Starbucks Wins 5th Circ. Bid To Scrap NLRB Subpoena Order

By Rae Ann Varona

The Fifth Circuit on Friday vacated a National Labor Relations Board order that dinged Starbucks for sending overbroad subpoenas to pro-union employees, saying in a published opinion that the board applied the wrong legal standard for determining whether the coffeehouse chain committed an unfair labor practice.

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4th Circ. Says Merrill Bonus Plan Exempt From ERISA

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fourth Circuit on Friday refused to revive an ex-Merrill financial adviser's proposed class action claiming he was shorted deferred compensation, backing a lower court's holding that the retention bonuses at issue were exempt from federal benefits law.

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11th Circ. Backs School District In Black Worker's Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal Friday of a Black Alabama school district worker's suit claiming she was transferred to a different job out of racial discrimination, ruling her employer showed the decision was based on her concerns about her workload, not her race.

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9th Circ. Revives Doctor's PeaceHealth Whistleblower Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit panel has reinstated a psychiatrist's claims that PeaceHealth Inc. retaliated against him for expressing concerns about potential Medicaid fraud at a Washington hospital, concluding on Friday that the district court overlooked evidence that the employer punished him by not renewing his employment contract.

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EEOC Says Halting Penn Subpoena Would Compromise Probe

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission argued in a federal court filing Friday that allowing the University of Pennsylvania to freeze the agency's subpoena for information on the school's Jewish employees would undercut its investigation into antisemitism on campus.

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Fed. Circ. Reverses $18M Penile Implant Trade Secret Win

By Ivan Moreno

In a unanimous precedential decision, the Federal Circuit on Friday largely reversed a California jury's $18.3 million trade secret verdict over a penile implant, holding that the asserted secrets were already publicly disclosed or generally known and therefore not protectable.

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Zales Worker's Age Bias Suit Lacks Evidence, 3rd Circ. Says

By Grace Elletson

The Third Circuit backed the dismissal of a Zales consultant's bias suit claiming she was fired from the jewelry chain for complaining that her colleagues commented negatively about her age, ruling she couldn't overcome evidence that concerns about her performance actually drove her termination.

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States Seek Win To Restore DOE's Diversity Grant Cuts

By Joyce Hanson

Eight states have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to restore $160 million to federal programs providing professional development to new teachers cut by the U.S. Department of Education last year, which the states said were unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration as diversity initiatives.

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Systemic Bias Norm At Taiwan Semiconductor, Engineer Says

By Rachel Riley

A software engineer for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has alleged the microchip-maker systematically discriminates against women by hiring them less frequently than men, underpaying women and fostering a "sexually-charged environment" rife with innuendo and harassment.

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Brief

BofA, Ex-Workers Get OK For Boot-Up Time Deal

By MJ Koo

A North Carolina federal judge has approved a settlement resolving a wage suit alleging that Bank of America Corp. failed to pay workers for time spent booting up and shutting down their computers before and after their shifts.

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Paralegal And Firm Settle OT Claims, TikTok Post Countersuit

By Benjamin Morse

A former paralegal and a Houston personal injury law firm have agreed to settle the worker's lawsuit in Texas federal court accusing the firm of failing to pay overtime, ending a case that later expanded to include the firm's counterclaims alleging the ex-employee lied about the business on TikTok.

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Bill Floated To Nix Medical Residency Antitrust Exemption

By Matthew Perlman

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has introduced legislation to repeal an antitrust exemption given to the medical residency matching program by Congress two decades ago, over concerns about wages and a bottleneck of medical school graduates.

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Property Manager Hit With OT, Face Scan Privacy Class Action

By Isaac Monterose

A proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court accuses a multifamily property management company of deliberately paying its employees less overtime by making them work off the clock and of using technology to collect their face scans without written consent.

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Healthcare AI Co. Seeks to Drop 3 From Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A data science platform said Friday that a former executive, who claims he was not paid after investing $750,000 into the business, cannot drag three out-of-state people loosely connected to the company into a North Carolina federal court and that key claims should be trimmed.

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Settlement Ends High Court Fight Over Arbitration Deference

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed in a now-settled case relating to a vacated arbitral award favoring a former water treatment company director, which sought clarity from the justices on whether courts can second-guess the content of arbitral pleadings and filings.

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VW Says NLRB Forcing Bargaining After Anti-Union Vote

By Rae Ann Varona

The National Labor Relations Board is pursuing an "unconstitutional administrative proceeding" against Volkswagen's U.S. arm, the automaker told a Texas federal court Friday, saying the NLRB is attempting to force it to recognize and bargain with a union that employees at an essential supply chain facility voted against.

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Workers At 3 NJ Colleges Eligible For Union As Non-Managers

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey state appeals court on Friday upheld a state labor agency's finding that dozens of employees at three public colleges are eligible for union membership, rejecting the state's argument that the workers fall within a statutory carveout for managers.

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Life Sciences Firm Says Ex-VP Took Trade Secrets To Rival

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts life sciences startup says a former vice president who left the company last fall, purportedly to care for his ill wife, instead took trade secrets with him to a new job at a California rival.

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Polygon Says Ex-Execs Engaged In Self-Dealing

By Katryna Perera

Two former executives of artificial intelligence company Predicate Labs Inc. have been hit with a suit in Delaware Chancery Court alleging that following a $400 million acquisition of the company in 2021, the executives "began a campaign of self-dealings, intentional misrepresentation, deceptive inducement and willful breach."

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DC Circ. Orders SEC Rethink Of Whistleblower Claim

By Jessica Corso

The D.C. Circuit on Friday ordered the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to better explain why it denied a whistleblower award to an anonymous individual who brought forth information that led to a successful enforcement action, ruling that the agency needs to reconsider the alleged whistleblower's petition.

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Judge Again Rejects Boeing Whistleblower Suicide Settlement

By Jonathan Capriel

A South Carolina court has again refused to approve a $50,000 settlement in a lawsuit accusing Boeing of instigating a "campaign of harassment" against a whistleblower that led to his suicide, saying it can't know whether the deal is fair until it has seen the details of a related settlement.

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Amazon Fired Drone Pilot Who Voiced Safety Issues, Suit Says

By Ben Adlin

A former Amazon drone pilot and robotics operator has claimed in a Washington state lawsuit that the e-commerce giant illegally fired him in retaliation for raising safety and regulatory concerns around what his suit describes as a "clandestine" drone AI-training program.

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Penn State Beats Claims In Ex-Trustee's Suit Over His Ousting

By Matthew Santoni

A federal judge threw out most of a former Pennsylvania State University trustee's lawsuit against the university and its board Friday, but let his First Amendment claims continue so that the court could consider whether he was acting as a public employee, a private citizen or an elected official.

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Dentons Brings On K&L Gates Employment Ace In NJ, NY

By Jake Maher

Dentons US announced this week it has brought on a former K&L Gates LLP partner of over 20 years in its labor and employment group in New Jersey and New York.

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Employer Considerations After FTC's Noncompete Warning

In light of Federal Trade Commission leadership's recent message that the agency remains committed to challenging noncompetes that operate as restraints of trade, employers should take several practical steps in order to reduce regulatory risk, including auditing existing agreements and narrowing restrictions, says Christopher Pickett at UB Greensfelder.

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7 Tips For Employers On Calif. Decision-Making Tech Rules

Over the next eight months, many California employers must prepare to comply with challenging new requirements under the California Consumer Privacy Act that constitute the most comprehensive set of rules in the country on the use of automated decision-making technology, say attorneys at Littler.

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2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

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California Is Latest Battleground In Defining Access To Justice

By Brandon Lowrey

A pair of dueling California ballot initiatives both purport to increase consumers' access to justice — a righteous cause, most would say. If only the initiatives' backers agreed on what that means.

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Adams & Reese Sued For Malpractice Over $411M Injury Loss

By Lynn LaRowe

A scaffolding company has hit Adams & Reese LLP with a legal malpractice suit in Texas state court that accuses the firm of botching its defense in a Louisiana workplace injury case, leading to a roughly $411 million jury verdict and ultimately forcing the business to settle the matter for millions.

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Up Next At High Court: SEC And FCC Enforcement Authority

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's final argument session of this term kicks off Monday, when the justices will consider the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's authority to seek disgorgement orders against alleged wrongdoers without proving investors were harmed. Here, Law360 breaks down the week's oral arguments.

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Polsinelli Sent Bogus Infringement Letters, Suits Say

By Elliot Weld

National law firm Polsinelli PC was accused of sending letters to two medical device companies with meritless claims of patent infringement, the companies claimed in a pair of malpractice suits.

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Another Record-Breaking Year For NY Lobbying: Watchdog

By Andrea Keckley

The amount of money spent on lobbying in New York state reached a new high — again — in 2025 despite lower dollar amounts from that year's top spenders, a state ethics and lobbying watchdog said Thursday.

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NY High Court Suspends Judge Over Racist Remarks

By Elizabeth Daley

A veteran judge who used the N-word among colleagues and claimed in court that a Black defendant was likely to be violent and "played the race card" has been suspended without pay by New York's highest court.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: Juror Bias, First For Revenge Porn Law

By Orlando Lorenzo

The California Supreme Court tossed the conviction and death sentence in a double slaying over the trial court's failures to investigate claims of juror bias, and an Ohio man is believed to be the first person in the nation convicted under a federal law intended to battle revenge porn.

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Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Judge Mulls DQ Over O'Melveny Ties

By Craig Clough

The parties in a consumer lawsuit challenging Alaska Airlines' 2024 acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines have been notified that the federal judge recently assigned to the case intends to disqualify himself unless they sign a waiver over one of his retirement accounts being tied to O'Melveny & Myers LLP, which is representing Alaska Airlines.

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Nussbaum-Linked Law Firms Hit Ch. 11 Facing Scheme Suits

By Vince Sullivan

Two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York, listing at least $353 million in disputed unsecured claims tied to the firms' hard money lending practices that have been described in litigation as a Ponzi scheme.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Aston Martin file an appeal in a row with Chinese carmaker Geely over its winged logo for London black cabs, Ineos sue Ben Ainslie's America's Cup team for a £180 million ($244 million) boat, White & Case face a claim from two energy storage companies, and a golf tour company bring a claim against Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund after the fund invested in its rival.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

New data found that some companies are being wary during the 2026 proxy season by negotiating deals behind closed doors rather than allowing shareholders to vote on issues. In the meantime, a report showed that the higher annual rate growth for outside counsel fees that began in 2022 has become the new normal. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Winston & Strawn LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a New York federal jury found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary harmed competition in the live entertainment sector by willfully monopolizing ticketing services.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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