Legal Challenge To EEOC Disparate Impact Pivot Tossed Out

By Vin Gurrieri

A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday threw out a suit from a former Amazon delivery driver who accused the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of unlawfully refusing to investigate charges premised on a disparate impact theory, finding the worker didn't have standing to bring the case. 

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AI Jury Simulator Says Fired Co-Founder Stole Trade Secrets

By Hailey Konnath

Artificial intelligence jury simulator Juries.ai sued its recently fired co-founder, claiming he has refused to hand over control of a number of the company's accounts or return its source code and other confidential information, according to a complaint filed in California federal court.

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9th Circ. Offers Mixed Ruling On Jack In The Box Wage Claims

By Irene Spezzamonte

A trial must address whether Jack in the Box willfully deducted too much from workers' wages, the Ninth Circuit ruled on Tuesday, flipping workers' win on claims the fast-food company over-deducted their wages while reviving their claims over deductions for nonslip shoes.

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3rd Circ. Backs Pa. City's Win In Worker's Sex Bias Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit has declined to reinstate a former Reading, Pennsylvania, mayor's office employee's sexual discrimination claim against the city, rejecting her argument that an investigation into her after reporting alleged harassment by a male colleague was a pretext for firing her later.

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3rd Circ. Restores NCAA Junior-College Eligibility Rule

By Matthew Santoni

An NCAA rule that includes junior colleges when determining a college athlete's eligibility is a "commercial" restriction, but a Rutgers University football player must go back to court and define the market for his labor if he wants to argue the rule violates antitrust law, the Third Circuit said Tuesday.

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Texas Law Firm, Atty Reach Tentative Deal In Age Bias Suit

By Rose Krebs

An attorney who sued a Houston-based law firm alleging she was fired in retaliation for having complained about age discrimination has reached "a tentative agreement" to resolve the matter, according to a filing in Illinois federal court.

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6th Circ. Backs Theater In Ex-Manager's Sex Harassment Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A former movie theater manager can't reopen her lawsuit claiming her boss' repeated requests for a date and inappropriate comments created an unlawfully toxic workplace, with the Sixth Circuit ruling Tuesday that she hadn't shown his sporadic invites created an abusive environment.

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Texas Woman Says Business Group CEO Assaulted Her

By Mike Curley

The founder of a Texas business advocacy group is suing the state's largest business association and its CEO, saying he maneuvered his way to head her group and used his leverage to try to coerce her into a sexual relationship, then assaulted her.

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MSG Seeks To Boot Atty From Ex-Exec's Bias, Retaliation Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A Reavis Page Jump LLP attorney representing a former Madison Square Garden security executive in a discrimination suit is too enmeshed in the facts of the case, MSG said, urging a New York federal court to kick the lawyer and firm off the suit if it's not outright dismissed.

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NJ Hospital Fired Doc In Bid 'To Get Younger,' Suit Says

By George Woolston

A New Jersey physician who worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Hackensack University Medical Center was fired because of his age, according to a complaint filed this week in New Jersey state court.

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Court Rejects Cherokee Entity's Push To End Bias Dispute

By Crystal Owens

A Missouri federal court judge won't reconsider an order that denied a bid by a Cherokee Nation entity to dismiss a discrimination claim lodged last year by a former employee, saying it failed to show why a second chance is warranted.

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NJ Panel Confirms Utility Co. Misclassified Workers

By Irene Spezzamonte

A New Jersey utility systems installer should have classified workers on public projects under the prevailing wages for electricians, a New Jersey appellate panel said Tuesday, affirming the state Department of Labor determination that the company owed nearly $159,000 in wages, penalties and fees.

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Health System Can't Dodge Worker's Time-Rounding Claims

By Irene Spezzamonte

An Ohio county health system can avoid a nursing assistant's claim that it failed to pay semimonthly wages on time, but she can continue pursuing her claims that the company illegally rounded down workers' time, a federal judge ruled.

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4th Circ. OKs Fees In Health Co. Workers' OT Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A healthcare company must pay $410,000 in attorney fees and costs in overtime suits filed by nearly a dozen former employees, the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday, upholding a lower court's calculations after initially rejecting them.

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Employer Name Error Doesn't Nix Arb. Award, 6th Circ. Says

By Emily Brill

A Michigan power plant operator must rehire a union-represented worker who it fired after he was approved for long-term disability, the Sixth Circuit ruled, upholding an arbitration award against Holtec over its protests that the company was misnamed in the paperwork.

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Teamsters Say UPS' 'Roadie' Siphons Off Union Work

By Celeste Bott

A Teamsters unit has sued UPS in Illinois federal court, alleging the company is undermining a collective bargaining agreement covering about 10,000 workers in Chicago by giving bargaining unit work to a subsidiary called Roadie.

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Unions Say More Info Is Needed In DOGE Data Access Dispute

By Emily Brill

A union coalition urged a New York federal judge Monday to order the federal government to disclose how much access to federal workers' personal information it gave the Department of Government Efficiency and what the White House unit formerly headed by Elon Musk did with that information.

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DOL Seeks To End 5th Circ. Fiduciary Rule Battle

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor asked the Fifth Circuit to dismiss two appeals defending a package of Biden-era investment advice regulations that had expanded the definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which two Texas courts had blocked in 2024.

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Delta Retirees Seek Court Clearance For Benefits Class Action

By Kelcey Caulder

A retired flight attendant accusing Delta Air Lines Inc. of shorting married pensioners on retirement benefits by miscalculating lump-sum payouts asked a Nevada federal court to grant her case class action status, arguing the roughly 3,000-strong group she proposed had enough in common to warrant certification.

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Insurance Broker Says Competitor Stole Employees, Clients

By Hope Patti

The parent company of insurance brokerage Trucordia told the Delaware Chancery Court on Monday that it has lost more than $2.5 million in annual commission revenue because a Florida-based competitor is trying to poach Trucordia's employees and clients in coordination with a former insurance producer and current equity holder.

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Marketing Cos. Say Ex-CFO, Husband Stole Over $5M

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia woman and her husband are facing a new round of fraud claims in federal court from a group of healthcare marketing companies that have alleged she used her position as their onetime chief financial officer to embezzle nearly $5.7 million out of their coffers.

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Jefferson Health Sued Over Handling Of 'Mass Layoff'

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Thomas Jefferson University's healthcare division has been hit with a proposed class action alleging the institution violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it recently laid off over 500 workers.

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CSX Must Face Jury On Retaliation Claim, 2nd Circ. Says

By Aaron Keller

Overruling its own precedent governing Federal Railroad Safety Act claims, the Second Circuit on Tuesday said a jury should decide whether CSX Transportation Inc. used a safety violation to justify firing a freight train conductor who had accused two supervisors of ordering him to falsify performance records.

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Ex-Coach Kelly Urges LSU To Declare Firing Without Cause

By Elaine Briseño

Louisiana State University's fired football coach Brian Kelly said he would be willing to withdraw his lawsuit against the school over his Oct. 26 firing if it confirms in writing that he was terminated without cause and agrees to pay him about $54 million in damages.

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DOJ Official Sues Over Firing For Epstein Talk On Hinge 'Date'

By Alison Knezevich

A longtime official at the U.S. Department of Justice who was fired after he was secretly recorded discussing the Epstein files has sued the agency and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in D.C. federal court.

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Littler Names New Co-Chair Of Women's Leadership Group

By Jack Rodgers

The longtime co-chair of Littler Mendelson's PC's drugs and alcohol practice group has been named co-chair of the firm's Women's Leadership Initiative, succeeding a partner who is retiring after close to 32 years at the firm.

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Ogletree Deakins Welcomes Saber Law Employment Atty In SF

By James Mills

Labor and employment firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC is expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a Saber Law Group employment litigator as a shareholder in its San Francisco office.

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Winston & Strawn Promotes 18 To Partner

By Matt Perez

Winston & Strawn LLP has elevated 18 attorneys to partner, two shy of last year's class.

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NBA Gambling Probes Highlight Sports Betting's Broad Risks

Recent NBA gambling scandals illustrate the integrity risks arising from legal sports betting, but organizations, which must navigate a patchwork of state laws, can protect their reputations by drafting and enforcing internal policies to address betting-related risks and complying with league and institutional rules, say attorneys at Littler.

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Considerations When Invoking The Common-Interest Privilege

To successfully leverage the common-interest doctrine in a multiparty transaction or complex litigation, practitioners should be able to demonstrate that the parties intended for it to apply, that an underlying privilege like attorney-client has attached, and guard against disclosures that could waive privilege and defeat its purpose, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Bonus Spotlight

Magic Circle Firms Enchant Associates With Top-Tier Bonuses

By Tracey Read

U.S. associates at Linklaters LLP and Clifford Chance LLP have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, as the Magic Circle firms Wednesday became the latest to match the BigLaw standard for this year's associate bonuses.

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After Big Win For 2 Trump Foes, A Third Faces 'Tougher Job'

By Phillip Bantz

The recent dismissal of federal criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey does little to help President Donald Trump's ex-national security adviser John Bolton, whose defense in a classified-materials case presents a thornier set of legal and factual issues, experts say.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: ISP Liability & State Subpoena Suits

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return Monday for the first week of its December oral argument session, during which the justices will consider whether internet service providers can be held liable for contributing to their customers' infringing activity online and whether the subjects of state subpoenas are required to first challenge them in state court. 

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Interview

For Covington's Adrian Perry, Music Is A Family Affair

By Theresa Schliep

Despite having a famous rock star dad, Covington & Burling LLP partner Adrian J. Perry wasn't all that interested in being a musician as a young child, but he knew as early as 6 years old that he wanted to be a lawyer.

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Calif. Privacy Agency Gaining Steam Ahead Of 5th Anniversary

By Allison Grande

California's data privacy regulator has taken several notable steps in recent months, including handing down its first penalty upward of $1 million dollars and finalizing long-awaited rules on topics such as cybersecurity audits and technologies that use artificial intelligence, and the groundbreaking agency shows no signs of slowing down as its fifth anniversary approaches. 

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Split 6th Circ. Shields Baker Donelson, Not City Councilman

By Matt Perez

In a published opinion, the Sixth Circuit has found that Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC is shielded by qualified immunity as outside counsel for the city of Nashville in litigation over the law firm's firing of a city election commission chair and member of the firm.

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Foley & Lardner Hit With Malpractice Suit Over Chancery Loss

By Rose Krebs

Foley & Lardner LLP has been sued in Delaware Superior Court by three officers of a now-defunct food recycling company who say the firm was negligent when representing them in a Chancery Court case that led to a $1.6 million judgment against them and another officer.

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DOJ Asks Court If It Can Release Epstein Files Under New Law

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a New York federal court's permission to publicly release the files related to the investigation of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, clarifying Wednesday that it wants to release search warrant results, travel and financial records, police reports, and other materials.

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Keesal Young Poaching Suit Against Stradley Ronon Trimmed

By Madison Arnold

A California state judge cleared Keesal Young & Logan to pursue most of its lawsuit alleging Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young crossed the line when it recruited 10 former Keesal Young attorneys, finding that claims such as inducing breach of contract could move forward, in part, because of conversations among the attorneys.

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DOJ Says Ex-Employees Can't Challenge Firings In Fed. Court

By Rose Krebs

The government says a D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate a lawsuit filed by a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and two other ex-Department of Justice employees, alleging they were unlawfully fired.

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Hub Hires: Todd & Weld, Freshfields, Shipman

By Julie Manganis

It was a busy November in Boston's legal community as another firm expanded into the market, and a longtime judge traded his gavel for the ability to address his growing concerns about the Trump administration.

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