Hoyer Law Group, PLLC

10/01/2026

Congratulations to our managing partner Sean Estes on a great first CLE as co-chair of the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Section! Sean and co-chair Jeff Lieser hosted a packed room yesterday for "Leveling the Playing Field: Advanced AI Practices for Solo & Small Firms," featuring Julian Gilson of IntensifAI and Matthew Ostman of Elevate LawOps, who walked attendees through practical AI workflows for calendaring, litigation drafting, and practice management.

We’re proud to see Sean leading the way for Tampa’s solo and small firm community this bar year. Mark your calendars for the next Section CLE on Wednesday, December 2nd, 12:00–1:00 at the Ferguson Law Center (topic to be announced), and if you’re a Section member with something to say, submit an article for the HCBA Lawyer magazine’s January/February issue; the deadline is November 15th.

Congrats, Sean!

09/26/2026

Day two of 8am Kaleidoscope wrapped the conference with a surprise keynote address from Jesse Cole of the Savannah Bananas. He talked about building a business around serving the people in front of you, rather than the transaction.

After the keynote, there was a great run of sessions on wellness, AI, marketing, and even a panel featuring in-house counsel for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For partner Sean Estes, who happens to be a Savannah “K-Club” member and Bucs season ticket holder, this day felt curated just for him!

Already looking forward to next year!

09/22/2026

Out of office: 8am Kaleidoscope edition.

Partner Sean Estes is heading to Las Vegas to step away from the day-to-day and see what’s next in the legal tech world. Drop a note if you’re there!

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day! A fitting day to think about work, since that’s basically our whole practice. We handle employment law on both sides, plus the business disputes that come with running a company. Different clients, same idea: work is complicated and the rules matter.

Take the day. You earned it!

Hoyer Law Group, PLLC, is a full-service law firm with a nationwide practice that protects employees, advises small businesses, and represents whistleblowers. We are nationally recognized attorneys and tenacious investigators with decades of experience.

09/02/2026

Big win for whistleblowers yesterday. The Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court ruling that had declared the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions unconstitutional, a decision that had put every pending whistleblower fraud case in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama at risk.

The Court held that private citizens who bring these cases, called relators, are not “officers of the United States,” so the Appointments Clause doesn’t apply to them. That means whistleblowers can keep bringing fraud claims against Medicare, defense contractors, and other government programs in this circuit with confidence.

We break down the ruling and what it means going forward:

For more than a year, whistleblowers, defense contractors, healthcare providers, and government fraud lawyers have been watching one case out of Tampa. On

08/07/2026

Great morning at Bucs training camp courtesy of our friends at 8am! Partner Sean Estes and his son got the VIP treatment in the Legends area, breakfast included, and they somehow caught a rare stretch of not-brutal Tampa weather in August.

Bonus: pretty much every local sports mascot showed up to say hello. Always great to see Thunder Bug in the summer!

Thank you to 8am for the hospitality!

07/31/2026

Great evening at Top Shelf Sports Lounge for Family Friendly Tampa Bay’s quarterly networking event. The initiative, part of Thrive by Five, celebrates local businesses that invest in their people through paid leave, flexible schedules, quality healthcare, and competitive wages.

Thanks to Diana Santangelo and the Thrive by Five team for another great event, and to Avocat Group and Top Shelf for hosting.

If you lead a Tampa Bay business, take a look at the Family Friendly designation. It is worth your time!

07/28/2026

Two practical blogs for employers this month.

Layoffs: the legal risk usually does not hit on the day the notices go out. It shows up in the weeks after, in the messaging, the severance paperwork, and who ends up carrying the extra work: https://www.hoyerlawgroup.com/after-the-layoff-how-employers-can-rebuild-trust-and-avoid-legal-risk/

Overtime: if you have a unionized workforce, there are only two ways a contract can legally restructure OT. Miss the hour limits and the exemption disappears, retroactively: https://www.hoyerlawgroup.com/when-a-union-contract-can-change-overtime-rules-two-exceptions-employers-should-know/

Questions on either, you know where to find us!

A reduction in force is one of the hardest decisions any organization makes. Even when the business case is clear, the human impact is not. Jobs are lost,

07/21/2026

For the employers and HR folks who follow us, discrimination and retaliation enforcement is heating up. Three recent reads.

The EEOC published a new enforcement plan running through 2029, and it spells out exactly what the agency plans to go after, including DEI programs: https://www.hoyerlawgroup.com/the-eeoc-has-a-new-enforcement-plan-heres-what-employers-need-to-know/

On that note, a federal appeals court just rejected a claim that mandatory DEI training created a hostile work environment. A win for employers, but the court left the door open, so how you run the training still matters: https://www.hoyerlawgroup.com/tenth-circuit-rejects-dei-training-hostile-work-environment-claim-but-the-door-isnt-closed/

And retaliation has been the number one EEOC charge for 17 years straight. You can lose a retaliation case even when the original complaint had no merit: https://www.hoyerlawgroup.com/workplace-retaliation-what-it-is-who-it-affects-and-what-every-employer-should-do-about-it/

If any of these have you second-guessing a policy, we are glad to take a look.

07/04/2026

Happy 4th of July from all of us at Hoyer Law Group, PLLC.

This year, as America marks its 250th, we are especially reminded of the principles that shaped our country: liberty, accountability, courage, and the rule of law.

We hope everyone has a safe and meaningful Independence Day.

Hoyer Law Group, PLLC, is a full-service law firm with a nationwide practice that protects employees, advises small businesses, and represents whistleblowers. We are nationally recognized attorneys and tenacious investigators with decades of experience.