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Employment
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October 28, 2024
Surge In Nicotine Fee Suits Shows Wellness Program Risks
A recent crop of suits accusing large employers of violating nondiscrimination provisions in federal benefits law by making workers who use nicotine pay more for health insurance underscore the risk of using fees to offset healthcare costs, attorneys say. Here are five nicotine surcharge suits to keep an eye on.
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October 28, 2024
Colo. Judge: Attys Have Work To Do On Disability Acceptance
A Colorado appeals court judge who co-founded the Colorado Disability Bar Association told a room of law students Monday that while the legal community has made progress on being inclusive of those with physical disabilities, work remains on accepting lawyers with "invisible disabilities" like mental health conditions, neurodivergence and chronic pain.
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October 28, 2024
Boeing Moves Ahead With $19B Share Sale Amid Cash Crunch
Boeing launched plans Monday to sell common and preferred stock estimated to raise nearly $19 billion, potentially easing the aviation giant's cash crush amid a prolonged strike and production setbacks, represented by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and underwriters' counsel Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
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October 28, 2024
NY Suit Over Inaccurate Background Check Gets Dropped
A man who lost a job opportunity with the Home Shopping Network after an allegedly faulty background check pinned him for cocaine trafficking instead of marijuana peddling agreed to drop his suit against the screening company.
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October 28, 2024
2nd Circ. Enforces NLRB Order Against Theater Co.
The Second Circuit has enforced a National Labor Relations Board order compelling a theatrical production company to hand over certain documents to the Actors' Equity Association, saying Monday the company can't cite a concern that the union might publicize the information as a reason to withhold it.
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October 28, 2024
Yellow Corp. Says Failing Biz Excuses WARN Act Duty
Bankrupt trucking firm Yellow Corp. told a Delaware judge Monday that it should get early wins in suits brought by laid off employees, saying that because the company had ceased most business operations, it was excused from notification obligations surrounding the firing of thousands of workers.
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October 28, 2024
DOD Settles Bias Suit Over 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Discharges
The U.S. Department of Defense has reached a settlement in principle with a group of LGBTQ+ service members who sued the U.S. military in California federal court claiming veterans discharged under the former Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which banned non-heterosexual service members, continued to face discrimination.
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October 28, 2024
J. Crew Asks Court To Ratify Ex-GC's Arbitration Loss
J. Crew is asking a New York federal judge to confirm an arbitrator's ruling from earlier this month that found it hadn't fired its former legal chief, Maria DiLorenzo, in retaliation for her complaints about colleagues' discriminatory comments about her hearing loss.
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October 28, 2024
Philly Attys Sued For Allegedly Botching Bias Lawsuit
A malpractice suit filed in Philadelphia court alleges that attorneys at the Law Offices of Eric A. Shore did not properly manage a pair of federal employment discrimination cases for a power plant engineer, causing the dismissal of one complaint and a diminished jury verdict in the second.
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October 28, 2024
Pierson Ferdinand Hires Ex-Morris Manning L&E Atty
Pierson Ferdinand LLP announced Monday that a former Morris Manning & Martin LLP attorney whose practice spans litigation, human resources counseling and transactional work is the latest addition to its employment, labor and benefits practice.
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October 28, 2024
Medical Laser Co. Seeks Multiplier For Rival's 'Deceitful' Raid
A medical laser company has asked a Boston federal judge to double or triple its $25 million verdict against a rival firm — and tack on attorney fees and $6.8 million in interest — for a "calculated and deceitful corporate raid" on its sales workforce.
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October 28, 2024
Fired Exec Says TikTok Can't Force Bias Suit Into Arbitration
A fired TikTok marketing executive told a New York federal court the company can't short-circuit her suit claiming her age and gender landed her on a company "kill list," arguing that her case is protected by a law curbing mandatory arbitration because it includes sexual harassment allegations.
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October 28, 2024
Farm Co. Can't Push Worker's Wage Suit To Arbitration
A California appeals court refused to send to arbitration a farm laborer's suit accusing a farm labor contractor of shorting workers on wages, saying the company can't rely on an arbitration pact that one of its clients signed with the workers.
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October 25, 2024
5th Circ. Punts Musk Tweet Lawfulness, But Axes NLRB Order
An en banc Fifth Circuit majority on Friday overturned a National Labor Relations Board decision that a tweet Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent during a United Auto Workers unionization campaign violated federal labor law, while the court's dissenting members criticized the majority's decision as "logically incoherent."
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October 25, 2024
OpenAI, Authors Battle Over Execs' Texts And Proof Of Harm
California labor law doesn't shield OpenAI from producing CEO Sam Altman's and President Greg Brockman's texts and social media messages relevant to a copyright infringement lawsuit, authors alleging OpenAI and Microsoft illegally used their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence program ChatGPT have told a New York federal judge.
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October 25, 2024
NLRB Wins Injunction, Defeats Constitutional Claims In Mich.
A Michigan federal judge handed the National Labor Relations Board two victories Friday in the agency's dispute with a hospital, ordering the hospital to resume recognizing the Service Employees International Union affiliate it ousted last year and rejecting the hospital's argument that the agency's structure is unconstitutional.
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October 25, 2024
How Big Crash Verdict Revealed Blueprint For Suing Amazon
A rare $16.2 million verdict against Amazon recently awarded by a Georgia jury is proof that a blueprint of sorts now exists for pinning liability on the retail giant in crash cases involving independent contractors, according to a veteran attorney who helped win the case.
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October 25, 2024
Ex-Venture Global Exec Says Co. Lowballed, Then Fired Her
A former Venture Global executive has sued the U.S. natural gas company in Virginia federal court for allegedly breaching a decades-old stock option agreement, claiming the company's co-founders refused to let her exercise millions of dollars' worth of soon-to-expire options, then fired her for complaining.
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October 25, 2024
Vidal Warned Of 'Heightened' Burden, 'Loophole' In Seed Fight
Two new petitions in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director say the patent administrative board created "a heightened new standard" in one instance and a trade secrets "loophole" in another in order to protect patents covering purportedly novel corn seeds developed by a unit of DowDuPont spin-off Corteva.
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October 25, 2024
Employment Authority: W&H Compliance Under AI Guidance
Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on how the U.S. Department of Labor's recent guidance for artificial intelligence highlights how employers need to keep an eye on wage and hour compliance and how Alaska could open new paths for captive audience bans.
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October 25, 2024
Yale, Travelers Beat Conn. Age Bias Appeals
A Connecticut appeals court on Friday declined to revive claims that Yale University and Travelers Indemnity Co. committed age discrimination with job postings seeking "recent" college graduates, reasoning that the court that threw out the cases properly interpreted state high court precedent.
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October 25, 2024
Jury Mostly Sides With Woodland Tools On False Ad Claims
A Wisconsin federal jury has largely found in favor of gardening toolmaker Woodland Tools on allegations that competitor Fiskars Brands made false claims about the design origin and cutting power of Fiskars products including pruners and shears.
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October 25, 2024
NJ Ethics Board Faces Contempt Bid In Retaliation Fight
Counsel for a New Jersey health official who claimed his firing during the COVID-19 pandemic was retaliatory asked a court to hold the State Ethics Commission in contempt for stalling discovery under the guise that the state health regulator initiated the termination, despite "well documented" evidence that it was the commission and Gov. Phil Murphy.
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October 25, 2024
Split Mich. Panel Won't Revive Janitor's Burn Injury Suit
A divided Michigan appellate panel has declined to revive a former manufacturing plant janitor's lawsuit over a workplace explosion that left him severely injured, with the majority saying the case is time-barred by a statute of limitations clause in his employment agreement.
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October 25, 2024
'Quiet On Set' Free Speech Row Has Judge Reaching For Advil
A California judge was undecided Friday about tossing on free speech grounds a defamation lawsuit from former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider against Warner Brothers Discovery Inc. over its "Quiet on Set" docuseries, remarking during a hearing that such motions are so headache-inducing he must "remember to bring [his] Advil."
Expert Analysis
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Insights On NLRB General Counsel's New 'Stay-Or-Pay' Memo
Attorneys at Davis Wright discuss the National Labor Relations Board general counsel's new memorandum on employer “stay-or-pay” policies and noncompete agreements, and explain key takeaways concerning the proposed financial remedies, prosecution framework and more.
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Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
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How To Avoid Risking Arbitration Award Confidentiality In NY
Though a Second Circuit decision last year seemed to create a confidentiality safe harbor for arbitration awards that had no ongoing compliance issues, a recent New York federal court ruling offers further guidance on the meaning of "ongoing compliance issues," says Matthew Iverson at Nelson Mullins.
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Next Steps For FCA Defendants After Fla. Qui Tam Ruling
Because a Florida federal court's recent decision in Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates could eventually prove to be a watershed event for False Claims Act suits, defendants should consider potential next steps to ensure that their litigation benefits from the court's reasoning and further developments, says Scott Gallisdorfer at Bass Berry.
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How Project 2025 Could Upend Federal ESG Policies
If implemented, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy playbook for a Republican presidential administration, would likely seek to deploy antitrust law to target ESG initiatives, limit pension fund managers' focus to pecuniary factors and spell doom for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate rule, say attorneys at Mintz.
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E-Signature Best Practices For Employers After Calif. Ruling
In Garcia v. Stoneledge Furniture, a California appellate court found an arbitration agreement invalid after an employee raised doubts about the authenticity of its e-signature, underscoring the importance of employers implementing additional measures to verify the authenticity of electronically signed documents, say Ash Bhargava and Reece Bennett at Atkinson Andelson.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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What To Expect As Worker Bias Suit Heads To High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which concerns how courts treat discrimination claims brought by majority group plaintiffs, and its decision could eliminate the background circumstances test, but is unlikely to significantly affect employers' diversity programs, say Victoria Slade and Alysa Mo at Davis Wright.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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Perspectives
Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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Mitigating Construction Employers' Risks Of Discrimination
Recent heightened government scrutiny of construction industry employment practices illustrates the need for nondiscriminatory recruitment and proactive assessment of workforces and worksites, including auditing for demographic disparities and taking documented steps to address such issues, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork
Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk
The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.
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Fla. Ruling May Undermine FCA Whistleblowers' Authority
A Florida federal court's decision in Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates last month will deprive relators of their ability to bring suits under the False Claims Act, limiting their capability to expose and rectify wrongdoings and potentially affecting billions in FCA recoveries, say Matthew Nielsen and Lily Johnson at Bracewell.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.