The holders of H-1B visas, who work in tech, science, and other highly skilled occupations, can bring their children to the U.S. legally. However, as soon as those children turn 21, they lose their dependent status and risk deportation to a country they may have no recollection of ever having lived in.

On this episode of On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Genevieve Douglas talks about the difficult choices these so-called "legal Dreamers" have to make and the bill, which passed in the House, that could solve their problems.

The ADA requires employers to give disabled workers "reasonable accommodations" in the workplace. But, when it comes to disputes over work-from-home arrangements, employers almost always won with the argument that the job can't be performed remotely.

That, as you might imagine, has changed.

On this episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Erin Mulvaney tells us about how the pandemic may have given employees the upper hand in suits over working from home. (2:50)

Also, we hear from Bloomberg Law editor Rob Tricchinelli about how an aspiring condiment impresario was able to salvage a partial victory on appeal after losing big in his suit against a corporate ketchup giant. (13:10)

Federal appellate court judges rarely speak to the press. Fortunately for us, Judge Evan Wallach, a nine-year veteran of the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who recently announced he will be taking senior status at the end of May, granted an exclusive interview to Bloomberg Law's Perry Cooper.

On this episode of On The Merits, Cooper talks about her surprise at how candid Wallach was during their interview, and also about the nakedly partisan reason Wallach gave for why he's taking senior status, a form of semi-retirement, now. (3:05)

Also, Bloomberg Law editor Carmen Castro-Pagan tells us about another judge who, in dismissing what he saw as a frivolous lawsuit, leaned hard on the boxing metaphors. Really hard. (14:42)

The predictions from a few years ago that the so-called "gig economy" would take over the country are looking a little shakier now. That's because California and other states have enacted laws that force many gig apps to classify their users as employees.

On this episode of On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Maeve Allsup talks about how, despite a pro-gig economy ballot initiative last year, many of these apps are still subject to California's employment laws. (3:10)

Also, we take a look at the ongoing trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with the murder of George Floyd. Kristen Gibbons Feden, a former Pennsylvania assistant district attorney who tried and convicted Bill Cosby, talks to us about how to prosecute a trial that's receiving intense media attention. (12:53)

Berkshire Hathaway is unusual in a lot of ways, including the fact that it doesn't have a general counsel or even an in-house legal team. Today on our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Brian Baxter explains why Warren Buffett's holding company exclusively uses an outside law firm and how that firm has benefited from its relationship to The Oracle of Omaha. (3:12) Also, Bloomberg Law legal reporter Jacklyn Wille tells us about the footnotes of a federal judge in California that are, depending on how you look at it, either extremely passive aggressive or remarkably empathetic. (12:18)

For many businesses, 2020 was a truly awful year—but that was not the case for Kirkland & Ellis’s bankruptcy practice. On today’s episode of our podcast, On The Merits, business of law reporter Roy Strom talks about his analysis of bankruptcy data that shows Kirkland handled a tremendous share of the many major bankruptcies that were filed last year. (2:36)

Also, our new columnist Vivia Chen on the necessary and long overdue anti-Asian racism discussion happening now in the U.S. and how it intersects with the legal industry. (12:03)

State bar exams are getting some tweaks and may be fully overhauled in the near future. On this week’s episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law’s Sam Skolnik talks about how emergency changes made to state bar exams, in response to the pandemic, have many thinking that a wholesale revision of how the exams are administered may not be a bad idea. (2:48)

Also, legal editor Carmen Castro-Pagan talks about the ousted CEO of a company who lost a trademark suit with his former employer, and then also lost the patience of the judge hearing his case. (14:54)

This week's episode of our new weekly legal podcast, On The Merits, explores the push to increase the minimum wage for tipped workers. The hourly wage for tipped workers, $2.13, hasn't gone up in decades and is $5.12 lower than for non-tipped workers. (3:01) We also get a lesson in negligence while learning about a casino pool party accident that led to an embarrassing benchslap. (12:14)

Our new weekly podcast, On The Merits features some of the best reporting from across the Bloomberg Law newsroom. For the inaugural episode, we learn that states are sharing reams of sensitive, personally identifiable information about Covid-19 vaccine recipients with the CDC, all while staying in compliance with HIPAA. Bloomberg Law's Jacquie Lee explains how the famously strict medical privacy law has become much more flexible during this public health emergency, and what the CDC is doing to try to maintain some level of privacy for those who receive the vaccine (3:38).

Introducing "On The Merits," a new weekly legal news podcast from Bloomberg Law.