Cognizant Knocks Out Fired Worker's $8.4M Retaliation Win

By Patrick Hoff

A New York federal judge granted Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. a new trial in a lawsuit by an employee who said he was fired for reporting what he alleged was pro-Indian hiring bias, finding that keeping an $8.4 million verdict would be a "miscarriage of justice."

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7th Circ. Won't Revive Mail Carrier's Race Bias Suit

By Gina Kim

The Seventh Circuit declined to revive a U.S. Postal Service carrier's discrimination suit stemming from an altercation with his supervisor, who called police to escort him off the premises, ruling Thursday no reasonable jury could say the treatment, "however disrespectful or ill-advised," had anything to do with the carrier's race.

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11th Circ. Won't Reopen Ex-School Admin's Sex Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday upheld an Alabama school board's win over a former assistant principal's lawsuit alleging she was fired because she's a woman, concluding she couldn't overcome her former employer's explanation that she'd been found in a compromising position with a male colleague several times.

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DOL Rule Opens Job Services To Outsourcing, Union Says

By Emily Brill

The U.S. Department of Labor misread a Depression-era law when it began allowing private contractors to run a network of public employment offices, a civil servants' union argued in a lawsuit filed Thursday, asking the D.C. federal court to strike down the agency's change in protocol.

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24 States Ink Deal With Feds In AmeriCorps Budget Cuts Case

By Rachel Riley

Two dozen states and the District of Columbia have reached a settlement with the Trump administration to stop the federal government from abruptly slashing funding for the national volunteer agency AmeriCorps in the future, the coalition of states announced Thursday.

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10th Circ. Backs 72-Year-Old's Firing Over Data Misuse

By MJ Koo

The Tenth Circuit has sided with a Colorado city in an age discrimination lawsuit brought by a utility billing specialist who was fired after accessing a prospective tenant's private account information for personal use, finding she failed to show age bias drove her termination.

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Carrier Global, Ex-Cybersecurity Staffer Settle Age Bias Suit

By David Aaro

Carrier Global Corp. and a former security official have settled his Georgia federal court claims that the HVAC company fired him and replaced him with a younger person.

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Brief

Calif. Certifies Gig Union To Represent Ride-Share Drivers

By Katherine Smith

A state agency has certified the California Gig Workers Union as the representative for hundreds of thousands of ride-share drivers working in California, according to a recent announcement posted by the agency.

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Brief

Domino's Franchise Owner Settles Driver's Class Action

By Zach Dupont

A Domino's franchise operator and a former delivery driver reached a settlement to dismiss the driver's proposed class and collective action accusing the franchise operator of pushing driver pay below minimum wage by underpaying expenses, according to a joint notice of settlement filed Thursday. 

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Brief

Gig Cos.' Suit Over NYC Tip Law Paused For 2nd Circ. Review

By Benjamin Morse

A New York federal judge has paused a suit by DoorDash and Uber challenging New York City's delivery tipping laws, putting the case on hold while the Second Circuit considers the companies' First Amendment appeal.

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Ed. Dept. Contractor Wins $3.3M After Minimum Wage Hike

By Ganesh Setty

A U.S. Department of Education contractor providing student loan processing must be compensated nearly $3.3 million for costs incurred from a now-rescinded executive order that increased the minimum wage for federal contractors, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals has ruled.

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NJ Judge Cuts NFL Doctors From Ex-Player's Disability Fight

By Elaine Briseño

A New Jersey judge on Thursday dismissed claims against two NFL doctors named in a lawsuit by a former player over medical benefits, finding the league's plan does not give the physicians fiduciary authority.

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EchoStar Says Ex-VP Violated Noncompete In Move To Rival

By Zach Dupont

A former executive vice president of EchoStar Corp. violated his noncompete agreement when he left his role at the company to take a COO position with a rival company just two weeks later, the telecommunication giant alleged in Colorado state court Wednesday.

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Clinical Trial Buyer Says Ex-Owner Breached $100M Deal

By Jarek Rutz

Surge ECN Holdings LLC and ECN Operating LLC have accused the former owner of a clinical trial research network of violating a five-year noncompete and other restrictions tied to a deal worth more than $100 million, alleging he diverted customers, recruited key physicians and used confidential information to build a competing business.

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Ex-Lighting Co. Workers Must Face Trade Secret Suit

By Elliot Weld

Three former employees of a lighting company lost a bid to escape a suit alleging they conspired for years to encourage customers to use products supplied by competing companies they operated, with a Connecticut federal judge ruling Thursday that all elements needed to plead a trade secret claim were met.

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Citizens Says SoFi's Poaching 'Decimated' Conn. Mortgage Biz

By Isaac Monterose

Citizens Bank is suing SoFi Bank in Connecticut federal court, alleging its rival poached Citizens Bank employees, stole its trade secrets and "decimated Citizens' mortgage business" in Connecticut. 

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Drone Co., Ex-VP Reach Deal Resolving Pay, Sabotage Claims

By Hayley Fowler

A company that makes emergency response drones and its former vice president of sales have settled a dispute in which the executive alleged he was stiffed on pay and the company accused him of trying to sabotage its business, court records show.

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DC Circ. Upholds SEC Denial Of Whistleblower Award

By Jessica Corso

The D.C. Circuit ruled Wednesday that a man who tipped off a journalist about a possible foreign bribery scheme is not entitled to a whistleblower award because he waited until a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation was well under way to present the same information to the agency.

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6th Circ. Says GE Asbestos Suit Belongs In Kentucky Court

By Mike Curley

The Sixth Circuit sent a woman's suit against General Electric Co. over her husband's asbestos-related mesothelioma back to Kentucky state court, rejecting the company's argument that the man's military service warranted removal to federal court.

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Ex-Immigration Judge Sues For Retaliatory Termination

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A former immigration judge in California has sued Attorney General Todd Blanche, claiming she was fired after raising concerns about a spring 2025 directive ordering her and her colleagues to grant every motion to change venue filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys.

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Brief

Yellow Corp.'s Ch. 11 Agreements With Pension Funds Approved

By Yun Park

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved agreements between former trucking giant Yellow Corp.'s liquidating trust and certain pension funds totaling $525.9 million, resolving withdrawal liability claims and adding to an earlier batch of settlements approved in the company's Chapter 11 case.

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Littler Adds 8 Jackson Lewis Attys In Puerto Rico

By Andrea Keckley

Littler Mendelson PC announced Thursday that it has hired eight former Jackson Lewis PC attorneys in San Juan, Puerto Rico, expanding its footprint in the U.S. territory to include more than 35 lawyers and business professionals.

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Haynes Boone Adds Employment Attys From Toyota, Ashurst

By Lynn LaRowe

Haynes Boone has bulked up its labor and employment practice with two Dallas-based hires, one who joined from an in-house role at Toyota and another who came aboard from Ashurst Perkins Coie.

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OpenAI Deal Highlights AI Hiring Risks In PERM Process

The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlement of allegations that OpenAI discriminated against U.S. applicants for positions connected to the permanent labor certification process underscores that employers providing or using artificial intelligence must align their recruitment practices with their overlapping compliance obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

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Series

Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Engineering Co. Calls Atty-Ouster Bid Retaliatory In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

An engineering company urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to reject a bid to remove its lawyer from a wage case, arguing the worker is retaliating because the company tried to disqualify one of his attorneys from a separate case.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.

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In-House Atty Org. Says Rival Ripped Off Data For AI Tool

By Andrea Keckley

The Association of Corporate Counsel alleges in Delaware federal court that its competitor used the nonprofit's proprietary materials to train its artificial intelligence tool Lloyd and "brazenly promoted its Lloyd product by showing the public that ACC materials could be accessed via Lloyd."

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Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches

By Ryan Boysen

Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.

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Legal Ops Duo Sees AI Driving Department Redesign

By Anna Scott Farrell

Connie Brenton and Jeff Franke consider themselves, and others in the field of legal operations, to be, fundamentally, entrepreneurs. Here, the pair sat down with Law360 Pulse to talk about the state of their field, why legal ops is still misunderstood, and their annual conference, Running Legal Like a Business, which took place this week in Las Vegas.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

AI is driving a significant gap between in-house legal departments' budgets and the cost of their workloads, according to a new study. Speaking of gaps, a new Law360 Pulse report on women in law found that men still make up 71% of law firm equity partners and 63% of nonequity partners. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Analysis

Midterm Wins Could Help Dems Probe Trump's BigLaw Deals

By Courtney Bublé

If the Democrats take back one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a big item on their oversight agenda will be to step up ongoing investigations of the deals that nine major law firms cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Personal Injury Firm Beats Atty's Bid For 'Birth Justice' TM

By Adam Lidgett

A former associate at a personal injury and medical malpractice law firm can't register in her own name a trademark for birth-injury legal services that she helped develop before and during her employment with the firm, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

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Trial Errors 'Crippled Goldstein's Defense,' 4th Circ. Hears

By Jeff Overley

Appellate luminary Tom Goldstein unveiled a sweeping and forceful critique aimed at erasing his felony fraud convictions, telling the Fourth Circuit that prosecutors were hell-bent on convicting him "no matter the facts or law," disregarded a star witness's "incompetence" and benefited from a trial judge's "inexplicable" rulings.

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Interview

ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

By Allison Grande

With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

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Afghan Woman Deported in 1st 'Alien Terrorist' Case

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Trump administration deported an Afghan woman accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting in the first case before the previously dormant Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

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Attys Must Arbitrate $8 Oil To Fight $625K Sanction: 9th Circ.

By Jeff Overley

Class action lawyers slapped with six-figure sanctions for suing Walmart Inc. based on erroneous purchase information can't yet challenge the discipline, the Ninth Circuit ruled, suggesting they may first need to arbitrate grievances over an $8 bottle of avocado oil.

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Ex-Wash. Bench Officer Censured Over Explicit Texts, Emails

By Ben Adlin

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct censured a former Okanogan County Superior Court commissioner Friday, finding that Robert Colbert violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by engaging in what a stipulated agreement describes as "unprofessional, inappropriate communications" with a court employee that involved "sexually explicit language."

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Brief

Colo. Governor Appoints Atty To Denver Court

By Rachel Konieczny

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Friday an attorney to the Denver District Court, filling the vacancy that will be created by a retirement on the bench.

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