9th Circ. Says Initial Arbitration No Obstacle To EFAA

By Grace Elletson

A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that a fired biopharmaceutical executive could quit arbitration and file a suit claiming her boss subjected her to gender-based harassment, finding the pivot was fair game under a law that shields sex misconduct disputes from out-of-court resolutions.

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4th Circ. Ends Immigration Judges' Free Speech Suit

By Britain Eakin

The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed that a district court lacked authority to hear a suit from an immigration judges' union challenging a policy barring judges from speaking publicly about immigration without prior approval.

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Deloitte Can't Shake Leave Bias Suit From Ex-Manager

By MJ Koo

A California federal court has refused to dismiss a proposed class action accusing Deloitte Consulting LLP of penalizing employees through a performance evaluation system that shortchanges the compensation of workers who take parental or pregnancy leave.

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Scribd To Pay $3M To End Wash. Wage Scale Class Action

By Ben Adlin

Document hosting service Scribd Inc. will pay $3 million to resolve a class action accusing the tech company of violating Washington state law by failing to include pay information on job postings, according to a settlement agreement given preliminary approval by a King County Superior Court judge.

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Bloomberg Campaign, Workers Defend $6M Settlement Notice

By Benjamin Morse

Attorneys for workers and Mike Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign urged a New York federal judge to let notice of a proposed $6 million overtime settlement move forward, saying another attorney's challenge rests on "significant factual inaccuracies."

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Asurion Fired Manager Over Bias Report, Anxiety, Suit Says

By Kia Fatahi

A technology insurance company fired a Black manager whom it had recognized as "one of the strongest salespeople in the country" after she took medical leave to deal with anxiety exacerbated by alleged retaliation she received for raising concerns about a manager's sexually and racially offensive behavior, according to a complaint filed in Tennessee federal court Wednesday.

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Atty, Ex-Mentor Settle After Harassment, Bias Suit Dismissed

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney whose sexual harassment and employment discrimination suit against her former mentor was thrown out last month for repeated discovery violations has reached a settlement resolving the remaining claims and counterclaims in the case.

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Delivery Driver Loses Class Cert. Bid In Misclassification Suit

By MJ Koo

A delivery driver who accused a logistics company of misclassifying him and thousands of other California workers as independent contractors cannot get his proposed class certified, a federal court found, finding the variation in the drivers' operations prevents them from resolving their claims on a classwide basis.

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Rutgers RAs Sue University Over Unpaid Minimum, OT Wages

By MJ Koo

A former Rutgers University resident assistant sued the school in New Jersey federal court Wednesday, alleging the university treats dormitory supervisors as free labor, compensating them primarily with housing and meal benefits while failing to pay minimum wages or overtime for hours worked.

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Prison Phone Co. Says Techs Aren't Owed Public Works Pay

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A prison phone service provider told a New York federal judge that three field service technicians who installed and maintained telecommunications systems in hospitals and prisons did not agree to a "public works" contract and aren't guaranteed higher pay under state labor laws.

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Burlington Accused Of Requiring Work During Unpaid Breaks

By Carla Baranauckas

Three Burlington Coat Factory current and former employees hit the off-price retailer with proposed nationwide collective and class claims alleging workers were routinely required to perform unpaid work on purported meal breaks.

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Spirit Flight Attendants Object To Google Data Sale

By Rick Archer

The union representing Spirit Aviation's flight attendants has asked a New York bankruptcy judge to reject the bankrupt airline's request to sell its internal data to Google for artificial intelligence training unless the privacy of its members is protected.

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NLRB Accused Of Botching Analysis In Unlawful Firing Case

By Emily Brill

A Detroit water infrastructure company has asked the National Labor Relations Board to reconsider its July decision that the company unlawfully fired a striker, saying the board didn't explain why a violation was still found after it discarded certain evidence of anti-union animus that an agency judge had relied on.

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Feds Urge Wash. Court To Back Axing Dam Workers' CBA

By Katherine Smith

The Trump administration urged a Washington federal court to deny a labor union's bid to block the government from terminating a collective bargaining agreement covering hydropower dam workers, arguing that appellate courts have rejected similar injunction requests from other unions.

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OpenAI Opposes Early Discovery In Apple Trade Secret Suit

By Ivan Moreno

OpenAI and two of its employees have asked a California federal court to reject Apple's bid for expedited discovery in its trade secret lawsuit accusing OpenAI of using former Apple employees to obtain confidential information, arguing that discovery will begin soon enough.

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Medtronic, Former Exec Settle Whistleblower Retaliation Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado state judge tossed a whistleblower lawsuit against Medtronic Inc., granting a dismissal bid from the company and a former executive after they reached an undisclosed settlement.

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11th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Deputy's Suit Over Affair Fallout

By Kelcey Caulder

A former Georgia deputy and his wife cannot revive their lawsuit accusing county officials of violating their constitutional rights after it was revealed that the deputy was having an extramarital affair with an official's wife while on duty, the Eleventh Circuit said Wednesday.

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Ex-Sheriff's Workers Urge Court Not To Toss Retaliation Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

Former employees of a Colorado county's sheriff's office urged a federal judge not to toss their lawsuit claiming the county fired and criminally prosecuted them for raising concerns about misconduct by the sheriff and former undersheriff, saying they faced "a repeated pattern of retaliation" for exercising their First Amendment rights.

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Rethinking Corporate Travel Rules After Device Search Cases

A recent New York federal court decision approving a warrantless seizure and search of company laptops and a pending Georgia federal court criminal case over a phone's data deletion underscore how little protection corporate personnel have at the border, necessitating a review of corporate travel programs, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

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The Divergent Approaches In US, EU Forced Labor Standards

Forced labor guidance documents recently issued by the U.S. and the European Union have meaningful differences, with the U.S. taking a documentary approach to compliance and the EU emphasizing human rights risks as a governance challenge, but one model will likely exert greater influence, say attorneys at Steptoe.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Surviving A Long Trial

Most of law school trial advocacy is geared toward the sprint of trying a short case, but beyond managing a cross-examination or closing argument, effectively handling the marathon of a lengthy trial requires the ability to maintain composure, organization and credibility with the jury, says Mihir Elchuri at Hirschler.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Seeks Release During Appeal

By Rachel Rippetoe

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein on Tuesday asked to be released from federal custody while he appeals his 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions and a six-year prison sentence, saying he is not a flight risk and it would be a "grave injustice" for him to begin a sentence he believes will eventually get axed.

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Davis Wright Vets Scolded: Don't Tell Foes 'How To Run Firm'

By Jeff Overley

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP veterans have failed to dodge six-figure sanctions in a prominent discovery donnybrook, and a California magistrate judge added invective to the financial injury, lambasting "troubling" omissions in case citations and heavy-handed "nitpicking" akin to commandeering an adversary's law firm.

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Atty, Son Charged In Probe Of Alleged Penn State Drug Ring

By Rose Krebs

An equity partner based in Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck PLLC's Pittsburgh office has been charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing an investigation in connection with an alleged cocaine ring at Penn State University that allegedly involved his son, according to news reports.

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Texas Judge Flags 'Alarming' Number Of Bogus Citations

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge presiding over an Austin, Texas, immigration case is warning of possible future sanctions after an attorney included an "alarming" number of "hallucinated" case citations in support of a habeas corpus petition.  

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Jackson Walker Says US Trustee Can't Claw Back Legal Fees

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker said this week that the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog is beyond the bounds of its authority in a yearslong effort to force the firm to return millions of dollars in legal fees over an undisclosed relationship between a former partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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Over 120 Ex-Judges Demand Probe Of DHS GC's 'Worst' Posts

By Adrian Cruz

A pair of nonprofits along with a bipartisan group of 128 former state and federal judges have asked the Florida Bar to investigate the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a recent series of social media posts attacking sitting judges.

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Polsinelli Can't Rep Doctor In 'Bad Faith' IP Suits, Cos. Say

By Lauren Berg

Two medical device companies suing Polsinelli PC and its longtime client, a patent-holding doctor, for allegedly pursuing "bad faith" infringement claims asked federal courts in Tennessee and Mississippi to disqualify the firm from defending the doctor in the lawsuits, citing their "diverging interests and liabilities."

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Ex-US Attys Protest Trump's Swift Firing Of Rogoff In Seattle

By Rachel Riley

Thirty former U.S. attorneys backed Roger Rogoff's bid for reinstatement as Seattle's top federal prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired him on the heels of his court-ordered appointment, arguing Tuesday that Trump is trying to "sidestep the Senate's advice-and-consent role and sideline the judiciary" by letting unappointed individuals play such roles.

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DOJ Urges Court Not To Dismiss Suit Against DC Bar

By Alison Knezevich

The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal judge not to toss its lawsuit against Washington, D.C., attorney disciplinary authorities, saying the court "needs to halt defendants' flagrantly unconstitutional overreach into the president's executive power."

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Firms Cut From $101M Anthropic Atty Fees Appeal To 9th Circ.

By Lauren Berg

Two law firms involved in securing artificial intelligence company Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement with a class of authors and publishers are appealing to the Ninth Circuit an order excluding them from attorney fees awarded to court-appointed class counsel.

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USPTO Says Patent Atty's Suit Shouldn't Stop Discipline Case

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has said an Ohio federal court shouldn't pause professional discipline proceedings against an attorney while he sues the agency, saying he's likely to fail with his suit challenging the fact that a judge from another agency is overseeing his discipline case.

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Sinema Says Brief Signal Chat Can't Anchor NC Affair Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A single exchange on the encrypted messaging app Signal became the focal point of former Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's testimony on Wednesday as she sought to convince a North Carolina federal judge that she cannot be hauled into court in the Tar Heel state over an affair — which she declined to characterize as a "passionate" romance — she had with her married security guard.

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