6th Circ. Seems Unlikely To Ax Prof's Pregnancy Bias Win

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Sixth Circuit panel appeared unmoved Wednesday by Michigan Technological University's effort to undo a former professor's pregnancy bias win but also skeptical of resurrecting additional bias and pay disparity claims that had been trimmed from the case prior to trial.

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Criminal History Law Covers Job Seeker's Suit, 3rd Circ. Says

By Grace Elletson

The Third Circuit reinstated a suit Wednesday from a job applicant who said a trucking company illegally rejected him because of a past armed robbery conviction, ruling that a Pennsylvania law that sets guardrails on the consideration of criminal histories in hiring applies to his case.

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IT Co.'s Arbitration Pact Undercut Class Rights, 9th Circ. Says

By Irene Spezzamonte

TEKsystems Inc. engaged in misleading and coercive actions when it provided an arbitration pact to technology recruiters seeking unpaid overtime nearly two years after they lodged their suit, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday, affirming a California federal court decision.

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Unions Say FEMA Staff Cuts Threaten Disaster Readiness

By Lauren Berg

A coalition of unions, nonprofit organizations and local governments that are challenging the Trump administration's federal worker layoffs and agency reorganizations asked a California federal judge Tuesday for permission to add the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a defendant, saying ongoing staff cuts threaten its legally mandated responsibility to respond to disasters.

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1st Circ. Says Ex-Cop Proves No Bias In Retaliation Suit

By Grace Elletson

The First Circuit backed the dismissal of an ex-Boston cop's retaliation suit claiming the department shared her disciplinary records with prospective employers because of her accusations that police leaders buried her claims of rape by a fellow officer, ruling she hadn't provided any evidence of bias.

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Brief

Alito Rejects Bid To Pause 3rd Circ.'s Computer Fraud Ruling

By Ivan Moreno

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday denied a debt collection agency's request to stay a Third Circuit decision that found the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act does not support claims against employees who share work passwords.

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Analysis

Trade Secret Filings Hit Record High In 2025, Report Finds

By Ivan Moreno

Trade secret litigation reached an all-time high in 2025, with more than 1,500 federal cases filed for the first time ever, according to a new report by legal analytics firm Lex Machina, which also highlights trends about damages, the busiest courts and the law firms most frequently involved.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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Brief

NM Bill Could Shield Medical Cannabis Users From Job Bias

By Jonathan Capriel

Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico's Legislature are looking to redefine employment rules for medical cannabis patients to prohibit bosses from taking adverse actions for lawful off-duty use but allow them to restrict use for certain roles or carry out discipline for impairment at work.

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Concrete Co. Not Exempt From NJ Sick Leave Law, Panel Says

By Benjamin Morse

New Jersey suppliers can't rely on an exemption for the construction industry to avoid complying with the state's Earned Sick Leave Law, an appellate panel found Wednesday as a matter of first impression, finding the law only allows builders to claim the exemption to the law.

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Call Center Workers Ink Wage Deal With Disability Nonprofit

By Irene Spezzamonte

A disability services nonprofit has agreed to pay $76,500 to settle a suit accusing it of failing to pay call center employees for work before shifts and during unpaid meal breaks and of miscalculating their overtime, the workers told a Virginia federal court.

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Solar Panel Co. Sunrun Misclassifying Sales Reps, Suit Says

By Julie Manganis

Solar panel company Sunrun Inc. misclassified its sales representatives as independent contractors in violation of Massachusetts workers' compensation law, a coalition of advocacy groups alleged in a complaint filed in state court.

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Chancery Awards $50M To Arxada In Trade Secrets Case

By Adam Lidgett

Chemicals company Arxada on Wednesday was awarded more than $50 million in damages and expenses in its lawsuit in Delaware's Court of Chancery claiming the owner of a company it bought took its trade secrets with his family to form a competitor.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive MasterCard Trade Secret Claims

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit declined to revive trade secret theft claims Wednesday brought by a MasterCard unit against two former McKinsey consultants, agreeing with a lower court that the company had failed to identify the alleged trade secrets with enough specificity.

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Ex-Google Engineer's Trade Secret Theft Case Goes To Jury

By Bonnie Eslinger

Software engineer Linwei Ding "stole, cheated and lied" when he worked at Google LLC, taking its artificial intelligence trade secrets to help himself and China, a California federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, urging them to convict him of economic espionage and trade secret theft.

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Krispy Kreme Reaches $1.6M Deal Over Employee Data Breach

By Rae Ann Varona

Krispy Kreme has agreed to a $1.6 million settlement to resolve a consolidated proposed class action that accused the doughnut chain of failing to protect current and former employees' personal information from a November 2024 data breach, according to a filing in North Carolina federal court.

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Conn. Justices Question 'Double Recovery' In Asbestos Case

By Aaron Keller

Several Connecticut Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared uneasy with the thought of a mesothelioma patient's estate and widow receiving a "double recovery" from private settlements and workers' compensation law payments in an illness involving both workplace and at-home asbestos exposure sources.

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Employee Exodus Prompts CEO Defamation Lawsuit

By Matthew Santoni

Employees moving from one Turkish company to another has led to a $5.5 million defamation lawsuit between the CEOs of their American affiliates, according to a complaint filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.

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No Class Cert. For Ex-NFL Players In Benefits Challenge

By David Steele

Ten former NFL players suing the league's disability plan for denying them benefits were turned down for class certification on Wednesday by a Maryland federal judge, who said the group failed to show the commonality of the proposed class' claims.

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Biogen Can't Escape Amended Antitrust Suit Over MS Drug

By Dorothy Atkins

Biogen Inc. must face health plans' claims that it bribed pharmacy benefit managers to stifle generics competition for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, after an Illinois federal judge found Wednesday that the plans' latest amended complaint in their consolidated antitrust litigation corrects her prior concerns with the pleadings.

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Brief

PBGC Reports Rosy Outlook For Single, Multiemployer Plans

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s program backstopping the nation's private-sector pension plans reported another year of healthy finances, with an end-of-fiscal-year surplus of more than $64 billion, the agency said.

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Withers Launches East Coast L&E Team With Outten & Golden Trio

By Andrea Keckley

Withers announced Tuesday that it has launched an employment practice on the East Coast, welcoming three former Outten & Golden PC lawyers who have advised executives across a wide range of industries.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: January Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five rulings from October and November, and identifies practice tips from cases involving consumer fraud, oil and gas leases, toxic torts, and wage and hour issues.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

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Feature

From TikTok To The Courtroom, The Rise Of Lawfluencers

By Chris Villani

A growing group of legal influencers with huge followings say social media use is helping them expand their practices along with their brands and offering marketing lessons that even BigLaw can learn from.

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Clemency Favors White Collar Offenders, New Study Shows

By Phillip Bantz

White collar criminal defendants are more likely than other types of offenders to receive presidential pardons, especially under the Trump administration, a new analysis of clemency actions shows, raising concerns about a system one expert called "broken."

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DOJ Awards $1M In First For Antitrust Whistleblower Program

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division awarded a whistleblower $1 million for providing information that led to charges and a $3.28 million criminal fine against used-vehicle auction site EBlock, marking the first-ever award under a new antitrust whistleblower program, the DOJ announced Thursday.

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Crowell & Moring Loses DC Appeal In $30M COVID Rent Dispute

By Isaac Monterose

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled against Crowell & Moring LLP's appeal for its $30 million rent dispute with a D.C. office landlord that refused to grant a coronavirus-related rent abatement.

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Bondi Elevates Pa. US Atty Amid Appointments Scrutiny

By Matthew Santoni

The first assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania is being retained and elevated to full U.S. attorney, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced Thursday, though the appointment will have to remain temporary or he could face the same questions about his appointment as other top prosecutors in President Donald Trump's administration.

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