The legal industry has now recovered more than half of the 73,200 jobs it lost last spring as the coronavirus pandemic first hit, with the sector gaining approximately 7,200 jobs in February, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Connecticut workers suing over employment discrimination cannot use a secret recording of their boss that allegedly contradicts his sworn account, a Connecticut federal court has ruled, saying the workers' lawyer tried to manufacture a plot twist straight out of the legal drama Perry Mason but entered the recording into evidence too late for it to be considered.
High-profile Atlanta libel attorney L. Lin Wood dropped Alston & Bird LLP as his defense counsel Thursday in a contract breach suit brought against him by lawyers who quit his law firm, asking a Georgia state court for an emergency stay of proceedings to find new representation.
Swanson Martin & Bell LLP asked an Illinois federal judge Thursday to trim a former nonequity partner's lawsuit alleging he was fired after developing a degenerative neurological condition, saying he can't show the firm's alleged conduct was extreme or outrageous enough to support his claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Seventh Circuit on Thursday reversed a lower court's order certifying a modified class of female correctional workers suing Cook County, Illinois, for sexual harassment, finding the class "cannot stand" because it is too diverse and because the workers have not identified a common question that unites them.
A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday questioned whether General Motors can continue pursuing allegations that rival automaker Fiat Chrysler strategically bribed former United Auto Workers senior officials to saddle GM with higher labor costs, indicating it's difficult to draw direct connections between Fiat Chrysler's actions and GM's collective bargaining results.
A California federal magistrate judge overseeing a bench trial on whether PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP fired an auditor in retaliation for purported whistleblowing refused Thursday to allow the ex-employee's counsel to question PwC's expert witness on the company's auditing track record or on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's impartiality.
The whistleblowers suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for firing them after they reported his alleged wrongdoing to the FBI told a Texas appellate court on Thursday to toss an appeal lodged Monday that halted proceedings because it is meritless and the panel doesn't have authority to hear it.
New Hampshire's state workers' compensation insurers must reimburse eligible patients for their prescribed medicinal marijuana treatments, the state's Supreme Court ruled this week.
The NCAA has it backward in trying to overturn a decision that struck down its rules restricting education-related benefits for college athletes, according to the athletes challenging the NCAA's amateurism system, who told the U.S. Supreme Court it should not exempt the NCAA from antitrust scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Wednesday denied class certification to a group of cable installation company workers after arbitration agreements whittled the putative class from 238 members to 16, a size the judge said was too small to certify.
New York Attorney General Letitia James wants her lawsuit accusing Amazon of failing to adequately protect city workers from the coronavirus sent back to state court, arguing Wednesday that the claims have no federal ties.
Pollock Cohen LLP and three firm partners sought to toss a fired attorney's suit over bonus pay for a second time, telling a Pennsylvania federal court that he is not entitled to portions of settlements reached after he was let go.
A southern Illinois federal judge has tossed a biometric privacy suit claiming a kitchen and bath surfaces manufacturer collected and used employees' fingerprint data without informed consent, finding the claims preempted under the Labor Management Relations Act.
Emory University asked a Georgia federal judge on Thursday to toss a sex discrimination suit brought by a male former employee, saying he's improperly claim splitting by pursuing the same argument in a separate federal action under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP has scored a heavyweight employment attorney to co-lead its international employment law team in New York, the firm announced Wednesday.
Whole Foods Markets Inc. workers will ask the First Circuit to review a lower decision tossing nearly all their discrimination claims over the grocer's disciplining of employees who wore Black Lives Matter face masks to work, according to a notice filed this week.
A former Cowen & Co. LLC banker's claims that he was wrongfully terminated for raising concerns about the firm's potential dealings with a Russian oligarch must be arbitrated, a federal judge in Manhattan said Wednesday.
A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission deputy chief accountant testified Wednesday to the reasonableness of PwC's auditing practices in a California federal bench trial over whether the accounting behemoth fired an auditor in retaliation for purported whistleblowing, telling the judge that PwC's practices conformed with professional auditing standards.
The former executive chef of a posh California hotel and marina has lodged a state court lawsuit accusing the hospitality business of wrongfully terminating him after he suffered a work-related injury that required him to take legally protected medical leave.
During a second round of oral arguments Wednesday in a Southwest Airlines Co. employee's wage suit, two Seventh Circuit judges questioned whether the airline was interpreting precedent too narrowly as it argued the dispute was correctly sent to arbitration.
A California federal judge on Wednesday tossed a proposed class action alleging Uber Technologies Inc.'s in-app customer rating system enables racial discrimination against drivers, calling the complaint "too sparse and poorly drafted," but said it could be reworked.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup said Wednesday he'll enter an order finding Apple liable for paying a class of California retail store workers for time they spent working off the clock undergoing bag checks and told the parties that damages will be decided in a jury trial.
A Chevron employee severely burned by splashing liquid at a California oil refinery can't blame a former Veolia subsidiary hired to clean the refinery's pipes because that company wasn't responsible for ensuring that equipment was kept in a safe condition between visits, a state appellate court has ruled.
Kaiser Permanente told a Georgia federal judge Tuesday that proposed class allegations that the company refused to delay a job skills test to accommodate a mental illness should be dismissed because the plaintiff failed to allege any harm to workers other than herself.
Attorneys working remotely from jurisdictions in which they are not admitted should take precautionary steps to avoid engaging in unauthorized practice of law, say John Schmidt and Michael Seaman at Phillips Lytle.
The country is relying more than ever on the trucking industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but when trucking companies fail to properly manage drivers, plaintiffs attorneys can use statutes that enforce access to evidence to obtain justice for accident victims, says Sam Coffey at Coffey Trial Law.
The D.C. Bar recently cleared the way for lawyers to represent both a party and a witness in the same case in guidance that could prove influential as multiple representation in employment cases becomes increasingly common, says Alan Kabat at Bernabei & Kabat.
Parenting during the pandemic has introduced a series of competing personal and professional obligations for attorneys and professional staff, and even organizations that are supportive of their parent employees can take steps to do better, says Meredith Kahan at Saul Ewing.
In light of of the U.S. Department of Justice's increasing antitrust scrutiny of labor markets and President Joe Biden's vow to eliminate most noncompetes, companies should customize their compliance plans and review employee agreements to mitigate risk, say Eric Grannon and Adam Acosta at White & Case.
A New York federal court's ruling in JN Contemporary Art v. Phillips Auctioneers, deeming COVID-19 to be a natural disaster that triggers a force majeure clause, appears to loosen previously strict contours of contractual interpretation and could create a legal quandary for obligees, say Kimberly Daily and Matthew Rawlinson at Eversheds Sutherland.
As President Joe Biden seeks to ramp up renewable energy development, the industry's risk managers must not only rely on traditional insurance and contractual warranties, but also explore new risk management products like proxy revenue swaps, say Leslie Thorne and Andrew Van Osselaer at Haynes and Boone.
Provisions in the recently introduced U.S. Citizenship Act that aim to reduce the employment-based green card backlog and attract STEM students are welcome business immigration reforms, but the business community is skeptical of its more restrictive provisions, say attorneys at Akin Gump.
Duplicative or overlapping noncompete provisions in employment contracts can hinder enforcement of choice of forum and other restrictive covenants, the Delaware Chancery Court recently showed in AG Resource Holdings LLC v. Terral, and could mean preclusive judgments and duplicative litigation costs for companies, say attorneys at Dechert.
The prospect of joining a law firm during the pandemic can cause added pressure, but with a few good practices — and a little help from their firms and supervising attorneys — lawyer trainees can get ahead of the curve while working remotely, say William Morris and Ted Landray at King & Spalding.
Recent H-1B visa program improvements that are favorable to employers — such as e-registration and more predictability in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decision making — may lead companies to reconsider this visa category as a resource for adding foreign-national talent to their workforce, says Matthew Minor at Hammond Neal., says Matthew Minor at Hammond Neal.
Attorneys at Nossaman look at how President Joe Biden’s ethics pledge goes beyond those of his predecessors by imposing post-employment shadow lobbying and golden parachute restrictions on his administration’s appointees — and how a House bill proposing expansion of federal ethics law could affect enforcement.
Opinion
Law graduates across the states are sitting for the grueling two-day bar exam this week despite menstruation-related barriers, such as inadequate menstrual product and bathroom access, which could be eradicated with simple policy tweaks, say law professors Elizabeth Cooper, Margaret Johnson and Marcy Karin.
A recent Illinois federal court decision allowing a suit to proceed against Enterprise Leasing and its parent company for violating the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act shows why even companies that don't directly use biometric data must take proactive contractual measures to mitigate alternative liability exposure, says David Oberly at Blank Rome.
The volume and diversity of data managed by law firms today — from client files to internal financial records — may seem daunting, but when properly organized, good data can help practitioners stay competitive by providing sharper insight into firm resources and cost of work, say Jaron Luttich and Barry Wiggins at Element Standard.