Teamsters Notch Contract At Dispensary After 45-Day Strike

By Emily Brill

Workers at a Pennsylvania dispensary affiliated with the cannabis giant Green Thumb Industries have ratified their first contract with the Teamsters after a 45-day strike, believed to be the longest in the cannabis industry's history, the union announced Tuesday.

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Calif. Justices Doubt 'Illegible' Arb. Pact Is Enforceable

By Dorothy Atkins

California Supreme Court justices Tuesday doubted that an employer's "illegible" arbitration agreement is enforceable, with multiple justices observing that it's impossible to read terms of the contract at issue, which had been photocopied so many times the words are blurry.

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Google's Ex-Health Equity Chief Sues Over Race, Gender Bias

By Bonnie Eslinger

Google's former chief health equity officer sued the company and its parent company Alphabet Inc. in California state court for racial and gender discrimination and whistleblower retaliation, claiming she was wrongfully fired after making complaints about the disparate way Black employees on her team were treated.

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Judge Won't Yet OK Boeing Whistleblower Suicide Settlement

By Jonathan Capriel

A lawsuit accusing Boeing of instigating a "campaign of harassment" against a whistleblower leading to his suicide remains ongoing after a South Carolina federal judge declined to approve a $50,000 settlement, saying that the confidential terms of a separate but related deal prevent her from knowing if this agreement is fair.

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Teacher Reassigned Over Crucifix Display Can't Get Job Back

By Grace Elletson

A Connecticut federal judge refused to let a Catholic educator return to her job and display a crucifix in her classroom while she challenges the revocation of her teaching duties for hanging the cross near her desk, saying she's unlikely to win her First Amendment suit.

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4th Circ. Urged To Revive Bias Suit Over COVID Vaccine Firing

By Abigail Harrison

A Black former sales administrator asked the Fourth Circuit on Monday to revive her religious and race bias lawsuit, arguing that her employer knew she was deeply religious and she proved a "sincerely-held belief" against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

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9th Circ. Revives Ore. Right To Life Suit: 3 Things To Know

By Dan McKay

A divided Ninth Circuit panel sided with an Oregon anti-abortion group last week and reinstated its lawsuit challenging a state law that requires health plans to cover abortion and contraceptives.

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Fed Can't Boot Vaccine Bias Suit To DC, Ex-Staffer Says

By Hayley Fowler

A former employee of the Federal Reserve Board said its chairman can't punt his discrimination and retaliation suit to D.C. federal court, arguing most of the adverse treatment he allegedly suffered occurred while he was working remotely in North Carolina.

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Emory Should Win Black Nurse's Retaliation Suit, Judge Says

By Patrick Hoff

A Black travel nurse's lawsuit claiming Emory Healthcare fired her from a three-month contract for complaining that she was offered less training than white nurses should be dismissed, a Georgia federal judge recommended, saying she hadn't shown white nurses were treated better.

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Hustler Casino HR Manager Fired For Speaking Up, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Flynt Management Group's former human resources manager alleges he was terminated after speaking up about the company's "entrenched culture of non-compliance" that spilled out onto its Hustler Casino, saying the company fired employees who blew the whistle over gaming regulations and those whose documented medical absences kept them off work, according to a complaint filed Monday in California state court.

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Worker Fired After Bug Bite Incident Can't Revive ADA Suit

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a disability bias suit claiming a steel company unfairly fired a worker for failing to alert safety personnel when a co-worker complained about a potential bug bite on her neck, ruling his case lacked evidence that discrimination drove his termination.

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Collective Cert. Denied In OT Row Under 6th Circ. Standard

By Irene Spezzamonte

An Ohio energy company customer service representative failed to meet the Sixth Circuit's standard for collective certification, a federal judge ruled, denying her certification bid in her suit accusing the employer of failing to pay call center workers for the preshift work they performed.

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Brief

Papa John's Franchisee To Pay $2.1M In Wage Case

By Irene Spezzamonte

A Papa John's franchisee will pay $2.1 million to nearly 3,000 workers to end an 8-year-old wage and hour suit claiming minimum wage and overtime violations, after an Idaho federal judge preliminarily approved the deal.

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Brief

Colo. Car Broker's Misclassification Shorted OT, Court Told

By Irene Spezzamonte

An automotive broker company misclassified brokers as overtime-exempt under an exemption that applies only to outside sales workers, a former employee alleged in a proposed class and collective action in Colorado federal court.

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Bimbo Bakeries Hit With Donning And Doffing Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Bimbo Bakeries in Horsham, Pennsylvania, is facing a potential class action lawsuit alleging that the company failed to pay employees for the time it took them to gather equipment and get dressed for work, in violation of Pennsylvania's wage laws.

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Ice Cube, Co. Didn't Pay For Video Shoot Work, Suit Claims

By Irene Spezzamonte

A video company and rapper Ice Cube failed to pay a crew member who worked briefly on one of the rapper's music videos, a lawsuit in California state court claims.

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3rd Circ. Won't Rethink Reversing Union's $3.5M Pension Win

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Third Circuit on Tuesday refused to rethink its earlier decision to reverse a $3.5 million win for a pipe fitters and plumbers union in a dispute with a commercial real estate company over pension contributions related to overtime hours.

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Chem Cos. Urge 3rd Circ. To Scrap ERISA Ruling Over Spinoff

By Patrick Hoff

Chemical companies Corteva Inc. and DuPont urged the Third Circuit Tuesday to upend a verdict in favor of employees who claimed they were misled about how a merger and spinoff would affect their retirement benefits, arguing plan participants' confusion and disappointment can't be remedied under federal benefits law.

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Ga. Panel Mulls Courts' Leeway To Alter Restrictive Covenants

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia appeals court pressed attorneys Tuesday for answers on how trial judges should determine how or when to modify restrictive covenants, during oral arguments on a motorcycle dealership chain's push to enforce a noncompete against its former chief operating officer.

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Hytera Faces $290.8M Restitution Award In Trade Secrets Case

By Ivan Moreno

Federal prosecutors have asked a Chicago judge to order Hytera Communications Corp. to pay nearly $290.8 million in restitution to Motorola Solutions after it pled guilty to conspiracy to steal its trade secrets for mobile two-way radios, calling Hytera's crime "egregious and lasting."

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Fed. Circ. Denies VA Surgeon's Wrongful Termination Appeal

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board's decision to uphold the firing of a general surgeon by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after he raised concerns about compromised patient care.

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10th Circ. Revives Atty's Free Speech Retaliation Case

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado water attorney's First Amendment case against her former employer was revived by the Tenth Circuit after a three-judge panel found the attorney's comments were not made as an ordinary part of her duties.

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Brief

Conn. Firm Bookkeeper Asks To Delay Embezzlement Trial

By Emily Sawicki

A former law firm bookkeeper accused of embezzling $835,000 from the legal practice and from its managing partner's rental business asked a Connecticut federal judge on Monday to delay a scheduled January jury trial because of a health issue that requires surgery.

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Littler Adds Veteran In-House Atty From Amazon In California

By Christine DeRosa

Employment and labor law firm Littler Mendelson PC has expanded its offerings in San Francisco with a veteran in-house attorney who most recently spent over eight years at Amazon.

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How Employers Should Reshape AI Use As Laws Evolve

As laws and regulations on the use of artificial intelligence in employment evolve, organizations can maximize the innovative benefits of workplace AI tools and mitigate their risks by following a few key strategies, including designing tools for auditability and piloting them in states with flexible rules, say attorneys at Cooley.

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Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

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Mamdani Taps Ex-FTC Chief Lina Khan For NYC Transition

By Lauren Berg

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday named an all-women transition team, including former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who attracted the ire of tech giants and corporations by spearheading the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust enforcement.

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Fired E-Biz Execs Sue Jackson Walker Over Judge's Romance

By Adrian Cruz

A pair of former executives at e-commerce company Volusion LLC have hit Jackson Walker LLP with the latest in a series of suits accusing the firm of legal malpractice stemming from the undisclosed romance between a former partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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Senate Confirms Jones Day Partner For 9th Circuit Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 52-45 on Wednesday to confirm Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day, as a judge on the Ninth Circuit.

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Judge Slams DOJ's 'Indict First' Strategy In Comey Case

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors were given just over 24 hours to hand over all of the grand jury materials and anything seized under years-old warrants in the James Comey case when a Virginia federal judge said Wednesday that the government appeared to be pursuing an "indict first, investigate last" strategy.

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Calif. Judge Denies Zoom Investors' 'Eye-Watering' Fee Bid

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has rejected a $28 million attorney fee request from Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd as part of a $150 million investor settlement with Zoom, calling it an "eye-watering figure," and saying the firm can collect about $10.4 million instead.

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Fed. Judiciary Tackles Design, Need For AI Evidence Rules

By Jack Karp

Federal judiciary members wrestled Wednesday with the appropriate parameters of a proposed rule that would govern machine-generated evidence, while questioning the need for another proposed rule dealing with so-called deepfake evidence.

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After Spending Blitz, Pa. Judicial Election Turnout Booms

By James Boyle

Months of focused campaigning and an unprecedented blitz of spending on television ads helped serve to double the number of Pennsylvania voters who turned out on Tuesday to cast ballots over whether to grant new 10-year terms to three Democratic members of the state's Supreme Court.

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Mass. Justices Consider Raises To Address Counsel Shortage

By Julie Manganis

Justices on Massachusetts' highest court grappled at a hearing Wednesday with its ability to address an ongoing shortage of attorneys willing to represent indigent defendants, after lawyers in two of the state's busiest counties stopped taking cases in May in protest over the low pay compared with other states.

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