his religious need to stay home on Saturdays. More recently, the SJC heard the case of a Rastafarian who refused to shave his beard for religious reasons and whose employer assigned him to a place where customers would not see him.

The EEOC guidance addresses questions concerning mainstream religions, non-traditional religions and even religious views not recognized by any organized religion and will prove helpful to businesses grappling with thorny religious questions in the workplace. Consider the following example from the EEOC:

Morgana asks for time off on October 31 to attend the "Samhain Sabbat," the New Year observance of Wicca, her religion. Her supervisor refuses, saying that Wicca is not a "real" religion but an "illogical conglomeration" of "various aspects of the occult, such as faith healing, self hypnosis, tarot card reading, and spell casting, which are not religious practices." The supervisor's refusal to accommodate her on the ground that he believes her religion is illogical violates Title VII unless the employer can show her request would impose an undue hardship. The law applies to religious beliefs even though others may find them "incorrect" or "incomprehensible." EEOC Compliance Manual, Section 12 - I, Example 4.

A complete version of the guidance can be found on-line at http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/religion.html.