IBM To Pay $17M Over DOJ's Claims Of Illegal DEI Practices

By Lauren Berg

IBM agreed to pay the Trump administration $17 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act with efforts to increase the diversity of its workforce, which the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday said was the first settlement under its initiative against diversity, equity and inclusion.

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DLA Piper Partner Rejects Pregnant Atty's Account Of Firing

By Pete Brush

The DLA Piper partner who fired a pregnant associate said she did so lawfully, telling a Manhattan federal jury her former employee was "in over her head" and disputing that the associate raised pregnancy bias concerns on a termination call.

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6th Circ. Won't Revisit EFAA Ruling Against Adams & Reese

By Patrick Hoff

The Sixth Circuit said it won't reconsider its ruling that a law barring mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment cases kept a former Adams & Reese LLP paralegal's sex harassment and disability bias suit in court, concluding that the firm's objections were already considered.

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11th Circ. Says Atty's Racist Remark Can't Buoy Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit backed the dismissal of a bias suit by a Black legal assistant for Cole Scott & Kissane PA who claimed an attorney likened her to a slave, saying Friday that a single offensive statement isn't enough to claim the law firm subjected her to a hostile work environment.

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Agency Boss Misled Court In Kirk Meme Suit, Fla. Judge Says

By David Minsky

A Florida federal magistrate judge proposed removing portions of a declaration filed by a state wildlife official in an employee's lawsuit alleging she was fired for sharing a meme making fun of slain right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk on social media, finding the false testimony may have influenced the court.

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4th Circ. Scraps Injunction Blocking DOGE's SSA Data Access

By Abigail Harrison

The full Fourth Circuit on Friday vacated and remanded a preliminary injunction blocking the government's access to sensitive data held by the U.S. Social Security Administration, ruling that unions and retiree advocates failed to show they were likely to suffer serious harm without it.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: Inside The Wells Fargo Union Push

By Grace Elletson

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on how the effort to unionize Wells Fargo branches has faced setbacks in 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's move to prioritize settlements before filing suits and how a recent Sixth Circuit decision is set to affect U.S. Department of Labor regulations.

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Ex-Firefighter Says He Was Bullied Over Autism Until He Quit

By Kelcey Caulder

A former firefighter and EMT has slapped a Georgia county with a federal lawsuit claiming he was ruthlessly bullied because he has Asperger's syndrome and ultimately had to leave his job to escape the abuse.

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Airline Worker Asks To Expand Sanctions Row In Bias Case

By Emily Brill

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after sending her union's president pictures of aborted fetuses is pushing for additional remedies in a sanctions dispute stemming from her long-running religious discrimination lawsuit against the airline, from which she received $800,000 after winning a jury trial in 2022.

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BAE Says Manager's DEI Concerns Aren't Why He Was Fired

By Ganesh Setty

BAE Systems urged a Maryland federal court Friday to toss a former manager's claims that he was fired for critiquing its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, arguing it was instead because he was "rude, dismissive and disrespectful, particularly toward women."

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Former NY Prosecutor Expands Harassment Suit Against DA

By Emily Sawicki

A former prosecutor in Syracuse, New York, has added libel claims to a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation suit she brought last year in New York state court against the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office and her supervisor.

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Colliers Accused Of Unfair Firing Over Social Posts On Leave

By Aaron Keller

Real estate and investment juggernaut Colliers International USA LLC fired a senior marketing manager for posting parenting advice under the Instagram name "DiaperDynasty" during her approved 12-week Family Medical Leave Act absence, wrongly accusing her of FMLA fraud, a new lawsuit claims.

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Mich. Care Staff Not Paid For Working Meal Breaks, Suit Says

By Melanie Dorsey

A former senior care facility employee has filed a proposed Fair Labor Standards Act collective action in Michigan federal court, claiming the assisted living and memory care center shortchanged hourly workers on overtime in two ways — by automatically deducting meal breaks they spent working and by excluding bonus pay from their regular rate.

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Brief

Closed Captioner Seeks $200K In Atty Fees In Wage Deal

By Benjamin Morse

A former Vitac Corp. employee has urged a Colorado federal judge to award $200,000 in attorney fees after the transcription and closed captioning company settled a class action alleging it didn't pay workers for preparation tasks necessary to perform their jobs.

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Chicago Plumbing Co. Defying Arbitration Order, Suit Says

By Katherine Smith

A Chicago plumbing company is refusing to follow all the terms of an arbitration award ordering it to obtain a dual wage and fringe benefit bond with a labor union, a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court has claimed.

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NJ Holding Co. Escapes $1M Printers' Union Pension Liability

By Kellie Mejdrich

A union pension fund that tried to collect more than $1 million in withdrawal liability after a printing company ceased operations failed to prove that a holding company was a trade or business, a New Jersey federal judge ruled Friday, handing the holding company a win.

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Oracle Says Laid-Off Worker Threatening To Sell Trade Secrets

By Lauren Berg

Oracle Corp. says one of its recently laid off sales employees has been trying to extort "an unreasonable and outsized fee" by threatening to sell the software firm's trade secrets to the "highest-bidder," asking a North Carolina federal court to prevent the former employee from exposing any sensitive business information.

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Analysis

ICE Quietly Changes I-9 Offenses, Raising Employer Fine Risk

By Britain Eakin

Employers are staring down bigger fines for I-9 violations after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly redefined substantive violations to include common administrative errors that were previously correctable without penalty.

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Jackson Lewis Hires Ex-K&L Gates COO

By Matt Perez

Labor and employment firm Jackson Lewis PC continued expanding its leadership ranks this year, hiring former K&L Gates LLP Chief Operating Officer Gavin Gray to serve in the same role at the firm.

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How Calif. Safety Worker Pension Bill Could Cost Employers

Public employers should carefully consider how pension costs and bargaining concerns could change under a California Legislature bill that would increase retirement benefits for safety employees like police and firefighters, which could erode previous efforts to fully fund the public retirement system without necessarily improving worker retention, says Michael Youril at Liebert Cassidy.

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DLA Piper Defeats Fired Associate's Claims Of Pregnancy Bias

By Pete Brush

A federal jury in Manhattan declined to award damages Monday to a former associate who says DLA Piper unlawfully fired her after she announced she was pregnant, absolving the BigLaw firm hours after tense closing arguments.

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Q&A

Former Pardon Atty Says Trump's Clemency Grants Hurt DOJ

By Phillip Bantz

Former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer spoke recently with Law360 about how the pardon process has changed, the impact the shift might have on the DOJ and how the system could be reformed.

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DOJ Urges DC Circuit To Revive Trump EOs Targeting Firms

By Alison Knezevich

The D.C. Circuit should individually review each section of President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting four law firms, allowing certain portions to stand if others are blocked, the U.S. Department of Justice argued in a new filing urging the court to revive the measures.

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Analysis

The Justices Had Their Say On Immunity. Is A DC Jury Next?

By Chris Villani

The limits of presidential immunity are once again set to be tested after a D.C. federal judge ruled President Donald Trump must face civil claims over the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, clearing the way for trial and potentially another high-stakes appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Meta Pulls Some Attys' Social Media Addiction Ads

By Rachel Rippetoe

After losing a bellwether trial last month in one of a slew of cases from plaintiffs who claim to have been harmed by social media, Meta has begun removing ads from attorneys seeking clients with similar claims.

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Brief

EEOC To Produce Law Firm DEI Letter Records By May 15

By Kelcey Caulder

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told a federal court Monday that it would give two law professors documents related to 20 letters the agency sent to law firms over their purported diversity, equity and inclusion practices by May 15.

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Morgan & Morgan Sued Over Firing Amid Nevada Expansion

By Emily Sawicki

Personal injury titan Morgan & Morgan is facing allegations from a former firm attorney in California state court alleging the Golden State lawyer was pressured to file suits in neighboring Nevada despite having an inactive law license and no experience practicing there, and was then harassed and wrongfully fired over the filings.

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Atty Says Ogletree Can't Litigate Against Her In 2 Similar Cases

By Adrian Cruz

A Georgia attorney said Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC should be disqualified from serving as defense counsel in a discrimination suit she's working on while simultaneously litigating against her on behalf of her ex-employer in a similar matter.

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NJ Man Who Sought To DQ US Atty Leadership To Plead Guilty

By Gina Kim

A criminal defendant who joined a pending bid to disqualify assistant U.S. attorneys overseeing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and escalated a constitutional challenge to its leadership structure told a federal judge Saturday he plans to plead guilty in his drug case. 

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket this past week featured a mix of high-stakes settlements, fast-moving deal litigation, governance disputes and a notable post-trial ruling involving fraud-tainted loans.

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