Discrimination

  • April 17, 2025

    Morgan Stanley Ends Fight Over Worker's $1.6M Bias Award

    Morgan Stanley and a former employee told a North Carolina federal court Thursday that they have reached a deal to end the financial giant's legal challenge to a $1.6 million arbitration award handed to the ex-worker who claimed he was fired out of sex and age bias.

  • April 17, 2025

    Call Center Co. Agrees To End EEOC's Vision Bias Suit

    A call center operator will pay $250,000 to resolve a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit alleging the company fired a blind employee because she needed a screen reader, according to a Texas federal court filing.

  • April 17, 2025

    Beauty Lab Can't Bar Punitive Damages In EEOC Suit

    An Idaho federal judge rejected a beauty product manufacturer's bid to take potential punitive damages off the table in a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming it wouldn't promote a Black chemist because she filed bias complaints, ruling the request was filed too late.

  • April 17, 2025

    Mansfield Rule Widely Adopted By BigLaw Faces DOJ Scrutiny

    A system for sourcing job candidates used by the vast majority of large U.S. law firms called the Mansfield Rule was highlighted by the U.S. Department of Justice in a court filing accusing Perkins Coie LLP of discriminatory hiring practices. However, employment law experts say the program appears to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws.

  • April 16, 2025

    JetBlue Hit With Meal Break, Back Pay Class Suit In Wash.

    JetBlue Airways Corp. is the target of a proposed class action in Washington state court from workers who allege the airline owes them for sick leave and breaks, as well as back pay for new hires, who had to study for mandatory orientation and job assessments.

  • April 16, 2025

    Catholic Org. Wins Permanent Halt To Pregnant Worker Regs

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is barred from enforcing its Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations or updated harassment guidelines against thousands of Catholic employers, with a North Dakota federal judge saying a religious group had demonstrated "a credible threat" to its rights.

  • April 16, 2025

    Workers Hit Fast-Food Co. With Nicotine Fee Suit

    The parent company of popular fast-food chains Arby's, Sonic and Dunkin' has been hit with a proposed class action from workers alleging that the company's fee on the health plans of employees who self-disclosed using nicotine violated federal benefits law.

  • April 16, 2025

    New Suit Calls Out Privacy Risks In EEOC Data Demand

    Three law students' recent lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from obtaining their personal data was centered on concerns about potential misuse by the Trump administration, but experts said the agency's activities also put the students' details at risk of public exposure.

  • April 16, 2025

    Ex-Twitter Worker Can't Add Claims To Age Bias Suit

    A former Twitter employee leading a conditionally certified collective action on behalf of his fellow workers aged 50 and older who were fired after Elon Musk took over the company cannot amend the complaint to add new claims, a California federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • April 16, 2025

    Ex-Operations Manager, NC School Settle Racial Bias Case

    A Black former operations manager for a North Carolina charter school has voluntarily dropped his suit accusing his ex-employer of discriminating against him and firing him under false pretenses, according to a joint motion filed in federal court.

  • April 16, 2025

    Wash. AG Says Seattle Public Schools Shows Pregnancy Bias

    Seattle Public Schools fails to provide pregnant and nursing employees with accommodations such as flexible bathroom breaks and retaliates against workers who request pregnancy-related accommodations, the Washington state attorney general said in a new lawsuit.

  • April 16, 2025

    Iowa Restaurant Operator, EEOC Resolve Sex Harassment Suit

    An operator of Mexican restaurants told an Iowa federal court it has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging it failed to stop male employees from groping and making sexual comments toward female colleagues.

  • April 16, 2025

    Penn State Shuts Down White Ex-Professor's Bias Suit

    A federal judge tossed a suit Wednesday from a white former writing professor who alleged that Pennsylvania State University reprimanded and poorly evaluated him for raising concerns that he faced racial bias on campus, finding he didn't suffer significant enough consequences to sustain retaliation claims.

  • April 16, 2025

    Firms Mum As EEOC Deadline For Diversity Data Passes

    Tuesday marked the deadline for large law firms to answer the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's acting chair's request for detailed information about their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and neither the firms nor the EEOC would confirm if or how the legal heavyweights had responded.

  • April 16, 2025

    Former McCarter & English Atty Fights Bid To Toss Firing Suit

    A former McCarter & English LLP attorney and Navy SEAL has accused the firm in New Jersey state court of trying to "smear" him by claiming he was fired for his offensive social media posts rather than his advocacy for veterans.

  • April 16, 2025

    Trump Admin Sues Maine Over Transgender Athlete Policy

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued Maine's education department over its transgender athlete policies, accusing it of violating the "core protections" of Title IX by allowing biological males to participate in women's sports.

  • April 16, 2025

    Duane Morris Employment Pro Joins Frost Brown In San Fran

    Frost Brown Todd LLP announced that an experienced litigator who's spent over a decade working on labor and employment matters has joined the firm's San Francisco office as a partner from Duane Morris LLP.

  • April 16, 2025

    DOJ Resists Perkins Coie Summary Judgment Bid In EO Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice is continuing to defend President Donald Trump's March 6 order suspending security clearances held by Perkins Coie LLP attorneys, arguing on Wednesday that the BigLaw firm cannot take an early win, in part due to the firm's alleged "discriminatory employment activities" through participation in Mansfield Certification.

  • April 16, 2025

    Novel Equal Pay Laws Double-Edged Sword, Advocate Says

    Worker-side attorney Schwanda Rountree said she is optimistic about pay transparency empowering employees but wary of how other developments in equal pay-adjacent areas and return-to-work policies may inadvertently hurt workers. Here, Law360 speaks with Rountree about how pay-gap issues will evolve.

  • April 16, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Doubts CTA Worker's Signal Chat Claims

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday expressed skepticism that a lower court erred in tossing a former Chicago Transit Authority employee's retaliation suit as a sanction for spoiling evidence, saying he changed his story about how electronic phone messages were deleted after a Signal executive said the initial explanation was technologically impossible.

  • April 16, 2025

    Construction Cos., EEOC Resolve Suit Over Racist Comments

    A trio of building materials and auto mechanic companies agreed to pay nearly $216,000 to resolve a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming it failed to stop a supervisor from using racial slurs to refer to Black and Hispanic employees, according to a filing in Florida federal court.

  • April 16, 2025

    Pa. Law Firm Escapes Ex-Paralegal's Bias Claims, For Now

    A federal judge largely nixed a suit brought by a former paralegal for a Pennsylvania law firm who claimed she was fired for taking medical leave to treat her panic disorder, ruling her complaint was short on specifics about whether she was disabled under the law.

  • April 16, 2025

    Law Firm Must Face Trial For Ex-CPO's Retaliation Claims

    A personal injury law firm can't dodge a suit from its former chief people officer accusing the firm of firing her after she raised concerns about pay bias, a Tennessee federal judge ruled, because the firm didn't back up its claim that she was fired for insubordination. 

  • April 16, 2025

    Transgender Women Don't Count As Women Under UK Law

    Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that the definition of a woman in the country's equality law is restricted to biological sex, ruling that it would create an incoherent system of protected characteristics if transgender women were included.

  • April 15, 2025

    Google Failed To Pay $2M In Commissions, Ex-Sales Rep Says

    A former Google Cloud unit salesperson alleged the company blocked him from receiving $2 million in commissions after he landed a $35 million contract with Otis Elevator and fired him while he underwent cancer treatment to avoid paying out nearly $3 million in life insurance benefits.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Pa. Ruling Highlights Challenges Of Employer Arb. Appeals

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    A Pennsylvania federal court's recent ruling in Welch Foods v. General Teamsters Local Union No. 397 demonstrates the inherent difficulties employers face when seeking relief from labor arbitration decisions through appeals in court — and underscores how employers are faced with often conflicting legal priorities, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 7 Ways To Prepare For An I-9 Audit Or Immigration Raid

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    Because immigration enforcement is likely to surge under the upcoming Trump administration, employers should take steps to ensure their staff is trained in employment eligibility verification requirements and what to do in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audit or workplace raid, say attorneys at Littler.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • Disentangling Various Forms Of Workplace Discrimination

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    Pay inequity can be missed where it exists and misidentified due to incorrect statistics, leaving individuals to face multiple facets of discrimination connected by a common root cause, meaning correct identification and measurement is crucial, says Daniel Levy at Advanced Analytical.

  • Key Requirements In New Maryland Pay Transparency Laws

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    Although several jurisdictions now require pay transparency in job advertisements, Maryland's new law is among the broadest in the country, both in terms of what is required and the scope of its applicability, says Sarah Belger at Quarles & Brady.

  • Lessons From EEOC Case Of Fla. Worker Fired After Stillbirth

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    A recent federal court settlement between a Florida resort and a fired line cook shows that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission sees stillbirth as protected under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, also providing four other important lessons, says Gordon Berger at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Advising Employers As AI Meets DEI And Discrimination

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    Though companies can use artificial intelligence tools to develop more diverse and inclusive workforces, counsel should also prepare employers for how AI can stymie these efforts, provoke discrimination claims and complicate resulting litigation, says Emily Schifter at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Look At The Hefty Demands In Calif. Employer AI Draft Regs

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    California's draft regulations on artificial intelligence use in employment decisions show that the California Privacy Protection Agency is positioning itself as a de facto AI regulator for the state, which isn't waiting around for federal legislation, says Lily Li at Metaverse Law.

  • Federal Salary History Ban's Reach Is Limited

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    Though a newly effective Office of Personnel Management rule takes important steps by banning federal employers from considering job applicants' nonfederal salary histories, the rule's narrow applicability and overconfidence in the existing system's fairness will likely not end persistent pay inequities, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.

  • 2nd Circ. Hostile Workplace Ruling Widens Arbitration Pitfalls

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision, affirming the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act applies to a worker whose workplace hostility claims arose before the law’s 2022 enactment, widens the scope of the law — and the risks of unenforceable arbitration agreements for employers, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • Title VII Compliance Lessons From Raytheon Age Bias Suit

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    A Texas federal court’s recent refusal to dismiss age discrimination claims from a former Raytheon employee, terminated after he admitted to acts that Raytheon says violated its harassment policy, nonetheless illustrates strategies employers can use to protect themselves when facing competing Title VII workplace obligations, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

  • How The Presidential Election Will Affect Workplace AI Regs

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    The U.S. has so far adopted a light-handed approach to regulating artificial intelligence in the labor and employment area, but the presidential election is unlikely to have as dramatic of an effect on AI regulations as it may on other labor and employment matters, say attorneys at Littler.