11th Circ. Erases Worker's $800K Win In Dreadlock Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Eleventh Circuit scrapped an $800,000 verdict in favor of a Black worker who claimed she was let go after complaining that she'd been racially targeted for wearing dreadlocks, ruling faulty jury instructions meant the security company she worked for should get a new trial.

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Fired Immigration Judge Sues DOJ Over Bias Claims

By Elaine Briseño

A Democratic immigration judge fired days before her position became permanent has sued the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the Constitution does not give the president authority to discriminate against civil service employees.

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Ex-GC Hijacked Accounts And Posted Klan Imagery, Suit Says

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state court granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday in a school fundraising company's lawsuit accusing its former general counsel of taking control of its social media accounts and allegedly replacing its LinkedIn photo with a manipulated image of its president in a Ku Klux Klan robe.

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DOJ Says Duke Law Favors Black, Hispanic Applicants

By Lauren Berg

Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated against prospective white and Asian students in its efforts to pursue racial diversity in its incoming classes, the U.S. Department of Justice asserted Thursday.

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Rising Star: Phillips & Associates' Melissa Berouty

By Tim Ryan

Melissa Berouty of Phillips & Associates helped secure a $5.25 million settlement for a BigLaw partner who claimed that she faced sexual harassment and assault and a $2.1 million settlement for a worker who claimed whistleblower retaliation, earning her a spot among the employment law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Mark Zuckerberg's Foundation Can Arbitrate Gender Bias Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Thursday sent to arbitration claims that the foundation run by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan discriminated against women, saying the suit's sexual harassment claims weren't sufficiently severe or pervasive to invalidate the plaintiff's arbitration agreement.

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Rowan University Vet School Hit With 3 Discrimination Suits

By Carla Baranauckas

Rowan University's new veterinary school was hit with three separate discrimination suits in New Jersey state court from a professor, a technician and an ophthalmologist who each claim the fledgling institution retaliated against them and mishandled disability‑related concerns during the animal hospital's launch.

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Mich. Contractor, Teamsters Defeat Driver's Race Bias Claim

By Melanie Dorsey

A former truck driver has lost his race discrimination lawsuit against Doan Construction Co. and a Teamsters local after a Michigan federal judge found the company reasonably believed it fired him for punching a co-worker and the union properly declined to take his grievance to arbitration. 

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Judge Tosses Nuclear Power Wage-Fixing Case, For Now

By Matthew Perlman

A Maryland federal court tossed a proposed class action accusing nuclear energy producers including Constellation Energy, DTE Energy and Duke Energy of fixing wages, after finding the claims came too late.

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Mich. Contractor Faces Class Claims For Unpaid Work Time

By Melanie Dorsey

A former commercial service technician has accused a Michigan-based industrial maintenance contractor in federal court of systematically removing hours from field employees' time records and failing to pay them for on-call duty, travel, missed meal breaks and other work.

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John Deere Says Severance Program Isn't ERISA Plan

By MJ Koo

John Deere has moved in Illinois federal court to dismiss former employees' claims that its severance program is governed by federal retirement law, arguing that the program's one-time lump sum payments require no ongoing administration. 

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OpenAI Fights To Toss Apple's 'Rotten' Trade Secret Theft Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

OpenAI urged a California federal judge on Wednesday to toss Apple Inc.'s high-stakes trade secret theft lawsuit, arguing that the claims are premised on false characterizations and speculation, and "Apple's complaint is — to borrow its own phrase — 'rotten to its core.'"

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Va. Judge Sinks General Dynamics' Fee Bid For No-Poach Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

A Virginia federal judge denied General Dynamics Corp.'s attempt to recoup millions in costs and attorney fees from engineers who dropped claims against the company from a larger suit accusing U.S. shipbuilders of conspiring to suppress wages through no-poach agreements.

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Suit Against Ex-Lumio Execs Will Stay In Delaware

By Rick Archer

A Delaware bankruptcy judge Thursday denied a request by former executives of solar panel provider Lumio Holdings to transfer a suit against them by the company's liquidating trustee to a Utah court.

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Fisher Phillips Grows With Pair Of NJ Employment Litigators

By Jake Maher

Management-side labor law firm Fisher Phillips has brought aboard a pair of new partners in New Jersey who bring deep experience in employment litigation from Carmagnola & Ritardi LLC and Kaufman Dolowich LLP, the firm said Wednesday.

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Justices' FTC Ruling Weakens Qui Tam's Constitutional Base

The U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Trump v. Slaughter, expanding presidential control over those exercising executive power, suggests that courts may be receptive to arguments challenging the constitutional foundations of the False Claims Act’s qui tam mechanism, says Daniel Passeser at Wiggin.

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Series

Being A Sommelier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Being a sommelier has quietly shaped how I practice law by changing the way I think, communicate and connect with people, and offers a constant reminder that expertise is about making your knowledge useful and accessible to others, says Kara Du at Sheppard.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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No Simpson Thacher Malpractice In PIPE Case, Jury Finds

By Madison Arnold

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP escaped a malpractice lawsuit late Thursday over its representation of Patriot National Inc. in a private investment in public equity transaction in the years before the company's downfall.

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Dems Slam Skadden's 'Nothing To See Here' Trump Deal Reply

By Hailey Konnath

Three Democratic lawmakers on Thursday criticized Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP's response to their request that the firm disclose details of its pro bono arrangement with the Trump administration, saying the firm's "three sentence letter essentially saying 'nothing to see here'" is "not going to cut it."

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New ABA Chief Seeks To 'Streamline' Org., Defend Democracy

By Emily Sawicki

The American Bar Association's new president, Barbara J. Howard, will focus on twin goals of defending democracy against expected unprecedented attacks associated with this year's midterm elections, while also reorganizing the association to run more efficiently, as she kicks off her one-year term this month.

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Richards Layton Under Fire Amid Bid To Avoid AI Sanctions

By Rose Krebs

A firm has asked a Delaware vice chancellor to allow it to submit more "factual information" regarding what it says are inconsistencies in Richards Layton & Finger PA's attempt to avoid sanctions for submitting a filing with errors generated by artificial intelligence.

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Analysis

The Dramatic Moments Set To Shape Tom Goldstein's Appeal

By Jeff Overley and Jared Foretek

Prurient revelations, brash recriminations and purportedly glaring judicial errors in Tom Goldstein's criminal case have captivated the appellate bar for nearly 19 months, and many of those moments will be center stage in the star attorney's imminent appeal.

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2nd Circ. Says Pillsbury Must Surrender $3.6M Retainer

By Jessica Corso

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP was ordered on Thursday to hand over a $3.6 million retainer it was paid to defend a client against criminal and civil fraud charges, with the Second Circuit upholding a ruling that the funds were part of an asset freeze order issued in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission case.

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Ex-Girardi Atty Gets Probation For Keeping Silent On Theft

By Lauraann Wood

A former Girardi Keese attorney was sentenced to one day time-served and two years of probation Thursday for staying quiet and failing to report disgraced plaintiff's attorney Tom Girardi's theft of millions of settlement dollars owed to Lion Air Flight 620 plane crash victims.

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Wash. Justices Offer Bar Waiver After July Exam Tech Failure

By Rachel Riley

The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday it's offering to waive the bar exam requirement for first-time applicants who were unable to take the test last week due to an abrupt cancellation driven by technical issues at the Yakima Convention Center where it was scheduled to be administered.   

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