EEOC Scraps Long-Standing Affirmative Action Guidance

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday it has rescinded several decades-old guidance documents relating to voluntary workplace affirmative action plans, concluding the previous positions were out of step with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

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UNC Escapes Bias Suit From Native American Ex-Professor

By Grace Elletson

A federal judge tossed Tuesday a Native American professor's suit claiming the University of North Carolina declined to renew his contract because he was a vocal critic of the institution, ruling he failed to rebut UNC's argument that he lost his job for changing course material without permission.

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Claims Full Of 'Fog' Cloud Pa. Nurse's Racial Bias Suit

By Matthew Santoni

An employment lawsuit argued Tuesday in Pittsburgh could raise questions of a joint employer's obligation to investigate and oppose alleged racial bias by another employer, but a federal judge said the claims were obscured by "a bunch of fog" and sharply challenged the plaintiff's lawyer to state the case more clearly.

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Feds Can't Use DEI Order To Block Cities' Funds, Judge Rules

By Ben Adlin

A Washington federal judge Monday dealt a blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to restrict federal funds going to cities and counties that promote diversity programming and "gender ideology," ordering the administration to temporarily halt enforcement of two executive orders in several U.S. cities and counties.

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Ex-Name Partner Drops Suit Over 'Toxic' Workplace At NJ Firm

By Jake Maher

A former name partner at the personal injury firm now known as Corradino & Partners LLC dropped a suit against the firm and its remaining principal over allegations the partner was forced out of the firm by being subjected to a "toxic and intolerable environment."

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2 Ex-Clifford Chance Attys Say Firm Wants To Claw Back $6M

By Jake Maher

Two former practice group leaders at Clifford Chance LLP have sued in New York federal court alleging the firm is trying to claw back nearly $6 million in total from the pair after they moved to Sidley Austin LLP early this year.

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Justices Won't Hear MSPB Case After Slaughter Decision

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday denied a former Merit Systems Protection Board member's bid to review a D.C. Circuit decision upholding her firing from the agency, following a Monday high court decision finding that presidents have unlimited authority to fire members of independent agencies.

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Trump Loses Bid To Remove Copyright Office Leader For Now

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to let the Trump administration remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter for now, leaving in place a D.C. Circuit order that allows her to keep leading the office while her lawsuit challenging her firing proceeds.

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EEOC Says Auto Dealer Fired Worker Over Sabbath Request

By Benjamin Morse

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an auto dealership chain in Georgia federal court Tuesday, alleging it fired a sales employee after refusing to excuse him from Saturday work because of his religious beliefs.

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Piggly Wiggly Owner Sued Over Denying Worker Sabbath Off

By Emily Brill

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued a Piggly Wiggly operator in Georgia federal court on Tuesday, accusing the grocer of denying a religious accommodation to a deli worker that would have allowed her to observe Sunday Sabbath.

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Cannabis Co. Says EEOC Sex Harassment Claims Too Vague

By Mike Curley

Cannabis giant Ascend Wellness Holdings Inc. is urging an Illinois federal court to throw out claims from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that a class of unnamed women employees faced constant sexual harassment, saying the complaint is too vague for the company to be on notice for what it has to defend against.

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Trans Troops Class Certified Despite Representation Concerns

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday certified a class of military members challenging the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops, but she raised significant concerns about the proposed class counsel's ability to represent thousands of members.

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UCHealth Workers Fight Bid To Toss Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Two former hospital workers urged a Colorado federal court to keep alive their proposed class and collective action alleging University of Colorado Health shorted hourly employees through a time-rounding policy and denied them required meal and rest breaks, saying their claims are sufficiently detailed to proceed.

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Conn. Servers Seek Quick Win On Minimal Duties Claims

By MJ Koo

Restaurant servers have asked a Connecticut state court to throw out a steakhouse's argument that some of their unpaid work was too small to matter, saying a recent state high court ruling makes clear that no amount of work can go uncompensated under state law.

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Mental Health Nonprofit Hit With RN's Wage Suit Over Breaks

By Melanie Dorsey

A former Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services registered nurse filed a proposed collective action on Tuesday accusing the Michigan health provider of shorting hourly workers on overtime pay through automatic meal-break deductions, time-rounding practices, unpaid training and excluded bonuses. 

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SAG-AFTRA Wants House Panel To Advance AI Deepfakes Bill

By Elliot Weld

The president of actors union SAG-AFTRA spoke to a congressional subcommittee Tuesday to press the need for a bill to allow for the removal of deepfakes from the internet, framing the advent of digital replicas of people as a fundamental alteration in the methods of human interaction that cannot be ignored by lawmakers.

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Ex-Google Engineer Can't Undo Trade Secrets Conviction

By Cara Salvatore

A California federal judge rejected a former Google engineer's argument that prosecutors withheld proper notice of their trade secrets charges by burying him in paper, saying this happened only because he misappropriated "such a large volume of documents."

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JPMorgan Fights $4M Arbitration Loss Over Super Bowl Firing

By Lauren Berg

A JPMorgan Chase & Co. subsidiary asked a California federal judge Monday to vacate a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel's decision awarding a wealth manager $4.25 million after he was fired for expensing a $640 platter of food for a Super Bowl party, saying the award "manifestly disregarded the law."

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NC City Beats Ex-Paralegal's Besmirched Reputation Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina city's characterization of how a fired paralegal allegedly misused city resources is not enough to sustain her suit accusing the city of trampling on her reputation and using her as a scapegoat for her boss's misdeeds, a federal judge said in throwing out the case.

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Gordon Rees Adds 8 Partners In Northern California

By Tracey Read

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP has expanded its offices in Northern California with eight new partners who have expertise in multiple practice areas, a firm spokesperson told Law360 Pulse on Tuesday.

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Venable Adds Former Cooley Employee Benefits Atty In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Venable LLP has hired a former Cooley LLP special counsel who focuses her practice on employee benefits matters including retirement, health and welfare plans, the firm announced Monday.

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NY Defamation Carveout Hinges On Causation, Not Labels

A New York federal court's decisions in two cases involving tortious interference claims, and the recent Second Circuit ruling in Satanic Temple v. Newsweek Digital, highlight that the dispositive question for alleged defamation is whether injury flows through reputation or through direct interference with a relationship, says attorney Andrea Natale.

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Series

Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

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Trump Nominates Just Confirmed La. Judge For 5th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

Judge Anna St. John has been on the federal bench for less than four months, and now she's being put forth for a higher court.

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McCarter Atty Says He Didn't Know NY Law Before $20M Deals

By Brian Steele

A onetime McCarter & English LLP partner in Hartford testified Tuesday that he did not research New York's municipal contracting laws before helping two insurers enter into doomed $20 million loan repayment agreements with a Long Island town, but contended that he was under no obligation to do so.

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NJ Assembly Passes Litigation Funding Disclosure Bill

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Assembly passed a bill requiring the disclosure of third-party litigation funding arrangements on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin after similar pending legislation in the state Senate received pushback from trial lawyers and litigation finance representatives.

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Apple Gets High Court Review Of Epic Case Sanctions

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take up Apple's challenge to a California federal court contempt order against it for violating a ban, won by Epic Games, on company policies that barred app developers from steering users to outside payment options.

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Analysis

Justices' Birthright Ruling Leaves Little Room For Congress

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 holding Tuesday that President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship is unconstitutional did more than invalidate the policy, it effectively foreclosed Congress from trying to implement the executive order through legislation, experts told Law360.

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High Court Scraps Caps On Coordinated Campaign Spending

By Katie Buehler and Jeff Overley

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down federal limits on political party spending in coordination with individual candidates, agreeing with a Republican-led challenge that the caps violate the First Amendment.

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Uber, FedEx Slam Pa. Law Firm Counterclaims In RICO Suit

By James Boyle

Philadelphia-based personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC and its founder have failed to support a counterclaim in Pennsylvania federal court saying Uber Technologies Inc. and FedEx Corp. filed a sham litigation and abused the legal process with their ongoing RICO complaint against the firm, the companies argued Monday.

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NY State Bar Wants New Bar Exam Rules For Emergencies

By Kevin Penton

Following two recent incidents that drew scrutiny over their handling, the New York State Bar Association is calling for new standardized protocols to be followed should emergencies occur during the administration of the bar exam.

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