Disney Strikes $43M Deal To End Calif. Pay Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay $43.25 million to settle a class action claiming the entertainment giant paid thousands of women in middle management less than their male colleagues, according to a filing in California court.

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Split 5th Circ. Backs NLRB's Finding On Worker's Firing

By Emily Brill

A company that supplies staff to a food distributor violated federal labor law by firing a worker who went directly to the distributor with her wage concerns, a split Fifth Circuit found, upholding a National Labor Relations Board finding.

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Ex-Faegre Drinker Atty Files Disability Bias Suit

By Andrea Keckley

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP was hit with a disability discrimination lawsuit on Monday by a Denver attorney who says she was pushed out after seeking accommodations for hip problems.

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Jackson Hewitt Workers Get Final OK On $10.8M Settlement

By Asha Glover

A federal judge granted final approval to a $10.8 million settlement between former Jackson Hewitt Inc. workers and the tax preparation firm over claims the company's franchisees entered into an anti-competitive no-poach agreement despite the provision being removed from the company's franchise agreements.

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NJ Equal Pay Law Date Will Guide Atty's Discrimination Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

Discovery and damages in a former Reed Smith LLP labor and employment attorney's suit claiming gender discrimination will be limited to the effective date of New Jersey equal pay law, a state judge ruled, saying the law doesn't apply retroactively.

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Workers Say Kroger-Albertsons No-Poach Deal Hurt Wages

By Thy Vo

A Colorado grocery store employee has filed a putative class action accusing Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. Inc. of scheming to suppress workers' wages, alleging in a state court complaint that the grocers entered into an illegal "no-poach" agreement during a 2022 strike.

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U. Of Michigan Shorting Pay With Late Raises, Prof Says

By Irene Spezzamonte

The University of Michigan has been consistently applying salary increases three months later than its employment contracts require, leading to unpaid wages, a tenured sociology professor said in a proposed class action filed Tuesday in state court.

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Mass. AG Fines Burger King Franchises Over Labor Violations

By Julie Manganis

The operator of dozens of Burger King franchises in Massachusetts was hit with $2 million in citations for wage and child labor violations, the state attorney general's office announced Tuesday.

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Brief

Ohio Vaping Chain Worker Drops Proposed OT Class Action

By Ryan Harroff

An Ohio vape shop worker has dropped her proposed class and collective action accusing her employer of making his employees work 60 to 100 hours per week but then not paying them overtime for their extra labor as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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'Enormous Is Not Everything': UAW Pressed On Doc Turnover

By Danielle Ferguson

A Michigan federal judge pressed a United Auto Workers attorney Tuesday about whether the union was being evasive in describing how much material it had turned over to fulfill the request of a monitor appointed to oversee the union as part of his investigation into some of the union's top officials.

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Chicago Dispensary Asks NLRB To Ax 2021 Union Vote Result

By Emily Brill

The National Labor Relations Board should nix a United Food & Commercial Workers local's 11-10 win in a 2021 representation election at a Chicago cannabis dispensary due to an issue with the vote, the dispensary said, adding NLRB and D.C. Circuit precedent supports its stance.

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UAW Local Should Rerun Officer Vote In Mich., DOL Says

By Emily Brill

A United Auto Workers local in Warren, Michigan, should scrap the results of its May officers' election and hold a new one, the U.S. Department of Labor told a federal court Tuesday, saying the election committee mishandled its recordkeeping and oversight of absentee ballots.

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NY Groups, Truckers Say Congestion Pricing Unconstitutional

By Linda Chiem

A New York teachers union, and coalitions of residents and truckers have told a federal judge that Manhattan's recently resurrected congestion pricing is still unconstitutional and discriminatory, and federal and state transportation agencies shouldn't be allowed to shake their claims just because the tolls will be reduced.

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CMS Cancels Call Center Solicitation With Disputed Labor Clause

By Daniel Wilson

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services called off its unusual resolicitation of a still-active $6.6 billion contract for contact center services on Tuesday, following litigation from contractor Maximus over a contentious labor harmony agreement in the solicitation.

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Ex-Regeneron Director Says FMLA Suit Should Stay In Court

By Emmy Freedman

A former Regeneron Pharmaceuticals director asked a New York federal court not to toss her suit, saying she put forward sufficient details to back up her accusations that she was fired for lodging a complaint about her supervisor's abuse and requesting a flexible schedule to care for her daughter.

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Del. Justices Uphold Chancery Toss Of No-Compete Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's Supreme Court has backed a Court of Chancery finding that private equity firm Court Square Capital Management wrongly withheld nearly $5.4 million in carried interest payments from former partner Kevin Brown after he was accused — three years after his 2016 departure — of violating a no-compete agreement.

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Affinity Bar Groups Decry Colo. No-Poach Restrictions

By Thy Vo

Several attorney groups told Colorado's justices that barring lawyers from recruiting colleagues before officially leaving a firm would take away professional autonomy and harm lawyers from underrepresented backgrounds the most, filing briefs in support of a lawyer's challenge to her contract with a personal injury firm. 

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NJ Law Firm Hit With Whistleblower Suit From Fired Atty

By James Boyle

New Jersey law firm Post Polak PA has been hit with a state whistleblower lawsuit from a former associate alleging that she was fired over her handling of a public records case against Englewood Cliffs and her disagreements with the town mayor.

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Ga. Law Firm Faces DQ Bid Over 'Hopeless' FCA Case Conflict

By Madison Arnold

The former employee of a tool company has called on a Georgia federal court to disqualify Smith Gilliam Williams & Miles PA and one of its attorneys from representing the company in his False Claims Act case because another firm attorney represented him in a domestic matter.

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Texas Atty Sanctioned For Citing Bogus Cases After Using AI

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas lawyer pursuing a wrongful termination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has been sanctioned for submitting a brief that included citations to nonexistent cases generated by an artificial intelligence tool, a Texas federal judge ordered this week.

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Ex-Worker Sues Steakhouse After Alleged Assault By Manager

By Kelcey Caulder

STK Atlanta, a New York-based steakhouse chain, has been sued in Georgia federal court by a Georgia resident who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a manager while working for the restaurant in 2022, harassed by coworkers about the assault and then fired after she reported the harassment.

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Jackson Lewis Adds Attorney From FordHarrison In Tampa

By Christine DeRosa

Jackson Lewis PC has expanded its counseling and litigation offerings in Florida with the addition of an attorney from FordHarrison LLP.

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Best Practices For Effective Employee Assistance Programs

Employee assistance programs can be a powerful tool for establishing health and wellness initiatives in workplaces, and certain implementation steps can help both employers and workers gain maximum benefit from EAPs, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

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Series

Flying Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Achieving my childhood dream of flying airplanes made me a better lawyer — and a better person — because it taught me I can conquer difficult goals when I leave my comfort zone, focus on the demands of the moment and commit to honing my skills, says Ivy Cadle at Baker Donelson.

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Bonus Spotlight

Bonus Season Heats Up As More Firms Match Milbank's Scale

By Xiumei Dong

The 2024 associate bonus season is heating up, with more law firms matching Milbank LLP's year-end and special bonuses and U.K. firms extending the same offering to their U.S.-based attorneys, according to firm memos shared with Law360 Pulse and media reports.

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King & Spalding Partner Selected As Trump's Trade Rep

By Hailey Konnath

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that King & Spalding LLP international trade partner Jamieson L. Greer was his pick for U.S. trade representative, noting that Greer played a "key role" in imposing tariffs on China during Trump's first term.

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Google Search Judge Says AI Will Affect Remedy Phase

By Matthew Perlman

The judge overseeing the government's search monopolization case against Google suggested Tuesday in D.C. federal court that artificial intelligence is shifting the market and will likely play a role in the remedies the court imposes on Google for allegedly violating antitrust law.

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Fulton County DA Seeks To Reinstate Trump Election Charges

By Emily Johnson

The Fulton County District Attorney's Office told the Georgia Court of Appeals on Monday that six criminal charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others should be reinstated as they have an "abundance" of information to prepare their defense against allegations of trying to subvert the results of the November 2020 election.

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Giuliani's New Atty Faults Previous Counsel As NY Trial Nears

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge declined Tuesday to delay a January trial over whether Rudy Giuliani must turn over his Florida condo and World Series rings to fund a $148 million defamation judgment, after the former New York City mayor's new lawyer criticized outgoing counsel.

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Fla. Bar Alleges Atty Delayed Trial Over His Broken Tooth

By Dorothy Atkins

The Florida Bar has launched a complaint against a criminal attorney in the Florida Supreme Court, accusing him of violating state bar rules by refusing to proceed with a jury trial because he had a broken tooth.

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