Third Circuit Rules: Big Cheese Is No Employee

In its 2003 decision in Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates, P.C. v. Wells, the United States Supreme Court utilized a six-factor analysis, with no one factor being determinative, to assess whether a shareholder-director of a professional corporation is also considered an "employee" for purposes of the ADA. The Supreme Court outlined the following six-factors in the case:

1. Whether the organization can hire or fire the individual or set the rules and regulations of the individual's work
2. Whether and, if so, to what extent the organization supervises the individual's work
3. Whether the individual reports to someone higher in the organization
4. Whether and, if so, to what extent the individual is able to influence the organization