Tom Cedoz

Insights

Articles and updates — mostly Michigan employment law, commercial litigation, and the mechanics of practice. If you’re short on time, the resources are the useful part of this site; this page is the commentary.

  • Commentary · AI

    Why AI Invents Cites

    The model guesses the next bit of text. An agent is that guesser with tools and a stop. The legal trouble is in the machine.

    August 2026

  • Commentary · Data center law

    Process Risk After the Min-Bill

    Approved is not the same as fundable. U-21990 carries the weight: Michigan Court of Appeals briefs attacking DTE’s ex parte Saline contracts. Ohio’s Ashville writ, Trenton mandamus, and AEP SSO order are companions. Map the residual on the stamp.

    August 2026

  • Commentary · Data center law

    Data Center Law in Ohio and Michigan

    An April draft called the legal issues in the Ohio and Michigan data center build-out the ones nobody was talking about. Four months rewrote it: Michigan enacted its exemption and then asked developers to pledge restraint, Ohio paused its own program, the AEP tariff went to the Ohio Supreme Court, and fifty-odd townships reached for moratoria. The convergence thesis held; the dockets named it.

    July 2026

  • LexisNexis Practical Guidance · Practice note

    Pro Se Plaintiff Employment Cases: Defense Strategies

    A practice note for employers and defense counsel on self-represented employment litigation in federal court: early case assessment, threshold defenses, discovery with an unrepresented party, protecting the settlement — and the harder categories, from vexatious filers and sovereign citizens to plaintiffs who run their case through AI tools. The summary opens here, no account; the full note is on Lexis.

    July 2026 · PDF · published by LexisNexis

  • Commentary · AI governance

    AI Regulation Did Not Retreat

    The year’s AI-law headlines read like a retreat — Brussels delayed, Colorado repealed, the EEOC went quiet. A litigator on the deadlines that moved, the machinery date that didn’t, and the Workday docket where the real rules are being written: vendor-as-agent liability, disparate impact, and a privilege ruling that should reorganize every AI compliance program.

    July 2026

  • Commentary · Trade secrets

    When an Employee Leaves With Work Product

    Apple’s suit against OpenAI, read by a litigator who defends these cases: most trade-secret complaints are stretch cases, and this one, as pleaded, is not. On the line the doctrine draws — skill moves; work product does not — and the questions the complaint should put on every employer’s staff-meeting agenda.

    July 2026

  • Michigan Litigation Journal · State Bar of Michigan Litigation Section

    Fixing Michigan’s Fragmented E‑Filing

    Michigan’s e-filing patchwork turns ordinary filings into logistical problems — different interfaces county to county, entire courts reachable only by car or envelope. This piece argues a unified statewide system is now realistic, and comes with a working open-source proof of concept rather than a slide deck.

    Spring 2026

  • Project · Open source

    MUEFS — Michigan Unified E‑Filing System

    The proof of concept behind the article: one login, every Michigan court, with companion-document prompts keyed to the court rules, a clerk review queue, and public case search. Fully navigable in the browser — live demo, source on GitHub (AGPL‑3.0).

    2026 · ongoing

  • Husch Blackwell · Legal Update

    Ohio’s New AI Ethics Guide: What Every Lawyer and Judge Needs to Know Right Now

    Ohio’s Board of Professional Conduct has distilled the sanctions orders, disciplinary cases, and emerging national consensus on generative AI into practical guardrails. What the guidance actually asks of lawyers and judges — competence, confidentiality, verification, supervision — and where the open questions remain.

    June 2026 · external link

  • Husch Blackwell · Labor Relations Law Insider

    Employer Takeaways from Baseball Union Leader’s Abrupt Resignation

    The MLBPA’s leadership crisis, read as a labor-relations case study: what turmoil inside a union does — and doesn’t — change for employers heading into contentious bargaining.

    March 2026 · external link

  • Husch Blackwell · Labor & Employment Law Insights

    Michigan Supreme Court Upends Shortened Limitations Periods in Employment Contracts

    Contractually shortened limitations periods in adhesive employment agreements must now survive judicial scrutiny for reasonableness — a real change for employers that have relied on them, with practical drafting implications.

    August 2025 · external link

  • Series · Followed across four years

    Michigan’s minimum wage and paid sick leave overhaul

    One ballot initiative, an adopt-and-amend maneuver, a constitutional challenge, a Supreme Court ruling, and an eleventh-hour legislative amendment — covered as it unfolded, while Michigan employers rewrote their handbooks twice. The pieces, in order:

    2022–2025 · external links

  • Husch Blackwell · Labor & Employment Law Insights

    Employers with Out-of-State Employees: A Method for Assessing Wage & Hour Obligations

    Remote work scattered employees across states, and wage-and-hour obligations scattered with them. A practical method for assessing the differences before they become collective actions. With Tracey O’Brien.

    May 2022 · external link