Trump's Labor Secretary Steps Down

By Max Kutner

President Donald Trump's labor secretary stepped down on Monday amid fallout from an internal investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor watchdog that apparently probed a relationship she allegedly had with a subordinate, and other issues.

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Justices To Hear Catholic Preschools' Challenge To Colo. Law

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to review two Catholic parishes' challenge to Colorado's universal preschool program, which requires that they accept students from LGBTQ+ families to receive state funding. 

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Justices Won't Weigh Test For 3rd-Party Harassment

By Vin Gurrieri

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case that hinged on the standard used by courts to assess whether employers are liable for sexual harassment perpetrated against workers by customers or clients.

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Atty Can't Retool Retaliation Suit Against Ex-Mentor, Firm

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney suing her ex-mentor and former law firm lost her bid to add a defamation claim and make other changes to her long-running sexual harassment and retaliation suit, with a Michigan federal judge saying she waited too long and failed to show good cause to reopen the pleadings.

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Justices Won't Consider Union's Right To Seek SpaceX Appeal

By Braden Campbell

The U.S. Supreme Court shut the door Monday on a challenge to a Fifth Circuit ruling that enables the National Labor Relations Board's targets to get its cases blocked, turning away a union's appeal of a decision refusing to let it join the case.

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Judge Says Ill. Justices Can't Fire Him Over MAGA Op-Ed

By Jack Karp

Illinois Supreme Court justices have no authority to remove a state judge from the bench for alleged misconduct, so their effort to dismiss a retired state trial judge's claims that his removal for penning a political opinion column violated his constitutional rights should be rejected, the retired jurist has said.

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Black McDermott Atty Says White Men Favored For Partner

By Lauren Berg

A Black female McDermott Will & Schulte attorney accused the firm of gender, race and pregnancy discrimination in a lawsuit lodged in California state court, saying she has been consistently bypassed for promotion by less-experienced white attorneys and was yanked off casework after taking medical leave following a life-threatening illness during pregnancy.

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High Court Turns Away Veteran's Disability Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the dismissal of a veteran's lawsuit alleging he was let go by an aviation training provider because of his post-traumatic stress disorder and other service-related disabilities, despite his assertion that the decision against him contributed to a circuit split.

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Kylie Jenner Sued By Ex-Housekeeper Over Bias, Unpaid OT

By Gina Kim

A former housekeeper for Kylie Jenner has sued the celebrity influencer in California state court, alleging the housekeeper was forced to do additional work without pay, mocked by colleagues for her accent, treated as inferior due to her Salvadoran background, and that "things got violent" when she complained to her supervisors. 

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Stella McCartney Exec Accuses 'Europe-First' LVMH Of Bias

By Gina Kim

A senior Stella McCartney America Inc. executive accused the fashion brand and its former co-owner LVMH of bias for denying him compensation raises, job security and promotions under a "Europe-first hierarchy" that prioritized European female executives over American employees. 

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American Airlines Asks Court To Keep EEOC Out Of Systems

By Spencer Brewer

American Airlines asked a Texas federal judge to issue an order blocking the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from accessing its software in a discrimination suit, saying that the company has updated its software since the relevant time period.

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HR Director Says Telehealth Co. Fired Her After Miscarriage

By Chart Riggall

Iris Telehealth was hit with a lawsuit in Georgia federal court Monday from a former human resources manager who alleged she was not given the opportunity to take paid leave and was later fired after suffering a miscarriage last summer.

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Stone Hilton Tells Court Ex-Employee's Suit 'Not A Close Call'

By Lynn LaRowe

Stone Hilton PLLC asked a Texas federal court on Monday to toss an employment lawsuit brought by a former office manager, saying in a bid for summary judgment that the evidence just isn't there to support her claims of sexual harassment and a race-based hostile work environment.

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NFL, Teams Try To Ditch Flores' Latest Discrimination Claims

By David Steele

The National Football League and three teams that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to have a proposed racial discrimination class action sent to arbitration have asked a New York federal court to throw out the suit's civil rights claims.

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Software Co. Fired Gay Worker For Reporting Bias, Suit Says

By Kelcey Caulder

A company that provides school district management software discriminated against a worker because he is gay, retaliated against him after he made an initial complaint and fired him when he reported the continued mistreatment, the former employee alleged in Georgia federal court.

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NY Atty Says Okla. Law Firm Misclassified, Denied Benefits

By Emily Sawicki

A New York attorney has filed a $3.1 million contract suit against her former employer, accusing an Oklahoma-based national litigation firm of terminating her employment after she requested an overdue invoice, following more than three years of full-time contract work without benefits.

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Uber Flouted Prop 22 With Lack Of Appeals Process, Suit Says

By Max Kutner

Uber failed to provide drivers with a process for challenging deactivations under California's Proposition 22, which provided certain benefits for app-based drivers and exempted them from an independent contractor classification law, a ride-hailing driver advocacy group alleged Monday in state court.

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Del. Police Captains Seek OT Win As First Responders

By MJ Koo

A group of Wilmington police captains who say they were denied overtime pay for years asked a Delaware federal judge on Monday to rule in their favor without a trial, arguing undisputed evidence shows they are frontline officers entitled to overtime under federal law.

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Bank Of America Wage Deal Over Boot-Up Time Gets OK

By Benjamin Morse

Bank of America will pay approximately $21,500, including attorney fees and costs, to resolve a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit alleging employees were not paid for time spent booting up and shutting down their computers, after a North Carolina federal judge signed off on the settlement.

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Delivery Drivers Seek Collective Notice Over Wage Deductions

By MJ Koo

Delivery drivers who say a freight company's deductions left them with no pay and sometimes owing money, asked an Illinois federal judge Monday to authorize notice to a nationwide collective of their right to join a federal wage suit.

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Contractor DEI Order Will Cause 'Irreparable Harm,' Suit Says

By Katherine Smith

A coalition of nonprofits, university professors, federal contractors and subcontractors are seeking to block an executive order requiring government contractors to agree they won't engage in "racially discriminatory DEI activities," telling a Maryland federal court Monday that the directive will cause "irreparable harm" to the groups and their members.

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Unions Can't Sue Over Deferred Resignation, Feds Say

By Katherine Smith

The Trump administration has asked the First Circuit to uphold a decision rejecting a labor coalition's challenge to its deferred-resignation program for federal workers, arguing the coalition's bid to revive the claims falls flat.

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Union Urges Court To Back Arbitrator In DirecTV Layoff Fight

By Rachel Konieczny

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has asked a Colorado federal judge to affirm an arbitrator's finding that DirecTV's layoffs of union-represented technicians violated a collective bargaining agreement between the two entities.

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Justices Won't Rethink Bakery Co.'s $15.6M Pension Tab

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a baked goods company's bid for review of the Eleventh Circuit's finding that it owed a union pension fund up to $15.6 million, leaving in place Monday a ruling that backed the union's interpretation of pension withdrawal liability law.

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BBQ Executives Ink $22.5M Deal To End ESOP Fight

By Grace Elletson

Executives behind a New York-based barbecue chain and its employee stock ownership plan caretaker have agreed to pay $22.5 million to resolve a class action claiming they tanked workers' savings in a $99 million stock purchase, according to a federal court filing.

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Colo. Contractor Says Engineer's FCA Suit Shows No Fraud

By MJ Koo

A government contractor accused of retaliating against a former chief engineer has asked a Colorado federal judge to dismiss the worker's False Claims Act suit, arguing the former employee's complaint never identified any completed transaction with the government.

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W.Va. Trucking Co.'s Facility Counts As A 'Mine,' DC Circ. Says

By Jared Foretek

A split D.C. Circuit panel ruled that a trucking company's West Virginia facility counted as a "mine" under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act because it's within a mile of a coal plant owned by one of the trucking company's clients and is used to support the client's operations.

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Chancery Affirms Market Basket's Ouster Of 'Imperious' CEO

By Julie Manganis

Longtime Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas' highly publicized ouster from the New England supermarket chain last year was justified by his unwillingness to cooperate with the company's board on succession planning and other matters, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled Monday.

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How Guidance Narrows Federal Telework Accommodations

A recent FAQ from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offers agencies several ways to narrow telework as an accommodation for federal employees, including through in-office alternatives, revisiting prior approvals and substituting leave for situational telework, says Lori Kisch at Kalijarvi Chuzi.

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Del. Ruling Shows Power Of Postclose Governance Provisions

After the Delaware Court of Chancery reinstated a target company's CEO as part of the equitable remedy in Fortis Advisors v. Krafton, deal parties should emphasize the importance of postclosing governance provisions to earnout economics, knowing that they will have to live with these provisions for the duration of the earnout period, say attorneys at Sidley.

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'Kind Of Lawyering We Don't Like': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to make Quinn Emanuel pay nearly $1.3 million on top of $3 million in sanctions already imposed over misrepresentations lawyers made representing its rival Natera Inc., prompting the judge to criticize Quinn Emanuel lawyers for making distinctions so fine they veer into misrepresentation.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fish & Richardson's Nitika Gupta Fiorella

By Dani Kass

Fish & Richardson PC principal Nitika Gupta Fiorella is "a no-stone-unturned, always super prepared" lawyer who "epitomizes professionalism and respect," according to Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP partner Cora Holt.

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Fox Lawyer In Dominion Case Confirmed To Texas Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-46 Monday evening to confirm Andrew Davis, a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP who defended Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, to serve on the bench in the Western District of Texas.

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Justices Won't Consider IP Theft Allegations Against Akin

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a former Cornell University graduate student's petition trying to revive his malpractice suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP stemming from patent litigation against Illumina Inc. over DNA sequencing intellectual property.

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DC Ethics Office Says Ex-Interim US Atty Can't Remove Case

By Emily Sawicki

Washington, D.C., ethics officials have asked a federal court to send U.S. Department of Justice official Ed Martin's ethics case back to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction over a disciplinary matter, which is neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution.

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Ex-Newman Clerks, Judges Back High Court Suspension Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A group of former clerks for Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, as well as former federal judges, have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the challenge to her suspension imposed by her colleagues.

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Insurer Intentionally Avoiding $200M Loan Claim, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A litigation funding firm has accused its insurer of wrongfully refusing to pay out its policy's guaranteed $200 million in coverage for an unpaid loan, saying the insurer buried it in duplicative and burdensome information requests to avoid paying a valid claim.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week delivered another mix of procedural rulings, fiduciary duty disputes and deal litigation, highlighting both the court's gatekeeping role and its continued focus on stockholder rights and transactional fairness.

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