4th Circ. Says Religious Org. Can't Invoke Bias Law Carveout

By Patrick Hoff

A split Fourth Circuit panel refused Friday to disturb a trial court's ruling that a religious humanitarian nonprofit violated discrimination laws by nixing health insurance coverage for a gay employee's husband, saying the employer was pushing for "nearly unbounded immunity."

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Wells Fargo Beats Ex-CEO's $34M Back-Pay Lawsuit

By Jon Hill

Wells Fargo prevailed in a California state court battle with its former CEO Timothy Sloan over roughly $34 million in compensation he has accused it of wrongfully withholding after his 2019 departure from the bank amid intense public scrutiny of its compliance record.

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Suing The Trump Admin Can Have Massive Impact, Attys Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Lawyers representing clients against the federal government spoke Friday about the challenges and rewards of such litigation in the Trump era, with plaintiff-side powerhouse Elizabeth Cabraser pointing to the potential for massive impact, including one case in which she successfully got more than a billion dollars in grant funding reinstated.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Munger Tolles' Carolyn Luedtke

By Dani Kass

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP partner Carolyn Hoecker Luedtke has been great at providing sound judgment during trade secret litigation between top artificial intelligence companies, according to Jessica Kaempf of Fenwick & West LLP.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: Data Centers Divide Labor Unions

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on divisions within the labor movement over data center regulation, what the U.S. Department of Labor's top lawyer told a room of attorneys and what recent lawsuits reveal about protections for pregnant workers.

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Whataburger Can't Arbitrate Ex-Worker's Sex Assault Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has declined to send a former Whataburger employee's lawsuit to arbitration, finding that the allegations of unwanted sexual touching trigger a federal law that bars arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims.

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Pitt Can't Appeal Due Process Loss In Professor's Suit

By Benjamin Morse

The University of Pittsburgh cannot immediately appeal a ruling that it violated a tenured professor's due process rights by suspending him without pay for a year and removing him from an endowed chair, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.

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Fired Atlanta Golf Club Worker Says Age Cost Him His Job

By David Aaro

A country club in Atlanta has been hit with an age discrimination suit in Georgia federal court by an ex-worker who alleges he was fired and replaced by someone younger after reporting his former boss for mistreating him.

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Ex-Legal Tech Co. Exec Says Pregnancy Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

A legal technology company abruptly fired its director of partnerships after it learned she was pregnant, and has since withheld a nearly $40,000 bonus, according to a lawsuit lodged in New Jersey state court.

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Target Can't Nix Wash. Workers' Unpaid Walking Time Claims

By Rachel Riley

Target must face proposed class claims that it shortchanged distribution center workers on wages for minutes spent passing through security checkpoints and walking to their departments each shift, a Washington federal judge said Friday, finding the plaintiffs had shown the time qualified as "on duty."

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Gap Workers In Wash. Sue Over Unpaid OT, Missed Breaks

By Gina Kim

Gap and Athleta were hit with a proposed class action in Washington state court alleging that the retail giants failed to pay hourly employees with overtime wages and also failed to ensure that they took the meal and rest breaks they were entitled to.

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Tips For Employers As Calif. Court Limits Harassment Liability

Doe v. Wells Fargo appears to be the first published California appellate decision to determine that the harasser must have supervisory authority over the plaintiff to trigger strict liability, underscoring the value of accurately documenting job roles and reporting lines, says Ellen Connelly Cohen at Call & Jensen.

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Protecting Trade Secrets When AI Agents Go Rogue

In light of a recent incident in which artificial intelligence agents compromised parts of Hugging Face's production systems, and the uncertain court guidance surrounding liability in such situations, companies looking to update their trade secret protections should carefully examine agents' permissions and technical limitations, says Matt Nealon at Marshall Gerstein.

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DOJ Or Trump: Judge Asks Who Is Deciding Golf Course Plan

By Jared Foretek

Trump administration lawyers continued to insist at a hearing Monday there is no final plan to remake East Potomac Golf Course, and they changed their tune about whether one would require environmental review, despite new social media posts from the president announcing that work on the overhaul would begin "immediately."

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Wood Smith, Charlesbank Capital Ink Pioneering MSO Deal

By Emma Cueto

Insurance defense firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman has inked a deal to take investment from middle market investment firm Charlesbank Capital Partners via a managed services organization, according to an announcement Monday, the largest U.S. firm to announce such a move.

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Brief

Arizona Court Approves State's First Non-ABA Law School

By Emma Cueto

The Arizona Supreme Court has approved the state's first law school not accredited by the American Bar Association, citing the need to increase the number of lawyers per capita in the state and provide more affordable options for legal education.

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Court Denies Gov't Bid To DQ Susman Godfrey In ABA's Suit

By Andrea Keckley

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to disqualify Susman Godfrey LLP from representing the American Bar Association in its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's executive orders against multiple major law firms. 

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Trump Taps DOJ Official, Federal Prosecutor For Judgeships

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated a senior U.S. Department of Justice attorney for a Nebraska federal judgeship and an assistant U.S. attorney for a seat on the Northern District of Indiana bench.

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Rogoff Tells 9th Circ. His Firing Furthers Trump's 'Evil' Plan

By Ben Adlin

Roger Rogoff urged the Ninth Circuit to affirm a lower judge's order reinstating him as Seattle's top federal prosecutor, asserting in a filing Friday that he's entitled to keep the court-appointed U.S. attorney position until President Donald Trump fills the role with a Senate-confirmed nominee.

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Proskauer Says It Didn't Drop Reddit To Defend Perplexity

By Lauren Berg

Proskauer Rose LLP and Perplexity AI are urging a New York federal judge to allow the law firm to represent the artificial intelligence company in Reddit's suit over alleged data scraping, balking at the social media platform's argument that its one-time law firm can't represent its current opponent.

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What The Justices Won't Hear: A Roundup Of Cert Denials

By Taylor Bowie

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up cases from Google, a U.S. Navy contractor, and other appellate hopefuls on Monday, according to an order list.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week blocked Cloudflare Inc. from completing a restructuring meant to preserve its founders' voting control, while Tower Semiconductor Ltd. accused Intel Corp. of backing out of a semiconductor manufacturing agreement and social media company Triller Group Inc. challenged its removal from Nasdaq.

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