'Christian Witch' Says Jenner & Block Must Face Vax Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee told an Illinois federal judge that she didn't need to disclose that she's a "Christian witch" in order to seek an exemption to the law firm's COVID-19 vaccine requirement, urging the court to reject her ex-employer's bid to toss the case.

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Steakhouse Chain Servers Get Initial OK For $7M Wage Deal

By Benjamin Morse

A steakhouse chain will pay $7 million to end servers' claims that its tip-pool practices left them underpaid, a Colorado federal judge said Thursday, granting the deal preliminary approval.

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Fired Amazon Associate's PWFA Claim Cleared For Trial

By Anne Cullen

An Illinois federal judge refused Thursday to hand Amazon a full victory in a former warehouse associate's suit alleging she was unlawfully fired for taking pregnancy leave, finding her claim of retaliation under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act should go to a jury.

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UAW Monitor Clears Treasurer, Faults Investment Oversight

By Lauren Berg

A watchdog overseeing United Auto Workers' kickback-scandal reforms told a Michigan federal judge Thursday that union President Shawn Fain's misconduct accusations against Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock were false and retaliatory but that there was "significant dysfunction" regarding the management of the UAW's "strike trust" investments.

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DC Judge Allows NASA Research Library Closure To Continue

By Ganesh Setty

A D.C. federal court rejected scientists' bid to block NASA from shuttering its largest research library and suspending access to a related database for space mission documentation, finding they failed to show irreparable harm.

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PBGC Resolves Black Employee's Race Discrimination Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. agreed to settle a Black employee's suit claiming he was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified white woman because of his race and history of race bias complaints, according to a filing in D.C. federal court.

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NJ University Can't Escape Ex-Professor's Age Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A New Jersey university must face a former professor's lawsuit claiming she was demoted because she was in her 60s and fired after she complained, as a federal judge ruled her allegations were detailed enough to stay in court.

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Conn. House GOP Office Escapes Ex-Press Aide's Bias Suit

By Brian Steele

A former spokesperson for Republican state lawmakers in Connecticut did not present enough evidence to support her claims that she was pushed out of her job because of her gender and post-traumatic stress disorder, or that she endured a hostile work environment, a state court judge ruled in disposing of her lawsuit.

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Pilot Says Age Bias, Taunts Led To Forced Exit From Frontier

By Zach Dupont

A pilot claimed that Frontier Airlines discriminated against him during training because of his age, prohibiting him from taking part in certain training programs and making jokes about his age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, according to a complaint filed in Colorado federal court.

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Mental Health Co. Can't Undo Jury Verdict In NC Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A mental healthcare company's bid to throw out a jury verdict finding it willfully violated federal and state wage laws fell short because its post-trial arguments lacked supporting evidence, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Thursday.

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Walmart Wins Dismissal Of Wage Suit Over Sparse Claims

By Benjamin Morse

A former overnight stocker's allegations against Walmart lacked enough detail to plausibly support claims for missed breaks, unpaid overtime and other violations, a Washington federal judge ruled Thursday, tossing the worker's proposed class action.

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DirecTV Defends Challenge To Layoff Arbitration Award

By Benjamin Morse

DirecTV pushed back against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' bid to dismiss its suit seeking to vacate an arbitration award over layoffs of union technicians, telling a Colorado federal court its claims are sufficiently detailed to proceed.

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Painting Co. Loses $350K Fee Bid In Union Pension Row

By Emily Brill

A painting company that defeated litigation claiming it owed a union pension fund $427,000 can't make the fund cover its roughly $350,000 in legal fees, a New Jersey federal judge ruled, saying the company could only clinch fee coverage if the fund acted unreasonably, which it didn't.

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Fishing Gear Founder Beats Immediate TRO Bid

By Jarek Rutz

A Delaware vice chancellor on Thursday declined to immediately block former fishing gear executive Ralph Duda III from operating a women-focused fishing products business but put the dispute on a fast track toward a preliminary injunction hearing in about 45 days.

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Corporate Raid, MV Realty Settlement

By Hayley Fowler

A major case settled in the North Carolina Business Court in April as new lawsuits emerged, including a complaint by health information technology company IQVIA Holdings Inc. accusing its former top brass of orchestrating a corporate raid and defecting to a competitor. In case you missed this story and others, here are the highlights.

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Exec Fired By 5-Hour Energy Founder Wins Trial Over Pay

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal jury credited severance claims from an executive who worked for the former publisher of Sports Illustrated, awarding him over $1 million after he was fired when the billionaire founder of 5-Hour Energy drinks took control, according to a Thursday verdict sheet.

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NC Jet Co. Nets 4th Circ. Remand On Pilot Back Pay Issue

By Abigail Harrison

A Fourth Circuit panel narrowly agreed Thursday with a North Carolina private jet operator's petition challenging a conclusion that a former pilot was fired in retaliation for reporting safety issues and grounding planes, remanding a sole issue centered on the pilot's efforts to mitigate damages.

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Jury Awards Ex-Wayfair Manager $4.7M In Retaliation Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A former Wayfair manager should get nearly $4.7 million on her claims that she was placed on a performance improvement plan and ultimately fired because she complained about supervisors' age bias and took several months of medical leave, a Massachusetts jury said.

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Wash. Justices Split Asbestos Claims Against Insulation Biz

By Emily Field

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said the estate of an oil refinery maintenance worker cannot bring certain construction-related claims against an insulation company over his asbestos exposure, yet it can still bring claims over the company's role as a seller of asbestos-containing products.

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Brief

Mass. Transit Agency Settles Suit Over Assault By Bus Driver

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has settled a decade-old lawsuit with a rider who was beaten by a bus driver with a known history of misconduct, including a previous assault on a passenger.

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Co. Didn't Give Workers Proper Termination Notice, Suits Say

By Zach Dupont

Former employees of a recently defunct commercial property services company were not given a 60-day notice of their termination, in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, workers alleged in two separate proposed class actions filed in Colorado federal court.

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What's At Stake For Employers In Fight Over Visa Pause

For employers that rely on foreign talent, the Trump administration’s suspension of immigrant visa issuance for the nationals of 75 countries is creating practical problems, and a recently filed lawsuit challenging the pause could determine whether consular processing, for some, ceases to be an individualized process, says attorney Lisa Eisenberg.

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Series

Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

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Q&A

How Paul Clement Does It All

By Katie Buehler

For most lawyers, getting to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but for a select few, it's a common occurrence. Clement & Murphy PLLC name partner Paul Clement is one of those lawyers. 

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Don't 'Throw' Young Attys Under Bus, Judge Warns Musk Atty

By Dorothy Atkins

The California federal judge presiding over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion criticized Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff on Friday for eliciting "waste of time" trial testimony into Musk's $97.4 billion acquisition bid, warning Toberoff he "shouldn't throw young lawyers under the bus" by not quickly acknowledging his role.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury cleared Armistice Capital and two of its executives of class action claims that it pumped and dumped $250 million in Vaxart stock during the COVID-19 pandemic and violated federal securities law with insider trading.

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Whistleblower Says DOJ Rushed SPLC Indictment

By Courtney Bublé

A whistleblower has come forward to say a top U.S. Department of Justice official ordered prosecutors in Alabama to "rush" the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center despite concerns about the viability of the case, according to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.

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California High Court Rejects Dunn's Bid To Nix Suspension

By Adrian Cruz

The California Supreme Court has declined to review a California State Bar decision to impose a one-year stayed suspension on former State Bar executive Joseph Dunn.

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FTC, DOJ Say ABA Reliance Limits Law School Competition

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division told the Tennessee Supreme Court the American Bar Association's monopoly over law school accreditations is driving up the cost of legal education.

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Analysis

SEC's Corp. Governance Shift Puts Onus On States, Cos.

By Sarah Jarvis

Lawyers who work with clients on corporate governance matters had a warm response to a recent pledge from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins to let states handle such issues, saying the shift marks a return to the agency's historical approach and may spur increased activity among state regulators.

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Ex-Bondi Adviser Tapped As Fraud Task Force's Chief Lawyer

By Phillip Bantz

Ousted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's former adviser is taking on a new role as general counsel for the White House's fraud task force.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

A pair of proxy advisory firms have sued two state attorneys general over laws they say impose burdensome requirements for issuing recommendations that go against corporate managers' wishes. Meanwhile, KPMG reports that legal is evolving into a key driver of business performance, and AI is a core component of the department. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of April

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Intel, Colgate and Tripadvisor. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from April.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen a Swiss energy trader bring a Financial List claim against shipping benchmarking company Baltic Exchange, law firm Slater and Gordon sued by a former client, Slack and Salesforce hit Microsoft with an antitrust claim, and Stephen Fry bring a personal injury claim after he broke bones falling off a stage. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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