Analysis

In AI Race, Trade Secret Suits Become Popular Safeguard

By Theresa Schliep

Fierce competition for artificial intelligence engineers and the relative paucity of intellectual property protections for AI technologies have companies turning to trade secret litigation as a powerful tool they can wield against competitors and former employees, attorneys say.

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Ex-OpenAI Engineer Charged With Bugging Conference Room

By Dorothy Atkins

Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a former OpenAI product team engineer in California federal court on allegations he hid a secret recording device inside toilet paper behind a TV in an executive conference room in order to capture confidential communications about the ChatGPT-maker's artificial intelligence technology.

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2nd Circ. Revives Lidl Worker's Unpaid Waiting Time Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Waiting time is compensable under federal wage law when employees are required to report to work but cannot begin their duties for reasons beyond their control, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday in reviving a Lidl grocery store worker's unpaid wage claims.

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UAW's Fain Wins Reelection, Unofficial Results Show

By Braden Campbell

Shawn Fain appears to have won another term as president of the United Auto Workers and his allies won every executive board seat they sought, according to unofficial results the UAW reported Tuesday following a testy officer election.

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Ex-U. Of Fla. Urologist Can't Get Sex Bias Suit Back On Track

By David Aaro

The Eleventh Circuit refused Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit from a doctor who said gender discrimination got her removed from University of Florida's urology department, unpersuaded by her argument that a lower court prematurely shut down the bulk of her lawsuit.

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FCC Using 'Excuses' To Threaten Licenses, ABC Says

By Christopher Cole

ABC told a D.C. federal court the Federal Communications Commission has effectively admitted that a probe of its parent Disney's hiring practices could not justify threatening eight of the network's TV stations' licenses with an early renewal proceeding.

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Ex-Nexstar News Directors Win $4M In Pride Month Suit

By Cara Salvatore

A jury in western Michigan has ruled that Nexstar Media owes two of its former TV station news directors a total of around $4 million over their claims that their employer insinuated they were anti-gay after they sent a memo warning reporters to be balanced about Pride Month coverage.

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Mich. High Court Forces Judge To Retire Over Misconduct

By Melanie Dorsey

The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered a former Jackson County judge to retire and barred him from holding judicial office again after finding he abused alcohol, sexually harassed female colleagues, interfered in court proceedings and deliberately concealed delays in issuing rulings.

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Harvard Fired Jewish Worker Out Of Religious Bias, Suit Says

By Grace Elletson

Harvard College fired a Jewish worker after he took time off to observe Rosh Hashanah, according to a new religious bias suit the former employee filed in New York federal court.

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High Court Won't Take Up Texas A&M Prof's FMLA Appeal

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to review a Texas A&M University professor's lawsuit alleging she was denied tenure because of pregnancy-related time off, leaving in place a state court's conclusion that the college had immunity from her Family and Medical Leave Act claims.

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Ex-AmTrust Atty Says Insurer Targeted Older Employees

By George Woolston

A former staff attorney for AmTrust Financial Services Inc. is suing his former employer in New Jersey state court, alleging that his firing was the result of a deliberate, yearslong campaign to purge the litigation department of older attorneys.

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Supreme Court Won't Weigh Employer-Knowledge OT Defense

By Max Kutner

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to review whether an employer owes overtime pay if it did not have knowledge that the worker was putting in the extra hours, avoiding reconsideration of a Fifth Circuit ruling in a wage case against Texas Farm Bureau.

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Mass. Panel Backs State Police Leader's July 4 Staffing Memo

By Carolyn Muyskens

The head of the Massachusetts State Police has the power to prohibit officers from taking time off around the Independence Day holiday, the state's intermediate-level appeals court said Tuesday, affirming that the matter is not subject to collective bargaining.

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Insurance Co. Can't Undo Wage Collective Ruling

By Benjamin Morse

A New Jersey federal judge upheld a decision allowing sales agents to pursue wage claims as a collective against an insurance company, rejecting the insurer's arguments that the workers weren't similarly situated and that their overtime claims were improperly certified.

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Rivian Failed To Pay Workers For Required Training, Suit Says

By Ben Adlin

A former Rivian LLC service technician brought a proposed class action against the automaker in Washington state court, claiming the company pressured workers to forgo their legally protected meal and rest periods, and failed to pay them for mandatory training sessions completed at home and off the clock.

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Denver Health Hit With Wage Suit Over Off-The-Clock Work

By Emily Brill

Employees at a Denver medical network's call center aren't paid for all the time they work, a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court Tuesday alleges, claiming the workers aren't fully compensated for the time they spend booting up their computers and logging in to nearly a dozen software programs.

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High Court Won't Hear Ex-United Worker's Suit Against IAM

By Spencer Brewer

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to revive a lawsuit brought by a former United Airlines customer service agent seeking to bring claims against her union for failing to take her wrongful discharge claim against the company to arbitration.

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2nd Circ. Seems Doubtful Of RTX Corp. Investors' Appeal

By Kellie Mejdrich

A Second Circuit panel Tuesday seemed leery of RTX Corp. investors' bid to revive allegations that the aerospace manufacturer violated securities laws by concealing an aircraft engine defect, with several judges pointing out how the complaint seemed to lack allegations that executives knew different disclosures were necessary.

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Drug Tests Don't Trigger Weingarten Rights, NLRB Attys Say

By Emily Brill

Workers don't have the right to consult a union representative before taking an employer-mandated drug test, National Labor Relations Board prosecutors said, asking the board to rule that the so-called Weingarten right isn't available in the context of drug and alcohol testing.

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NLRB Says Amazon's Union Vote Challenges Fall Short

By Braden Campbell

The National Labor Relations Board has urged the Fifth Circuit to reject Amazon's challenge to an order to negotiate with workers at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse, arguing its appeal of a union's 2022 election win misstates the board's analysis and distorts the evidence.

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CarePoint Owes 401(k) Payments Post-Ch. 11, Union Says

By Clara Geoghegan

A healthcare workers union has accused CarePoint Health and operators that took over two of its New Jersey hospitals of failing to make 2024 retirement fund contributions under a settlement in the defunct nonprofit's Delaware bankruptcy case.

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Brief

X, Musk Reach Fresh Deal In Twitter Severance Class Action

By Dorothy Atkins

Elon Musk, X Corp. and its affiliate holding companies have reached a new deal to resolve a proposed class action by former Twitter Inc. workers over severance benefits related to Musk's take-private acquisition of the social media giant.

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Apple Gets Expedited OpenAI Discovery In Trade Secret Case

By Theresa Schliep

A California federal judge said Tuesday that OpenAI must work on an expedited timeline to furnish some documents in Apple's suit accusing the company of using former employees to access secret information, calling Apple's concerns about the preservation of some evidence "well-taken."

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Judge Probes Ex-Joe Gibbs Racing Director's Acts After Exit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina federal judge said she had concerns Tuesday about whether the previous competition director for Joe Gibbs Racing LLC disclosed his former employer's trade secrets to a rival team in violation of a court order placing certain restrictions on his employment.

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Earthbound Asks Court To Toss Worker Data Breach Suit

By Spencer Brewer

Earthbound Holding LLC asked a Texas federal judge to toss a proposed class action accusing the retailer of allowing cybercriminals to get their hands on sensitive employee data, saying workers failed to allege that they suffered an injury in the attack.

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Laid-Off Workers Can't Sue Amid Board Appeal, Feds Say

By MJ Koo

The federal government asked a Maryland federal court to throw out a suit brought by more than 300 former federal workers who say their agency layoffs were politically motivated, arguing the workers must pursue their claims through an administrative process before heading to court.

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NY Severance Rules Persist Despite McLaren Macomb Threat

Despite recent calls to overturn the National Labor Relations Board's decision in McLaren Macomb, New York's robust regulation will remain intact, limiting practitioners' ability to offer nonsupervisory employees severance agreements with confidentiality and nondisclosure provisions, says Matthew Berman at Valli Kane.

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Data Sale In Spirit Bankruptcy Raises Novel Privacy Risks

Spirit Airlines' planned sale of deidentified business data to Google for artificial intelligence training exposes gaps in the Bankruptcy Code's privacy guardrails, particularly for employee information, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

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Nelson Mullins Sued In SC Over October Data Breach

By Jake Maher

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has been hit with a proposed class action in South Carolina federal court over a data breach that took place in early October.

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Justices Won't Eye 'Weaponized' Sanctions Of Election Attys

By Jeff Overley

Despite outrage among Ninth Circuit conservatives, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to scrutinize six-figure sanctions of lawyers who challenged Arizona election protocols, leaving intact discipline designed to "send a message."

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Reddit Fights Proskauer's 'Hot Potato' AI Client Bid In IP Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

Reddit Inc. has urged a New York federal judge to block its former law firm Proskauer Rose from defending Perplexity AI in Reddit's suit over alleged data scraping used to train artificial intelligence models, arguing the firm can't represent Perplexity after dropping Reddit as a client like ‌a "hot potato."

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Pa. Firm Can't Toss Uber's RICO Claims Over Insurer Payouts

By Linda Chiem

A Pennsylvania federal judge allowed Uber to pursue Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claims alleging a Philadelphia personal injury firm schemed with healthcare providers to fabricate medical records and inflate accident claims involving Uber and FedEx drivers, saying Uber doesn't lose standing just because its insurer paid its legal fees in underlying litigation.

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DOJ Cites Privacy Concerns In Rejecting NM Epstein Files Bid

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice has rebuffed the state of New Mexico's request for the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files for its investigation into possible crimes at Epstein's Zorro Ranch, saying it would hinder law enforcement operations.

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Case Dropped Against Judge Accused Of Endorsing Violence

By Madison Arnold

Ethics charges against a Florida state court judge in Jacksonville alleging he made comments appearing to endorse violence, convey bias and demean individuals during several proceedings last year have been dropped.

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What The Justices Won't Hear: A Roundup Of Cert Denials

By Taylor Bowie

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari to another batch of applications Tuesday, including cases involving six-figure sanctions, wine shipment laws and overtime claims. 

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week saw stockholders challenge Nvidia Corp.'s roughly $20 billion deal with artificial intelligence chipmaker Groq Inc., Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s electric vehicle strategy and more than $1.5 billion in Humana Inc. stock buybacks.

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