Unread Arbitration Emails Are Unenforceable, 9th Circ. Rules

By Jeff Overley

Arbitration agreements sent to workers aren't arbitration agreements assented to by workers, the Ninth Circuit held Wednesday, rejecting assertions from medical supplies giant Thermo Fisher Scientific that its arbitration-related emails — even if never read — sufficed to keep an ex-employee's proposed class action out of court.

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Audio

Law360 Explores: The Subminimum Wage Debate

The federal minimum wage is often treated as a cornerstone of American employment law. But for hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide, exceptions remain embedded in the legal system. "Law360 Explores: Subminimum Wage," a three-part audio series, examines how and why certain workers can legally be paid less than the federal minimum, $7.25 an hour.

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Rising Star: Littler's Rocio Blanco Garcia

By Emily Brill

Littler Mendelson PC shareholder Rocio Blanco Garcia's litigation work helped to clarify how employers can beat whistleblower cases in the Eleventh Circuit, and her advisory work gave thousands of employees of a Florida county access to paid parental leave, earning her a spot among the employment lawyers under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Drexel Can't Shake Prof's Retaliation Suit, Pa. Judge Rules

By MJ Koo

A tenured philosophy professor's retaliation claims against Drexel University will proceed to trial after a Pennsylvania federal court denied the university's bid for an early win, finding that genuine factual disputes remain over whether the university's course format change was retaliatory.

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UPS Driver Says Late Sick Pay Can't Sink Colo. Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A UPS driver urged a Colorado federal judge to reject the company's early win bid in a proposed class action, arguing late payments cannot erase paid-sick-leave violations.

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NY Legal Aid Union Averts Strike After 4 Months Of Talks

By Andrea Keckley

Another New York legal aid union has reached a deal with its organization's management, averting the possibility of a strike after its contract and those of four other unions expired at the end of June.

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NJ Justices Nix Extra COVID Pay For School Custodians

By MJ Koo

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a state law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic properly barred school custodians from claiming extra emergency pay under their collective bargaining agreement, finding that the law required employees to be treated as if schools had stayed open.

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Fla. Court OKs Cruise Co. To Arbitrate Worker's Injury Claims

By David Minsky

A Florida federal magistrate judge said a cruise ship company can arbitrate a worker's claims that he was injured aboard an unseaworthy vessel, saying his employment contract contains a valid collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, to resolve the case without a jury trial. 

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Chubb Seeks Repayment For Skaggs Overdose Suit Defense

By Hope Patti

A Chubb unit said it is entitled to recover costs paid to defend the Los Angeles Angels against wrongful death actions brought by the family of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who overdosed while traveling for an away game, telling a California federal court that another carrier improperly denied its coverage obligations.

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EEOC Bias Guidance Rollback Doesn't Negate Employer Risks

Despite the U.S. Department of Justice recently challenging Title VII's disparate impact provisions and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rescinding affirmative action guidance, employers should resist the temptation to restructure employment practices, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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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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2 Law Firms Say IRS Wrongly Denied COVID-19 Tax Credits

By Adrian Cruz

A pair of law firms are alleging in Georgia federal court that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly denied their claims to employee retention credits, a tax incentive created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage businesses to keep workers on their payrolls.

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NC House OKs Unpaid Suspensions For Judges Under Inquiry

By Hayley Fowler

Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives have given the green light to a legislative proposal empowering the chief justice of the state Supreme Court to suspend trial court judges without pay if they're under investigation by the state Judicial Standards Commission.

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Simpson Thacher Lands In Chicago With 5-Atty Kirkland Team

By James Boyle

A five-person team of Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorneys are moving their practices to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to help the firm launch an office in Chicago.

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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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Sidley Adds Ex-Accenture Enterprise Platforms Lead As CIO

By Matt Perez

Sidley Austin LLP on Wednesday announced the hiring of a nearly two-decade veteran at professional services firm Accenture as its chief information officer.

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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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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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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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6th Circ. Slashes 'Egregious' Fee Award In Tax-Taking Suit

By Susan Smiley

Michigan attorneys representing plaintiffs in a tax foreclosure suit had their awarded attorney fees, which more than doubled the settlement they obtained in the case, slashed by a Sixth Circuit panel in a published opinion Thursday.

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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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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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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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Trump Again Targets Birthright Citizenship In 2 New Orders

By Rae Ann Varona

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders that seek to limit automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S., after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a previous birthright citizenship executive order as unconstitutional.

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