Employment

  • December 11, 2024

    Google Targeted New Parents For Layoffs, Calif. Suit Says

    Google was sued in California state court Wednesday by a former training manager who says the tech giant chose her and six colleagues for layoffs last year because of their decisions to take parental leave.

  • December 11, 2024

    High Court Bar's Future: Haynes Boone's Daniel Geyser

    Daniel L. Geyser of Haynes and Boone LLP is an unconventional U.S. Supreme Court advocate in every respect, from the path he forged to become one of the high court's frequent arguers to the way he runs his current practice from more than half a country away from the nation's capital.

  • December 11, 2024

    Ally Bank Worker Drops Emotional Pain Claims From Bias Suit

    A white, male Ally Bank worker who claimed he was denied a promotion because of the company's diversity push has dropped pain and suffering claims from his suit, according to a stipulation of partial dismissal.

  • December 11, 2024

    Temp Agency Owner Gets Prison For $2M Tax Scheme

    A temp agency owner was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty in Massachusetts federal court to paying employees under-the-table wages to avoid $2.1 million in taxes.

  • December 11, 2024

    ​​​​​​​6th Circ. Probes Rationale For State Farm Worker's Firing

    The Sixth Circuit grappled Wednesday with whether to reopen a former State Farm employee's suit alleging she was illegally fired after counseling a colleague about a disability accommodation complaint, with one judge questioning if the insurer had looked into the worker's claim that she faced selective discipline.

  • December 11, 2024

    United Airlines Illegally Withheld Wages, PAGA Suit Says

    United Airlines cheated employees out of pay by requiring them to work during breaks and mandating unpaid COVID-19 screenings, a former employee said in her Private Attorneys General Act suit in California state court.

  • December 11, 2024

    4th Circ. Seems Wary Of Reviving Post-Pregnancy Firing Suit

    The Fourth Circuit seemed skeptical Wednesday of a former Nexstar Media Inc. worker's bid to revive her pregnancy-related disability discrimination suit, reminding the ex-employee's counsel about the limits to how much accommodation an employer has to provide.

  • December 11, 2024

    Quick Party Shift Coming To NLRB As McFerran Vote Fails

    President-elect Donald Trump appears poised to have an immediate opening to seat a Republican majority at the National Labor Relations Board after the U.S. Senate narrowly voted down a push to give outgoing Democratic Chairman Lauren McFerran another term Wednesday.

  • December 11, 2024

    DA Says Allegheny County Pension System Risks Insolvency

    The Allegheny County employee retirement coffers could run out of money within 15 years, the Pennsylvania jurisdiction's top prosecutor warned in a lawsuit seeking to make the county and the retirement board fix the allegedly floundering system.

  • December 11, 2024

    Calif. Panel Reverses Cost Award After Auto Shop Wage Trial

    A California appeals panel flipped a lower court's decision awarding about $54,000 in post-offer costs to an auto body shop after winning a former employee's wage and hour suit, saying that two sections of the California Labor Code preclude such awards.

  • December 11, 2024

    Mass. Prison Fired Pregnant Officer For Vax Refusal, Suit Says

    A former Massachusetts corrections officer on Wednesday filed a suit against the state's prison system in federal court, saying she was wrongly denied a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccination mandate while she was pregnant, passed over for a promotion and ultimately fired.

  • December 11, 2024

    ConEd Escapes Fired In-House Atty's Gender, Age Bias Suit

    A New York federal judge tossed an attorney's suit claiming she was fired by Con Edison out of age and gender animus after complaining that her boss unfairly criticized her, ruling she failed to show that her identity rather than her yearslong performance issues got her canned.

  • December 10, 2024

    OneTaste Execs Want Sexually Explicit Evidence Out Of Trial

    Former OneTaste executives on Tuesday asked a New York federal judge to block prosecutors from showing jurors sexually explicit evidence at their upcoming forced labor conspiracy trial, saying the government is trying to put the sexual wellness company and "orgasmic meditation" on trial.

  • December 10, 2024

    Jay-Z Says PI Atty Buzbee Has History Of False Diddy Claims

    Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter's lawyers told a New York federal judge on Tuesday that the law firm of Tony Buzbee, a high-profile personal injury attorney suing the music mogul for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs, tried to pressure a different woman into leveling false sexual assault claims against Diddy.

  • December 10, 2024

    3rd Circ. Reopens White Worker's Bias Suit Against Tech Firm

    The Third Circuit revived a white former manager's lawsuit alleging an Indian information technology company unlawfully favored South Asian job candidates and employees, ruling Tuesday that a trial court was wrong to say his failed attempt to join a separate class action couldn't extend the time limit for his claims. 

  • December 10, 2024

    BNSF Railway On The Hook For $2.7M Spinal Injury Verdict

    BNSF Railway Co. can not escape a $2.75 million jury verdict that found it had negligently caused a worker's permanent spinal injuries, a Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday, saying the trial court made no mistake when telling jurors to consider both the safety conditions of the train and reflective vest.

  • December 10, 2024

    Tool Co. Fights Bid To DQ Law Firm In Whistleblower Case

    A tool company pushed back on a bid to disqualify a Smith Gilliam Williams & Miles PA attorney from representing it in a former employee's False Claims Act suit, saying documents made available to the firm when a different firm attorney represented the ex-employee in a domestic matter have no bearing on the case.

  • December 10, 2024

    AFL-CIO Backs DOL In Effort To Keep H-2A Labor Rule Alive

    The AFL-CIO on Tuesday backed the U.S. Department of Labor's efforts to toss a suit in North Carolina federal court challenging the department's final rule protecting union-related activities for agricultural workers on seasonal H-2A visas, saying that it doesn't violate federal labor law.

  • December 10, 2024

    Insurer Eyes Dismissal Of Pot Co. Trulieve's Coverage Case

    An insurance company that is a unit of Berkshire Hathaway is arguing that it has no obligation to defend Trulieve Inc., which is being sued over a cannabis worker's death, urging a federal judge to toss the lawsuit brought by the largest medical marijuana operator in Florida.

  • December 10, 2024

    Split 9th Circ. Won't Revive Tesla Worker's Whistleblower Suit

    A split Ninth Circuit refused to revive a terminated Tesla worker's Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower claim alleging he was retaliated against for reporting unlawful activity, ruling on Tuesday the worker is precluded from re-litigating in district court whether he engaged in protected activity, since an arbitrator already decided that he did not.

  • December 10, 2024

    Ex-CEO Argues Arbitrator's Failure To Disclose Sinks Award

    A former CEO of Canadian biopharmaceutical company FSD Pharma Inc. who sued after he was terminated is urging the Third Circuit to reverse a lower court's decision confirming an unfavorable Canadian arbitral award, asserting the arbitrator concealed an extensive prior relationship with the company.

  • December 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Judge Criticizes SF's 'Arbitrary' COVID Vax Mandate

    A Ninth Circuit panel doubted Tuesday whether a district judge followed the appellate panel's prior order requiring him to reconsider ex-San Francisco public employees' injunction bid in their civil rights case challenging the city's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, with one judge criticizing the city's since-expired worker vax mandate as "arbitrary."

  • December 10, 2024

    6th Circ. Judges Doubt Engineers' Claims Avoid Labor Act

    Sixth Circuit judges on Tuesday sounded skeptical that a group of auto engineers' claims over a bribery scheme between the United Auto Workers union and Fiat Chrysler, which the engineers allege negatively affected their employment, wouldn't be based on their collective bargaining agreement and thus preempted by federal labor law.

  • December 10, 2024

    Biz Owner In $2.8M Worker Tax Scheme Gets 18 Months

    A construction company owner who failed to pay $2.8 million in employment taxes by falsely claiming his workers were subcontractors was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday and ordered to pay full restitution, according to Massachusetts federal court documents.

  • December 10, 2024

    NJ Panel Revives Union's Suit Over Sick Leave Policies

    A New Jersey appeals court upended Jersey City's win in a firefighters union's lawsuit challenging two city policies pertaining to sick leave, finding Tuesday the union put forward enough information to defeat the city's dismissal bid.

Expert Analysis

  • Key Steps To Employer Petitions For Union Elections

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Since the National Labor Relations Board shifted the burden of requesting formal union elections onto employers in its Cemex decision last year — and raised the stakes for employer missteps during the process — companies should be prepared to correctly file representation management election petitions and respond to union demands for recognition, says Adam Keating at Duane Morris.

  • Viral Layoffs: How Cos. Can Avoid Bad Social Media Exposure

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    A recent trend of employees using social media to document their experiences with layoffs and disciplinary actions in the workplace should prompt employers to take additional precautions to avoid former workers' negative viral reviews when deciding how, when and what to communicate to employees, say Scott McIntyre and Chrissy Kennedy at BakerHostetler.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • 6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror

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    Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses

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    Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.

  • 3 Notes For Arbitration Agreements After Calif. Ruling

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    After last month's California Supreme Court decision in Ramirez v. Charter Communications invalidated several arbitration clauses in the company's employee contracts as unconscionable, companies should ensure their own arbitration agreements steer clear of three major pitfalls identified by the court, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Opinion

    Focus On Political Stances May Weaken Labor Unions

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    Recent lawsujits and a bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives call attention to the practice of labor unions taking political stances with which their members disagree — an issue that may weaken unions, and that employers should stay abreast of, given its implications for labor organizing campaigns, workplace morale and collective bargaining, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Jarkesy Ruling May Redefine Jury Role In Patent Fraud

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    Regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jarkesy ruling implicates the direction of inequitable conduct, which requires showing that the patentee made material statements or omissions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the decision has created opportunities for defendants to argue more substantively for jury trials than ever before, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.

  • NLRB Ruling Highlights Rare Union Deauthorization Process

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    A recent National Labor Relations Board decision about a guard company's union authorization revocation presents a ripe opportunity for employees to review the particulars of this uncommon process, and employer compliance is critical as well, say Megann McManus and Trecia Moore at Husch Blackwell.

  • Attorneys Can Benefit From Reverse-Engineering Their Cases

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    Trial advocacy programs often teach lawyers to loosely track the progression of a lawsuit during preparation — case analysis, then direct examination, then cross-examination, openings and closings — but reverse-engineering cases by working backward from opening and closing statements can streamline the process and also improve case strategy, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • Latest 'Nuclear Verdict' Underscores Jury-Trial Employer Risk

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    A Los Angeles Superior Court jury's recent $900 million verdict in a high-profile sexual assault and harassment case illustrates the increase in so-called nuclear verdicts in employment cases, and the need for employers to explore alternative methods of resolving disputes, say Anthony Oncidi and Morgan Peterson at Proskauer.

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