10th Circ. Considers Fire Chief's Immunity In Termination Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado fire chief urged the Tenth Circuit Wednesday to find a lower court erred in denying him qualified immunity after terminating a union president, with the three-judge panel questioning the relationship between the union's collective bargaining agreement and the U.S. Constitution's requirements.

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Pa. School OK To Remove List Of 'Infamous' Strikebreakers

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A divided Pennsylvania appeals panel on Wednesday held that administrators at a Pennsylvania university were allowed to remove a list of "infamous" strike-breaking union faculty members from a public bulletin board, even though the posting itself was legally protected.

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Prosecutor's Office Must Face Suit Over Lost Vacation Time

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey appellate panel revived a lawsuit from a Sussex County Prosecutor's Office chief detective over deleted vacation days, finding factual disputes barred summary judgment after he said he canceled time off during a transition to a new county prosecutor based on assurances the leave could be carried over.

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Union, Federal Workers Sue USDA Over Religious Messaging

By Katherine Smith

The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of federal workers are accusing the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture of unlawfully imposing her religious views on a "captive audience" of agency employees through agency emails, according to a lawsuit filed in California federal court Wednesday.

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Roblox Exploits Kids' Labor To Build Games, Action Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

A Georgia mother accused gaming giant Roblox Corp. of turning her 13-year-old son into an unpaid game developer who worked more than 40 hours weekly, funneling him and millions of other children into a virtual currency system designed to trap their labor, according to a proposed class action filed in New York federal court.

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Spirit Employees File WARN Act Suit In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

Laid-off employees of Spirit Airlines have filed a putative class action against the debtor, demanding two months' pay and benefits following Spirit's abrupt shutdown and the loss of their jobs.

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NC Charter School Defeats Black Teacher's Racial Bias Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A public charter school in North Carolina scored a pretrial victory in a Black teacher's racial discrimination suit after a federal judge found race was not a determinative factor in his termination and the school board had a legitimate reason to fire him for unsatisfactory job performance.

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Brief

3 NJ Employers Accused Of Pregnancy Discrimination

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey hospital system, a laboratory company and a cleaning business must answer to allegations that they engaged in pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, state enforcers said this week.

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11th Circ. Nixes Ala. Teacher's Bid To Redo Pay Bias Trial

By Chart Riggall

The Eleventh Circuit declined Wednesday to revive pay discrimination and retaliation claims from an Alabama public school administrator, rejecting her arguments that a defense verdict won by her school district could not stand.

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Pa. Jury Finds Dispensary Subjected Fired Manager To Bias

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal jury has awarded $203,500 to a dispensary employee who claimed Restore Integrative Wellness Center discriminated against him by terminating his employment after he went on leave to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident.

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Brief

Pepsi Bottler Settles Ex-Worker's Race Bias Suit

By MJ Koo

A Black former line supervisor and a Georgia Pepsi bottler told a federal court Wednesday they have settled his race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit, which alleged the company fired him weeks after he filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Suit Says IHOP Franchise Fired Training Head Over Absences

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia-based IHOP franchise operator was sued in federal court by its former training and development director for allegedly firing him for missing work after his manager promised to notify human resources that he was entering an alcohol treatment program.

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Washington Hits Providence Health With Pregnancy Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Washington slapped Providence Health & Services with a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the health system routinely rejected accommodation requests from pregnant employees, denying them spaces to pump breast milk, seating and schedule flexibility to attend doctor appointments.

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Brief

Engineers Drop General Dynamics From No-Poach Suit

By Bryan Koenig

General Dynamics can walk away from a proposed class action accusing major shipbuilders of using no-poach agreements to suppress wages for engineers and architects, after the parties stipulated Tuesday to dropping the company from the Virginia federal court suit from which other defendants have settled.

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EV Station Builder Accused Of Masking Wages As Per Diem

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia construction contractor specializing in EV charging stations used a misleading per diem system to avoid paying its laborers overtime, a former employee alleged in a proposed collective action.

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Ranch And Home Supply Chain Hit With Wage, Age Bias Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A ranch and home supply chain misclassified assistant store managers as overtime-exempt despite requiring them to spend most of their time performing manual labor, a former worker alleged in a proposed collective and class action in Colorado federal court, adding that the company fired her for complaining about age discrimination.

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Apple Stiffed Call Center Workers On Boot-Up Time, Suit Says

By MJ Koo

Apple Inc. requires its hourly call center employees to boot up computers, log in to security networks and open multiple software programs before clocking in — and doesn't pay them for any of it, a former tech support adviser alleged in a proposed class and collective action filed in California federal court.

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NY Says 'Unclean Hands' Snuff Out Pot Labor Peace Suit

By Mike Curley

New York cannabis regulators are urging a federal court to throw out a dispensary's challenge to the requirement that cannabis operators sign labor peace agreements with unions, saying the courts can't help a company violate federal law.

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WestRock Made Illegal Health Plan Shift, NLRB Judge Says

By Katherine Smith

Packaging company WestRock violated federal labor law by changing a health insurance plan for employees without bargaining to a good faith impasse with a Teamsters local, a National Labor Relations Board judge found.

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Ex-Client Can Relitigate Malpractice Suit Over Workers' Comp

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate panel has reversed a summary judgment win for a Chicago attorney and her law firm in a legal malpractice dispute, saying a jury must evaluate whether her ex-client lost his workers' compensation case because of her failure to introduce a medical expert's opinion or whether he could have prevailed on appeal had the attorney filed one.

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Sheriff's Office Says Ex-Workers' Retaliation Suit Too Vague

By Patrick Hoff

A Colorado county sheriff's office sought to escape a suit claiming it fired and criminally prosecuted several employees for raising concerns about the sheriff's and undersheriff's conduct, telling a federal court it can't be held liable because the workers complained as part of their official duties.

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Crowell & Moring Opens Minneapolis Office With 8 Lawyers

By Tracey Read

Crowell & Moring LLP announced Wednesday that it is deepening its commitment to Minnesota by opening a new office in Minneapolis with a team of eight attorneys and said it's expecting more growth in the near future.

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Baker Botts Adds V&E Employee Benefits Pro In Dallas

By Lynn LaRowe

Baker Botts LLP announced Wednesday that it has added a Dallas-based partner to its executive compensation and benefits practice who came aboard from Vinson & Elkins LLP.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

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Murdaugh Murder Conviction Overturned By SC High Court

By Parker Quinlan

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a double murder conviction and ordered a new trial for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, finding the jury in his first trial was biased by a clerk of court who allegedly sought a guilty verdict in a ploy to juice sales of her book about the trial.

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Texas Atty Must Pay $5M For Groping Opposing Counsel

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas state appellate court on Wednesday refused to disturb a $5 million jury verdict against a San Antonio lawyer for grabbing the buttocks of opposing counsel at the courthouse where they were arguing a family law proceeding in 2019.

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DOJ Goes After DC Bar, Courts For Discipline Of Ex-DOJ Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, D.C. Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia, claiming that they were "punishing" a former Trump administration DOJ official and trying to "control the executive branch."

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DOJ Fraud Division Set To Shake Up White-Collar Enforcement

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump's administration created the U.S. Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division with a narrow focus on combating government program fraud, but a move to retain federal prosecutors focused on other types of fraud could signal a wider scope with potential ripple effects across white-collar enforcement.

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Arbitrators See Global Stakes In Trump BigLaw EO Fight

By Caroline Simson

Ahead of a D.C. Circuit hearing on Thursday in the Trump administration's effort to revive executive orders imposed against four BigLaw firms, an official at the College of Commercial Arbitrators told Law360 this week there are several things arbitrators are going to be watching for.

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Apple Targets Hagens Berman 'Gamesmanship' In ICloud Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Apple has lashed out at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to withdraw a named plaintiff from an iCloud antitrust case in California federal court without discovery into any directions she received to preserve now-deleted emails, raising concerns that the withdrawal is meant to "paper over lost evidence."

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Michigan Federal Judge Gets Probation For Drunken Driving

By Susan Smiley

Michigan federal Judge Thomas L. Ludington was sentenced by a state judge on Wednesday to six months' probation and fined $1,175 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge last month in Emmet County.

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6th Circ. Says Kentucky Judicial Hopefuls May Tout Ideology

By Emily Sawicki

Kentucky judicial hopefuls are cleared to discuss their political leanings on the campaign trail, according to a precedential ruling by the Sixth Circuit, which permanently enjoined the state's Judicial Conduct Commission from pursuing an enforcement action against two candidates who described themselves as "conservatives" and "Republicans" amid the 2022 election season.

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Judge Says LegalForce Must Pay $93K After Losing TM Suit

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge on Wednesday ordered LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC to pay nearly $93,000 in fees and costs to the company that operates LawFirms.com, finding the case to be exceptional because LegalForce alleged facts it knew were false and took steps to obscure other facts that showed its case was meritless.

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CORRECTED: Senate Advances 13 US Attorneys In En Bloc Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-45, along party lines, to advance the nomination of 13 U.S. attorneys on Monday as part of a larger nominations package. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the status of the nominees in the Senate.

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