Ex-Labor Secretary Acted Inappropriately, Watchdog Says

By Max Kutner

Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer failed to prohibit harassment in the workplace, had an inappropriate and unprofessional relationship with a member of her protective detail and combined personal and official travel, the U.S. Labor Department's internal watchdog said in a report following the secretary's resignation.

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Justices Again Refuse NY Health Workers' Fight Over Vax Rule

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Friday to reconsider its decision to pass on a legal challenge by religious healthcare workers to a pandemic-era New York state vaccination policy, despite three conservative justices' previously stated interest in the case.

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Jury Says Norfolk Southern Owes $954K In Disability Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A Pennsylvania federal jury said Friday that Norfolk Southern should pay nearly $954,000 to an electrician who claimed he was unlawfully kept out of work for almost a year because of his seizure disorder.

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Analysis

ERISA Recap: 5 Appellate Rulings To Know From August

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit kept an Arkansas pharmacy benefit manager rule in place as not preempted by federal benefits law, the Fourth Circuit revived an Altria ex-worker's dispute over benefit plan documents, and the Eleventh Circuit reversed a pretrial win for Royal Caribbean in cruise workers' suit challenging 401(k) funds. Here, Law360 looks at those and two other major appellate decisions from August involving ERISA that benefits attorneys may want to know.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: Inside Va.'s Wage Protection Push

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on details about Virginia's new wage protection division created by President Joe Biden's former wage chief, how a National Labor Relations Board memo depicts the limits of workers' political advocacy protections, and why government employee advocates are alarmed by a recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission policy shift. 

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Cannabis Co. Ayr Accused Of Wrongfully Firing New Parent

By Jonathan Capriel

Miami-based cannabis operator Ayr Wellness Inc. and associated companies were hit with a discrimination lawsuit by a former vice president who claims they pressured her to cut short her maternity leave, denied her breastfeeding accommodations and fired her weeks after she returned from giving birth.

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Turf Co. Laid Off Foreman Over Workplace Injury, Suit Says

By David Aaro

A landscaping company violated a foreman's disability rights by laying him off shortly after he returned from six weeks of medical leave following an on-the-job injury to his ankle, he said in a lawsuit filed in Georgia federal court.

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Elevance Health Settles Ex-Worker's Late Pay Class Claims

By Brian Steele

Elevance Health Inc. has agreed to a settlement in principle that would end a proposed class action claiming it failed to give discharged workers their final paychecks in a timely fashion under Connecticut and Massachusetts law, according to a filing in Connecticut state court.

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United Airlines Violates Wash. OT And Break Laws, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

United Airlines is accused of violating Washington labor laws by shorting overtime pay and denying compliant meal and rest breaks to hourly employees who held ground job positions for the carrier, according to a notice filed by the airline Thursday removing the case to the Western District of Washington. 

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Boeing OT Suit Says Incentive Pay Was Omitted From Rates

By Ben Adlin

Boeing shorted its workers in Washington state by failing to factor in bonuses and other nondiscretionary compensation when calculating overtime and sick leave payments, according to a proposed class action that the company removed to federal court Thursday.

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Dunkin' Donuts Operator Misclassified Managers, Suit Says

By Katherine Smith

A Dunkin' Donuts franchisee misclassified store managers as exempt from overtime and failed to pay them for work exceeding 40 hours per week, a former employee claimed in a proposed class and collective action filed Friday in Virginia federal court.

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Brief

Judge Asks Atty To Explain Absences In Nurses' Wage Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal magistrate judge ordered Friday that an attorney for nearly 40 nurses in a wage lawsuit against Colorado-based U.S. Nursing Corp. explain why he has not appeared in the case for months and why the court should not therefore toss the suit.

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4th Circ. Backs SSI Denial Despite Disability Challenge

By Corey Rothauser

The Fourth Circuit has upheld the denial of disability benefits to a North Carolina woman who said her physical and mental impairments, including agoraphobia, prevented her from working, ruling in a divided published decision that substantial evidence supported the Social Security Administration's findings.

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Brief

Ill. Panel Affirms BIPA Exemption For Home Care Provider

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate court has refused to revive a biometric privacy lawsuit against home-care provider Help at Home, finding the company was exempt from a state privacy law's reach as a government contractor when it collected employees' fingerprints for a required background check.

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Meta Layoff Suit Serves As Early Test Of AI Bias Claims

A lawsuit in California federal court alleging that Meta's use of artificial intelligence in recent layoffs negatively affected employees on protected leave provides insight for plaintiffs about what evidence to preserve and how to build these discrimination claims, says Manny Starr at Frontier Law Center.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Legal Sector Hiring Grows For 5th Month, But At Slower Pace

By Rachel Rippetoe

The legal sector saw 600 more jobs in August, growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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3rd Circ. Revives Malpractice Claim Against Kirkland Atty

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey divorcee may once again pursue a legal malpractice claim against a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney who she said lost her millions by mishandling estate documents, after the Third Circuit found it could be possible to link her alleged damages to the lawyer's work.

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Quinn Emanuel DQ'd In Defamation Case Over Stock Reports

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas federal court on Friday booted Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing a Hong Kong manufacturing company in its defamation lawsuit against investment research service Muddy Waters LLC after finding that the law firm had received relevant confidential information when it represented Muddy Waters in a related government probe.

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DC Panel's Rare Rebuke Over AI Errors Flags Rules Gap

By Andrea Keckley

A D.C. appellate court panel issued a rare sua sponte sanctions order on Thursday after finding nonexistent case citations in a brief filed by a McCabe Weisberg & Conway LLC attorney representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure action, noting an apparent gap in the rules governing the court's sanctions authority.

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Motley Rice Founder Remembered As Titan Of Mass Tort Bar

By Adrian Cruz

Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joseph F. Rice, who died Thursday, was remembered by former colleagues and friends as a "transformational" attorney and "giant in the civil litigation bar" who spent decades working on some of the most high-profile mass torts and obtaining landmark asbestos, opioid and tobacco settlements.

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Sinema Can't Duck Suit Over Affair With Ex-Security Guard

By Y. Peter Kang

A North Carolina federal judge Friday denied former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bid to escape the suit brought by the ex-wife of a former member of her security detail with whom she allegedly had an affair, saying the district court indeed has the authority to adjudicate the case.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta's Social Media Addiction Deal

By Y. Peter Kang

A $17.1 billion social media addiction settlement between Meta and 29 states and Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion ovarian cancer deal over its talc products lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Verkamp LLC and Sparacino PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eleventh Circuit held that the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions do not violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves by Meta's in-house lawyers ahead of its $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children were legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk. And the co-founders of a partner-only law firm told Law360 Pulse how their technology reduces intake, billing and other nonbillable tasks that attorneys would normally perform. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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