Starbucks DEI Goals Are 'Race-Based Quotas,' Fla. AG Claims

By Ben Adlin

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is accusing coffee giant Starbucks Corp. of violating state civil rights protections in its efforts to promote an inclusive workforce, claiming in a state lawsuit Wednesday that the company's diversity, equity and inclusion policies "cross the line into illegal, race-based quotas."

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Judge Weighs Security Claims In Federal Bargaining Case

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge declined to immediately reinstate collective bargaining agreements for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and National Weather Service employees Wednesday, saying the case brought by the workers was more "complicated" and "difficult" than other federal worker bargaining suits he'd recently enjoined.

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6th Circ. Mulls NLRB's Injunction Burden After Justices' Tweak

By Braden Campbell

A Sixth Circuit panel on Wednesday probed a judge's inference that Michigan hospital workers would suffer without an order making their employer resume dealing with their union in the circuit's first National Labor Relations Board injunction case since the U.S. Supreme Court altered the courts' test last year.

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Kaiser Asks 9th Circ. To Make Nurses Arbitrate Wage Claims

By Bonnie Eslinger

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and a staffing company urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to force traveling nurses to arbitrate their claims that they were cheated out of compensation, saying a judge erred when he found the agreement unconscionable due to a potentially confusing fee shifting provision.

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Courts Let Military Ban Trans, HIV-Positive Troops For Now

By Anne Cullen

Two federal appellate courts have cleared the federal government to enforce a pair of controversial policies restricting transgender and HIV-positive people from serving in the military, with each lifting trial court blockades on the rules while litigation challenging them plays out.

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11th Circ. Backs UPS' Win In Fired Driver's Retaliation Suit

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a jury win for UPS in a Black delivery driver's suit alleging he was fired for complaining that his boss over scrutinized him out of racial bias, ruling the lower court's move to exclude testimony from the driver's colleague didn't affect the trial's outcome.

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Stone Hilton Says Paxton Deputies Can't Duck Subpoenas

By Jake Maher

Stone Hilton PLLC attorneys facing a sexual harassment suit from a former employee defended their move to subpoena two high-ranking members of the Texas Office of the Attorney General this week, saying their "hands are tied" by the ex-staffer's use of an email related to the purported misconduct.

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Brief

NY Clinic Settles Retaliation Suit With Doctor

By Irene Spezzamonte

A physician has agreed to settle his suit accusing a medical clinic of withholding his bonus and then firing him for complaining about unsanitary conditions in an autopsy suite, a New York federal judge said, discontinuing the case.

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Disciplined Attys Want High Court's Take On Judge Criticism

By David Minsky

A father-daughter team of attorneys have brought a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging their suspensions for criticizing a Florida state judge who reversed a $2.75 million jury verdict in favor of their client in a racial discrimination lawsuit, saying their comments are protected by the First Amendment. 

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Brief

D.C. AG Says Construction Co. To Pay $1.5M In Wage Case

By Irene Spezzamonte

A construction company will pay out $1.5 million following an investigation revealing that the entity and its subcontractors misclassified workers as independent contractors, leading to unpaid wages, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said.

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Pot Shop Budtenders Say Tips Wrongly Split With Managers

By Julie Manganis

Budtenders at a group of Massachusetts cannabis dispensaries alleged in a proposed class action filed in state court that managers are improperly pooling and taking a cut of tips left by customers.

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Staffing, Consulting Cos. Face PAGA Suit Over Unpaid Wages

By Irene Spezzamonte

Two staffing companies and an account and consulting entity failed to pay employees for all time that they worked and manipulated their time entries, two workers said in a Private Attorneys General Act suit lodged in California state court.

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Med Delivery Co. Fired Workers For Pay Complaints, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A pharmaceutical delivery company misclassified drivers as independent contractors even though it controlled nearly every aspect of their work and fired 12 named drivers at once for speaking up about it, according to a proposed class action filed in Kentucky federal court.

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Texas Co. Owes $10M To Woman Shot At Gun-Friendly Event

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas state jury has awarded more than $10 million to a woman who was shot in the hand at a company-sponsored event that allowed employees and clients to shoot firearms as part of the festivities, with the jury finding the company negligently exposed the woman to a dangerous condition.

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Union Pacific Gets $3.5M Verdict Nixed Over Theft Evidence

By Mike Curley

An Illinois appeals court has wiped out a $3.5 million injury verdict against Union Pacific Railroad Co., saying the trial court wrongly excluded evidence that the plaintiff had previously been convicted of a felony crime of dishonesty.

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Prepping For 2026 Shifts In Calif. Workplace Safety Rules

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health is preparing for significant shifts and increased enforcement in 2026, so key safety programs — including injury and illness prevention plans, workplace violence plans, and heat illness prevention procedures — must remain a focus for employers, says Rachel Conn at Conn Maciel.

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6 Ways To Nuke-Proof Litigation As Explosive Verdicts Rise

As the increasing number of nuclear verdicts continues to reshape the litigation landscape, counsel must understand how to create a multipronged defense strategy to anticipate juror expectations and mitigate the risk of outsize jury awards, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Welcome To Miami

After nearly 20 years in operation, the Miami Complex Business Litigation Division is a pioneer upon which other jurisdictions in the state have been modeled, adopting many innovations to keep its cases running more efficiently and staffing experienced judges who are accustomed to hearing business disputes, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

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How 11th Circ.'s Qui Tam Review Could Affect FCA Litigation

On Dec. 12, the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, setting the stage for a decision that could drastically reduce enforcement under the False Claims Act, and presenting an opportunity to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the act's whistleblower provisions, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

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Bonus Spotlight

Litigation Shops Paying Above-Market Bonuses, Reports Say

By Andrea Keckley

Litigation boutiques Yetter Coleman LLP and Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP are giving above-market bonuses to their associates, according to reports from Above the Law and Bloomberg.

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Jack Smith To Launch Firm With Willkie Partner, 2 Ex-Deputies

By Jack Rodgers

Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel appointed to investigate President Donald Trump, is set to launch his own firm alongside two of his former top deputies and the co-chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP's investigations and enforcement practice.

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Judge Bove Faces Complaint Over Trump Rally Attendance

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove, who previously served as President Donald Trump's personal defense attorney and a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, has been hit with a judicial misconduct complaint for his appearance at a Trump event on Tuesday night.

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Analysis

Wanted: Temporary US Attorney, No Experience Needed

By Phillip Bantz

Frustrated by a string of court rulings disqualifying several of his U.S. attorney picks, President Donald Trump lamented recently that he might "just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one." Experts say the idea raises legal and practical issues.

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Akerman Beats Healthcare Cos.' Bid To Escape Fee Suit

By Madison Arnold

Akerman LLP can continue its fees lawsuit against Rennova Health Inc. and other defendants after they lost their motion to dismiss the suit for being "facially time-barred, factually flawed and legally indefensible," a Florida state judge has ruled.

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Fla. Atty Faces Bar Referral Over 'Hallucinated' Case In Filing

By Madison Arnold

A Florida appeals court will refer an attorney to the state's Bar after she filed a brief that included a "hallucinated" case.

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AGs Say Judicial Safety Threats Reaching 'All-Time Highs'

By Matthew Santoni

Attorneys general for 43 states, three territories and the District of Columbia signed a letter to Congress urging more financial support for judicial security in the face of threats against judges, including funding for a program that lets judges scrub addresses and personal information from online databases.

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McIver's Immunity Disputed In Detention Center Assault Case

By Elizabeth Daley

Federal prosecutors asked a New Jersey federal judge to maintain all charges against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was accused in an indictment of assaulting federal officers outside an immigration detention center during a scrum in which the mayor of Newark was arrested in May.

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Regulate AI With Existing Regs, Financial Industry Lobby Says

By Sarah Jarvis

The Financial Services Institute on Wednesday recommended that regulators apply existing rules and standards to artificial intelligence, saying they should use new rules only when AI brings "genuinely new issues or significantly alters existing risks."

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