NJ Settles Trucking Co. Misclassification Suit For $2.8M

By MJ Koo

New Jersey has reached a settlement with a shipping and logistics company that misclassified hundreds of truck drivers as independent contractors, the state attorney general and labor commissioner announced Wednesday, marking the first resolution of a lawsuit brought under a 2021 state law allowing the government to sue employers directly for worker misclassification.

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Legal Aid Union Alleges Unlawful Incentives To Break Strike

By Andrea Keckley

The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem union announced on the third workday of its strike Tuesday that it has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing its management of offering unlawful incentives to cross the picket line.

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Tech Company Gets Sex Bias Suit Kicked To Arbitration

By Grace Elletson

A California federal judge said an ex-Tencent worker must arbitrate her claims that the company fired her after she complained that a male colleague sexually harassed her, ruling that the behavior she protested wasn't sufficiently severe or sexual in nature to trigger a law that could have kept her case in court.

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U Mich. Health-West Resolves Fired PA's Religious Bias Case

By Melanie Dorsey

University of Michigan Health-West has agreed to overhaul its religious accommodation policies, train employees and pay $410,000 to resolve a suit brought by a physician assistant who alleged she was fired for refusing, based on her Christian beliefs, to use certain patients' preferred pronouns or participate in gender transition-related care. 

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Segal McCambridge Settles Fired Secretary's Age Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Law firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney Ltd. has struck a deal to end a New York federal court suit from a former secretary who said her colleagues mistreated her because of her age, according to a Wednesday court filing.

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Fla. Panel Rules Against Firefighter Over Medical Cannabis

By David Minsky

A Florida appellate court on Wednesday sided with a county for terminating a firefighter-paramedic who tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screen, saying he wasn't entitled to a workplace accommodation for having a medical marijuana card.

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Insurer Says It Won't Cover $10M Bias Award Against HR Org.

By Patrick Hoff

An insurance company urged a Virginia federal judge to rule that it doesn't have to cover a $10 million award won by a former Society for Human Resources Management employee who sued the association for race bias, arguing the applicable policy doesn't cover punitive damages based on deliberate actions.

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Judge Says Jet Co. Should Escape Sex, Pay Bias Claims

By Benjamin Morse

A former private jet company executive failed to plausibly allege that she was denied a promotion, underpaid, subjected to a hostile workplace or forced to resign because she is a woman, a North Carolina federal magistrate judge said in recommending dismissal of her federal claims.

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Philly's Ex-DEI Officer Hits City With Discrimination Lawsuit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Philadelphia's former top DEI officer has filed a lawsuit accusing the city of race and sex discrimination, claiming Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration fired her amid an effort to stifle diversity initiatives and then publicly smeared her name.

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Sysco Accused Of Logging Drivers' Work As Breaks

By Benjamin Morse

Sysco Corp. and a subsidiary automatically logged California delivery drivers as taking breaks whenever their trucks remained stationary for more than 30 minutes, even when they kept working, a former driver alleged in a proposed class action in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

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UAW Hopeful Can't Add Name To Union Election Ballot

By Katherine Smith

The Michigan federal judge presiding over a case involving a United Auto Workers corruption scandal has rejected a union member's bid to be included on the ballot in an upcoming officers' election, ruling that Bell failed to show that a court-appointed monitor's refusal to add her to the ballot violated a consent decree or federal law.

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AFGE Says VA Plans To Ax Union Contract Despite Injunction

By Emily Brill

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would violate an injunction and its union contract if it carries out its plan to stop honoring the contract when the pact expires Aug. 8, a union local claimed, asking a D.C. federal judge to force the agency to continue complying.

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2nd Circ. Backs Ex-Shkreli Atty's 401(k) Restitution Deal

By Lauren Berg

A New York trial judge erred in rejecting a retirement-fund garnishment deal that would have protected Martin Shkreli's convicted former lawyer from tax penalties, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

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9th Circ. Revives Biotech Worker's Pension Plan Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Ninth Circuit reopened a former Calbiotech Inc. scientist's lawsuit claiming the company unlawfully hid the existence of a pension plan, saying a trial court erred in concluding that a document specifying who was eligible to participate in the plan was legitimate.

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Seattle Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty In $1.4M Tax Case

By Zak Kostro

A Seattle restaurant owner pled guilty to willfully failing to pay more than $1.4 million in unemployment, Social Security and Medicare taxes, some of it withheld from his employees' paychecks, according to federal prosecutors and court documents.

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Brief

BNSF Reaches Deal Over Ex-Conductor's Post-Injury Firing

By Jonathan Capriel

A former conductor has reached a deal with BNSF Railway Co. to end an employment retaliation lawsuit that claims the company wrongfully fired him based on an unsubstantiated rule violation after he sought compensation for a brake rigging accident that severely injured his hand.

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Analysis

'Vibe Coding' Pushes Cos. To Rethink Copyright Protection

By Ivan Moreno

As artificial intelligence takes on more software development projects, businesses embracing “vibe coding” are adapting to uncertain copyright protection by documenting engineers’ contributions, keeping humans involved in high-value projects and leaning more heavily on trade secrets.

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Roundup

Lowe's Coverage Row, NASCAR Team Tiff: NC Midyear Report

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina courts are teeing up for a busy second half of 2026, including readying for a multimillion-dollar insurance trial with Lowe's and speeding through discovery in a high-profile trade secrets dispute involving former NFL coach Joe Gibbs' championship NASCAR team.

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7-Eleven Sued Over Worker's Death After Fight With Manager

By Gina Kim

The mother of a 7-Eleven sales associate who died following an altercation with an assistant manager lodged wrongful death claims in California state court Tuesday, alleging the retailer knew through employee complaints that the manager tended to be violent yet failed to act. 

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DOL Says Beekeeper Underpaid, Endangered H-2A Workers

By Benjamin Morse

The U.S. Department of Labor sued a beekeeping business and its owner in Washington federal court Wednesday, alleging they underpaid H-2A workers, housed them in a rat-infested trailer and pressured an employee to conceal a workplace injury that nearly cost him a finger.

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Fla. DOH Worker Wasn't Fired For Blowing Whistle, Court Says

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the state's win against a former Florida Department of Health employee who claimed she was told to fabricate COVID-19 data, finding that she was not fired in retaliation for protected whistleblower activity.

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Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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When Leaked Settlement Talks Complicate High-Profile Cases

A recent sexual harassment case involving JPMorgan Chase highlights how leaked settlement offers can affect public perception of litigation, reminding parties that a confidentiality label does not automatically create an enforceable obligation because evidentiary exclusion is limited and purpose-specific, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

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Advocacy Group Says Law Firm Fellowship Program Biased

By Patrick Hoff

A legal advocacy group said Thursday it had lodged U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges against a nonprofit and law firms including Jones Day, White & Case and Morgan Lewis, claiming Muslim and Middle Eastern students were getting unlawful preference in a fellowship program.

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DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

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Bronx Legal Aid Organization's Union Rejects New Pay Offer

By Andrea Keckley

The Bronx Defenders' executive director said on Thursday that the union representing the organization's over 300 attorneys and staff has rejected an updated offer on wages, with both sides still at odds over the prospect of separate salary scales for lawyers and social workers.

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2 Traders Admit Guilt In Stolen BigLaw Info Scheme

By Chris Villani

Two men pled guilty Thursday in Massachusetts federal court to their roles in a sweeping scheme to trade on inside information stolen from huge corporate law firms about upcoming deals.

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Roundup

Pa. Paraquat, Gov. Shapiro's Neighbors: A Midyear Report

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Mass tort and antitrust cases advanced this year in Pennsylvania, where attorneys await Philadelphia's first paraquat trial and more developments in the class action against the Law School Admissions Council over test fees.

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Trump May Renominate Blanche If GOP Holdouts Block Vote

By Courtney Bublé

With Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., still on the fence about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation to be attorney general, President Donald Trump said Thursday he might renominate Blanche next year when the two senators are no longer serving in the Senate.

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Linklaters' Legal AI Leader Coming To NY For US M&A Work

By Jake Maher

Linklaters LLP is moving the firm's first dedicated AI lawyer from London to its New York office to work with the U.S. mergers and acquisitions team on an AI-native capability, according to an announcement on social media Thursday.

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ABA Eyes Nixing School DEI Standards To Sway Trump Admin

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association is poised next week to eliminate the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards, a controversial move that it hopes will allow it to remain an accreditor despite an uncertain outcome in the face of a Trump administration increasingly wary of the association's role in legal education.

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Judiciary's Bid To Control Courthouses Gets Senate Push

By Courtney Bublé

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would create a pilot program for the federal judiciary to obtain direct authority to maintain its buildings, which the judiciary says is desperately needed.

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