9th Circ. Reopens Alaska Airlines Workers' Religious Bias Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday revived a suit from two flight attendants claiming they were illegally fired by Alaska Airlines and abandoned by their union for opposing the airline's support for LGBTQ+ rights, saying they demonstrated a plausible dispute about whether Alaska terminated them based on their religious beliefs.

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State Police Sgt. Can't Escape Race Bias Suit, 4th Circ. Says

By Patrick Hoff

A Maryland State Police sergeant must face a lawsuit alleging he excluded two Black task force members from meetings and failed to address a subordinate officer's racist text message, with the Fourth Circuit ruling Wednesday that a reasonable supervisor would've understood his actions violated civil rights law.

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Medicaid Contractor To Pay $162M In Caregivers' Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A contractor that helps administer a New York state Medicaid program has agreed to pay at least $162 million to resolve a sweeping suit alleging it failed to timely and accurately pay about 200,000 personal assistants, according to a motion filed in New York federal court.

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11th Circ. Says Late Charge Dooms Sedgwick Age Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

The Eleventh Circuit backed benefits administrator Sedgwick's win on Wednesday in a former worker's age bias suit alleging the company unfairly criticized her performance and fired her, ruling her case fell flat because she filed her presuit bias charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission too late.

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5th Circ. Sides With Starbucks On Union Backer's Firing

By Tim Ryan

The Fifth Circuit has reversed a National Labor Relations Board decision finding that Starbucks unlawfully fired a worker for supporting a unionization effort at the store, saying the decision rested on insufficient evidence that the coffee giant acted out of anti-union animus.

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Analysis

With Data And AI, Whistleblowers Set Off An FCA Tidal Wave

By Phillip Bantz

Whistleblowers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to comb through public data in search of potential False Claims Act cases, unleashing a flood of new complaints that are shaking up white collar defense and government enforcement efforts while subjecting more companies to potentially false allegations, experts say.

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Ex-Detroit Club Workers Cry As Jury Gets Race Bias Case

By Melanie Dorsey

A former server and a former bartender at The Detroit Club broke down in tears in a Michigan federal courtroom Wednesday as their attorney emotionally urged jurors to hold the club and its owner liable for allegedly retaliating against them after they complained about what they believed was racist treatment of Black guests. 

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Foreign Workers Ask Ga. Judge To Back $2.7M RICO Suit Deal

By Tom Lotshaw

Foreign workers asked a Georgia federal judge to approve a $2.7 million settlement to resolve class action claims that an Atlanta-area building materials supplier and staffing and recruiting agencies violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and a state racketeering law.

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Insurance Call Center Settles OT, Misclassification Suit

By Benjamin Morse

An insurance call-center operator and its president have reached an agreement in principle to settle a proposed collective action alleging the company misclassified sales representatives as independent contractors, paid them through Cash App and denied them overtime wages, according to a notice filed Wednesday in Florida federal court.

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3D Printing Co. Settles Ex-Operator's Misclassification Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Colorado-based 3D concrete printing company settled a proposed collective action alleging it misclassified equipment operators as overtime-exempt and paid them a salary without overtime premiums, according to a notice filed in Colorado federal court.

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UPS Failed To Provide Breaks And Accurate Pay, Workers Say

By MJ Koo

Two former United Parcel Service Inc. workers have sued the package delivery company in Washington federal court, alleging it failed to provide legally required meal and rest breaks and shorted employees on wages and overtime under state law.

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Judge Denies Nurses' Bid To Add New Classes In FLSA Suit

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion to add new plaintiff members and classes to a Fair Labor Standards Act class and collective action from travel nurses accusing two staffing agencies of unpaid overtime.

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Space Needle Urges Court To Vacate Worker's Rehire Win

By Katherine Smith

The operator of Seattle's Space Needle has asked a Washington federal court to vacate an arbitration award ordering it to reinstate a fired employee, claiming the award fails to "draw its essence" from the operator's agreement with a UNITE HERE local and the arbitrator who issued it overstepped his authority.

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Chancery Denies Stay In Revived Noncompete Case

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday refused to pause a revived restrictive covenant lawsuit against a former fire safety products company executive while related litigation proceeds in New York, concluding the parties should proceed with briefing unresolved dismissal issues that have been pending since the case returned from the Delaware Supreme Court.

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Brief

NYC Enacts Worker Heat Safety Protections

By Benjamin Morse

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed what his administration called a first-of-its-kind executive order directing city agencies to develop heat-safety protections for workers who face dangerous temperatures on the job, his office announced. 

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Brief

Latham Hires Exec Compensation Pro From Ropes & Gray

By Andrea Keckley

Latham & Watkins LLP announced that it has hired a Ropes & Gray LLP attorney in New York, marking the second addition to its executive compensation, employment and benefits practice in the past month.

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Steps For Employers After 7th Circ. BIPA Retroactivity Ruling

The Seventh Circuit's recent ruling in Clay v. Union Pacific sharply limits per-scan statutory damages theories in pending Biometric Information Privacy Act cases by retroactively applying a 2024 amendment, but employers should not mistake the holding for a broad safe harbor, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

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Why Highly Specialized Experts May Risk Exclusion At Trial

Expert witnesses with highly specific areas of focus may be vulnerable to exclusion in court, making it important for attorneys to check how potential witnesses' qualifications can be bolstered by their publications and other professional activities, say Evan Weisberg and Christopher Cunio at Hunton, and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

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Groombridge Wu Tops Milbank Pay Scale For Associates

By Kevin Penton

Groombridge Wu Baughman & Stone LLP is the latest firm to top the pay scale for associates announced earlier this month by Milbank LLP, with attorneys set to earn as much as $470,000.

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Senate Confirming Judges Faster Than In Trump's 1st Term

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate has confirmed 45 judges in the second Trump term, outpacing the rate of his first administration, Senate Republicans announced on Thursday.

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Attys Urged To Challenge Clients Who Demand AI Research

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge urged attorneys during a Thursday sanctions hearing to push back against clients who demand lawyers use generative artificial intelligence tools to conduct legal research, saying the technology is no substitute for professional judgment and discretion because it "aims to please" and can misstate the law.

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Lack Of Evidence Sinks Insurance Fraud Case, Atty Says

By Emily Sawicki

A Louisiana law firm and lawyer found guilty of criminal conspiracy and wire fraud for staging vehicle crashes as part of a scheme to defraud insurance carriers and trucking companies are seeking acquittal or a new trial, arguing that federal prosecutors failed to support their claims with evidence.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Blasts 'Inflated' DOJ Tax Math

By Jared Foretek

Convicted SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein and federal prosecutors are clashing again over their dramatically divergent sentencing recommendations, with the defense accusing the government of presenting a "one-dimensional caricature" of the famed lawyer in seeking an eight-year sentence, and prosecutors accusing him of potentially deleting "secret chats" with his gambling backers.

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Feds Say Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin Was Let Off Easy

By Nadia Dreid

Both federal prosecutors and a Stephen Miller-founded public interest group believe that a Maryland federal judge let a woman accused of trying to kill U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh off too easy because of her gender identity and want the Fourth Circuit to order resentencing.

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Quinn Emanuel Says 3M Fee Proposal Undervalues Its Work

By Carolina Bolado

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has objected to a special master's recommendation on the allocation of common benefit fees in the $6 billion settlement that ended multidistrict litigation against 3M over allegedly faulty combat earplugs, saying the amount doesn't value the "length, extent and impact" of the firm's work.

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