DC Circ. Sends CFPB Layoff Fight Back To District Court

By Jon Hill

The D.C. Circuit has declined to give the Trump administration an immediate green light for a plan to lay off around half of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's remaining workforce, instead handing it off for a Washington, D.C., federal judge to review first.

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Split 9th Circ. To Rehear Ministry's Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Case

By Rachel Riley

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday nixed a panel's recent ruling that the First Amendment shields a Christian ministry's practice of rejecting gay job applicants, granting Washington state's bid for a full-court rehearing while drawing protest from one appellate judge that the court has "relegated religious liberty to a second-class right."

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NY High Court Upholds Mandatory Judge Retirement Age

By Dorothy Atkins

New York's highest court Thursday affirmed a ruling that rejected jurists' challenges to the Empire State's mandatory retirement age of 70 for state judges and justices, finding that the centuries-old constitutional mandate doesn't conflict with a recent state civil rights amendment banning age discrimination.

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3rd Circ. Sides With NJ Transit In Whistleblower's Firing

By Carla Baranauckas

A Third Circuit panel on Thursday declined to reinstate a fired New Jersey Transit engineer's retaliation lawsuit, ruling that she hadn't shown that she was fired by anyone who knew about her whistleblower allegations that the agency had unsafe rail practices.

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2nd Circ. Skeptical Of Avangrid Worker's Age Bias Claims

By Aaron Keller

A Second Circuit panel Thursday seemed skeptical of an Avangrid Management Co. employee's attempt to resurrect an age discrimination lawsuit, appearing to accept the company's assertion that it passed the Connecticut worker over for a lead financial reporting analyst position because another candidate was better qualified.

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5 Big ERISA Litigation Developments From 2026's First Half

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Supreme Court's acceptance of a petition challenging Intel's 401(k) investment lineup and a Fourth Circuit ruling unraveling a class of Genworth Financial retirement plan participants headlined the court developments that caught benefits attorneys' attention in the first six months of 2026. Here, Law360 looks at those and other noteworthy ERISA decisions.

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Amazon Wraps Up Ex-Worker's Race Bias, Retaliation Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Amazon has reached an agreement to end a suit from a former executive assistant who claimed he was fired for complaining that he'd missed out on promotions and faced unwarranted criticism because he's Black, according to a filing in Georgia federal court.

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Wells Fargo Must Face Finance Manager's Bias Claims At Trial

By Sydney Price

Wells Fargo has lost its bid for summary judgment in a finance manager's disability bias lawsuit, with a North Carolina federal judge ruling that a material dispute remains over whether she suffered an adverse action for her retaliation and discrimination claims.

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EEOC Can't Get NY School Pay Bias Ruling Reconsidered

By MJ Koo

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission failed to convince a New York federal court Thursday to reconsider a ruling that kept alive a school district's defense in a pay discrimination suit over a female superintendent's lower salary.

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Ex-Kaiser Employee Claims Racial Discrimination, Retaliation

By Rachel Konieczny

Kaiser Permanente racially discriminated against an Asian Indian senior IT consultant and terminated him for raising concerns of disparate treatment, the former employee alleged in Colorado federal court.

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Colo. Hotel Beats H-2B Housekeepers' Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Colorado hotel operator snagged an early win in a class and collective action brought by H-2B housekeepers, with a federal judge finding the workers failed to show the company was their joint employer and could be held liable for federal and state pay violations.

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Colo. Worker Says State Paid Staff Below Denver's Min Wage

By Zach Dupont

A former state Department of Revenue employee claimed in a proposed class action Wednesday that she was paid more than $1 an hour below Denver's minimum wage for the entirety of her time as an employee and is owed compensation, according to a complaint filed in Colorado state court.

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Starbucks Sues To Block Union From Using Name And Logo

By Braden Campbell

Starbucks sued Starbucks Workers United on Thursday in Iowa federal court, seeking to block the group from using the company brand and countering a suit the union filed in April.

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Microchip Co. Strikes Deal In Decade-Old Severance Dispute

By Grace Elletson

A microchip maker has agreed to settle a long-running class action alleging the company illegally shut down its severance program following a 2016 merger weeks before the case was set to go to trial, according to a California federal court filing.

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CSX Seeks Early Win In Ex-Workers' FMLA Fight

By Emily Brill

CSX Transportation asked a Florida federal judge to toss two ex-workers' claims that they were fired for using Family and Medical Leave Act leave, saying one was fired for using the leave dishonestly and the other was fired for repeatedly calling out sick without medical documentation.

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Colo. Sheriff Claims Immunity In Deputy's Wrongful Firing Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado county sheriff and undersheriff asked a federal judge to toss a wrongful termination lawsuit brought against them by a former patrol deputy, arguing they are immune from claims that they retaliated against the deputy for reporting what he alleged was their discriminatory behavior and misconduct.

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Why Private Sector Should Watch Gov't DEI Firing Class Bid

Former federal employees' class certification attempt in Fell v. Trump is worth following, as their challenge of the Office of Personnel Management's elimination of DEI positions raises questions about commonality in employee classes and protections for nonminority advocacy that reach beyond the public sector, says Shaun Southworth at Southworth PC.

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FTC Focus: Calibrating Biden-Era Issues In 2026's 1st Half

In the first half of 2026, Federal Trade Commission actions have redefined which of the previous administration's theories it views as legally sustainable, institutionally worthwhile and consistent with a more restrained conception, including a pivot from rulemaking to case-specific noncompete enforcement this spring, say attorneys at Proskauer.

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Series

Founding An Autism Academy Made Me A Better Lawyer

Starting a nonprofit autism school with no building, no funding model and no guarantee that families would trust us taught me the importance of mission, patience and purpose — lessons that sharpened my practice and showed how meaningful work outside the office can make lawyers better, says Phillip Russell at Ogletree Deakins.

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Judiciary Cites AI Deepfakes In Opposing Courtroom Cameras

By Courtney Bublé

Two bipartisan bills to bring cameras into federal courtrooms advanced Thursday, but the policymaking body for the federal judiciary continues to oppose them and raised the issue of deepfakes in the age of artificial intelligence.

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Trump Lawyer Advances In Senate Judiciary Noms Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Matthew Schwartz to be a judge on the Second Circuit advanced out of committee Thursday.

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'Mortified' Atty Takes Blame For Fake Quotes In Taco TM Fight

By Ivan Moreno

A Connecticut attorney facing possible sanctions over fake case quotations in a taco restaurant trademark fight told a federal judge that he takes "full and unqualified responsibility" for the flawed filings, saying he is "mortified" and acknowledging that his verification process for AI-assisted legal work fell far short.

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Calif. Moves On Proposal To Allow Legal Aid By Nonlawyers

By Lynn LaRowe

The California Supreme Court has directed the state bar to solicit public comments on a proposed community justice worker program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance under the supervision of qualified legal aid organizations, according to a Thursday announcement.

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Analysis

Law Students Undeterred Under Trump's Immigration Climate

By Britain Eakin

In a climate where immigration lawyers are coming under the Trump administration’s scrutiny to tamp down on asylum fraud, law students are being ignited to enter the workforce early and rectify the injustices they see.

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Mich. Panel Sanctions Atty Over AI-Hallucinated Cases

By Susan Smiley

A medical malpractice suit in the Michigan Court of Appeals led to financial sanctions against an attorney who the court said during litigation repeatedly cited nonexistent cases that were generated by artificial intelligence.

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Ford Says 'Lemon Law' Firm Faked Bills Using Overseas Staff

By Linda Chiem

Ford Motor Co. accused California personal injury firm Quill & Arrow LLP of defrauding it out of more than $25 million in high-priced legal bills for work actually handled by virtual assistants overseas and non-lawyers in scores of product liability cases against the automaker.

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Tort Report: Meta Set To Face Facebook Sex Trafficking Trial

By Y. Peter Kang

An upcoming trial in Texas for a first-of-its-kind case against Meta and claims against a health clinic owned by a U.S. senator lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel may cringe at the news, but their chief financial officers will rejoice over a new study that shows the average spending by legal departments dropped to a six-year low in 2026. And two in-house Cigna lawyers are at the center of a finding of "improperly asserted privilege" over key company documents related to a payment lawsuit brought by three labs.

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