DC Circ. Revives Fired Workers' Bias Suit Over Vax Policy

By Gina Kim

The D.C. Circuit on Friday revived claims by two Black employees of a union who allege they were disparately affected by a COVID-19 vaccination policy where more Black employees than white employees were fired if they didn't get vaccinated, saying their racial discrimination allegations regarding the policy "cross the line from conceivable to plausible."

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NY State Settles Ex-Cuomo Aide's Sex Harassment Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The state of New York agreed Friday to pay $450,000 to resolve a lawsuit claiming it didn't do enough to address allegations by a onetime aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that he made inappropriate comments and sexual advances toward her.

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Trump Moves For More Power To Hire, Fire Federal Workers

By Lauren Berg

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday proposed a rule that would give President Donald Trump's administration the power to hire and fire some 50,000 career federal employees, a move that federal worker unions say will allow the president "to replace qualified public servants with political cronies."

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CFPB Mass Layoffs Blocked Again In DC Court

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge once again halted the layoffs of more than 1,000 employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying at an emergency hearing Friday morning that she needed a full record to determine whether the firings complied with a D.C. Circuit order from last week.

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Unions Score Injunction To Stop DOGE's Access To SSA Data

By Beverly Banks

The Social Security Administration cannot give Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency access to personal data within the agency's system, a Maryland federal judge ruled, saying the government "cannot flout" federal privacy law while granting an injunction to unions and a retiree advocacy group.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: Questions To Ask About AI Tools

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on questions employers should consider before purchasing artificial intelligence tools, a look at how to avoid common overtime claims and the status of the Trump administration's vetting of National Labor Relations Board nominees.

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Ex-Katten Partner Hits Firm With $67M Age Bias Suit

By Lauren Berg

A former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner launched a $67 million discrimination lawsuit against his one-time firm in New York federal court, alleging he was pushed out of the aircraft-finance practice group, pressured to resign and then fired because of the firm CEO's "stereotyped views of lawyers in their 60s."

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Tesla Settles Black Production Worker's Race Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Tesla has agreed to settle a Black former production worker's suit claiming she was called racist slurs on the job and retaliated against for complaining that the facility fostered a culture of discrimination, according to a California federal court filing.

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3rd Circ. Won't Revive Norfolk Southern Conductor's ADA Suit

By Vin Gurrieri

The Third Circuit refused Friday to reinstate a Norfolk Southern Railway Co. train conductor's suit alleging he was illegally suspended because of his history of seizures, saying the railroad's decision wasn't rooted in discrimination.

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11th Circ. Won't Revive ADA Suit Over Remote Work Firing

By Kelcey Caulder

The Eleventh Circuit on Friday refused to revive a former call center director's Americans with Disabilities Act suit against a financial services company, holding that the company had legitimate reasons to fire her and reasonably accommodated her request to work from home due to her Crohn's disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Fla. Law Seeks To 'Demonize' Trans Workers, Suit Says

By Grace Elletson

A transgender teacher was forced to quit after a Florida school district required him to use pronouns that didn't align with his gender identity under a state law that aims to "stigmatize and demonize" transgender workers, he told a federal court in a discrimination suit.

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NBA's Suns Sued Again For Harassment, Toxic Workplace

By David Steele

A third former employee of the Phoenix Suns in a five-month span has accused the NBA franchise of discrimination, retaliation and a hostile workplace, with a Hispanic woman suing the Suns on Friday in Arizona federal court.

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Sunoco Accused Of Age Bias By Ex-Chief Counsel

By Gina Kim

A former chief counsel for Sunoco LP sued her ex-employer in Texas state court Wednesday, alleging she was denied promotional opportunities and later terminated due to her age, while also accusing the company of replacing attorneys older than 50 with significantly younger attorneys with less experience.

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No Sanctions For Landscaping Co. In OT Suits, Judge Says

By Emily Brill

It's too soon to determine whether a landscaping company should be sanctioned for its attorneys' failure to produce accurate lists of its current and former employees in a class action alleging unpaid overtime, a Kansas federal judge said, saying both sides' attorneys need to meet.

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Ohio Health System Says It Didn't Cheat Workers On Time

By Parker Quinlan

Cleveland health system MetroHealth has asked a federal court in Ohio to toss a potential class action alleging a failure to properly pay workers overtime, telling the judge a nursing assistant had not proved the healthcare provider violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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Del. House Bill Would Exempt Overtime Pay From Income Tax

By Zak Kostro

Delaware would exempt eligible workers' overtime pay from state income tax under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

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Union Hits Kroger Chain With Counterclaim In Strike Suit

By Emily Brill

The Kroger-owned grocery chain King Soopers violated a poststrike agreement with a United Food & Commercial Workers local by pressuring the union to agree to a collective bargaining agreement by an arbitrary deadline, the union alleged in a counterclaim in the company's strike lawsuit against it in Colorado federal court.

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Charter Communications Ends Trade Secrets Suit With Ex-VP

By Ivan Moreno

Charter Communications Inc. has settled a trade secrets lawsuit it brought in Connecticut federal court against a former executive it accused of taking confidential information with him when he left for a job with Metronet, one of its competitors, according to a joint stipulation for dismissal.

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Atty DQ'd In NJ Cosmetics Biz Dispute Over Privileged Docs

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey federal judge disqualified a Garden State attorney from representing a former executive of a South Korean cosmetics company in a contentious employment dispute with the business because the lawyer obtained privileged documents belonging to the company.

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NJ Law Prof Given Chance To Amend Tossed Free Speech Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has declined a law professor's request to revive her free speech suit against Kean University over alleged controversial statements made in class, finding she failed to show errors in law in his dismissal, but left the door open for her to amend her complaint.

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Analysis

Student Visa Crackdown Sparks Fears Of Talent Shortage

By Britain Eakin

The Trump administration's aggressive push to revoke student visas and terminate their records in a government database that tracks international students is rattling employers that rely on a pipeline of foreign students to fill key high-skilled labor needs.

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Philly Firm Leaders Form Employment, Civil Rights Boutique

By Rachel Rippetoe

Attorneys out of Philadelphia and New Jersey have merged their practices to start a new law firm focused on employment, criminal, civil rights and survivor's rights law, the partners announced earlier this week.

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5 Key Issues For Multinational Cos. Mulling Return To Office

As companies increasingly revisit return-to-office mandates, multinational employers may face challenges in enforcing uniform RTO practices globally, but several key considerations and practical solutions can help avoid roadblocks, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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End May Be In Sight For Small Biz Set-Aside Programs

A Jan. 21 executive order largely disarming the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, along with recent court rulings, suggests that the administration may soon attempt to eliminate set-asides intended to level the award playing field for small business contractors that qualify under socioeconomic programs, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

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WilmerHale, Feds Dispute Reach Of Trump Order Against Firm

By Jack Karp

WilmerHale and the U.S. Department of Justice traded salvos in the BigLaw firm's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting it, with the firm and the government offering "starkly different" versions of what's at stake in the dispute.

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Joel Katz, Music Law's Longtime Power Broker, Dies At 80

By Chart Riggall

Joel Katz, the powerful music industry lawyer who co-founded Greenberg Traurig LLP's media and entertainment practice and helped bring the firm to the Atlanta market, has died at the age of 80, Law360 confirmed Friday.

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How They Won It

How Manatt Beat A Crypto Trader's 'Code As Law' Defense

By Aislinn Keely

After a crypto user exploited a software bug to create millions of dollars' worth of new tokens from a blockchain network, a Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP team defeated his claim to the tokens — and won an award worth millions — by showing that faulty code can't stand in for rule of law.

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Justices Temporarily Block Removals Under Wartime Law

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to halt removals of alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, pending further input from the court.

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High Court's Pause Of Removals Was 'Premature,' Alito Says

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision early Saturday morning to prohibit the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to remove alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in northern Texas to an El Salvadoran prison was hasty and premature, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Convicted In 1MDB Case Ordered Disbarred In NY

By Craig Clough

A New York appellate court ordered Wednesday that a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney be disbarred due to his felony conviction as part of a sprawling, billion-dollar fraud scandal connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad and Fugees founder Pras Michél.

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Judge Nixes Feds' DQ Bid In Migrant Kids Legal Funding Case

By Ryan Boysen

A California federal judge has denied the Trump administration's bid to remove her from a lawsuit challenging funding cuts that prevent attorneys from representing child migrants, ruling her employment at one of the plaintiffs nearly seven years ago doesn't undermine her impartiality.

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PTAB Judge Heads To Boutique, Citing Return-To-Office Order

By Andrew Karpan

An outgoing Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge based in Austin, Texas, tells Law360 that President Donald Trump's return-to-office order was a "significant factor" in her decision to return to private practice, joining boutique patent firm Smith Baluch LLP as a partner.

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Judiciary Faces Security Risks Amid Spending Freeze

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary is warning congressional appropriators that funding shortfalls could threaten courthouse security.

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Wis. Sens. Renew Bipartisan Judicial Nomination Commission

By Courtney Bublé

The Republican and Democratic senators from Wisconsin announced Friday they are renewing their bipartisan commission to recommend U.S. attorney and judicial nominees to the president.

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Up Next At High Court: Preventive HealthCare & LGBTQ Books

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases this week, including disputes over the constitutionality of a task force that sets preventive healthcare coverage requirements, a school district's introduction of LGBTQ-themed storybooks and whether parties can establish standing based on harms affecting third parties. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google and its chief legal officer have now lost two major antitrust cases to DOJ prosecutors after a federal judge ruled Thursday the search engine monopolized markets and servers related to display advertising. Meanwhile, a new study shows companies are disclosing their business risks, and how they are trying to mitigate those risks, amid changing tariffs and the uncertainty of the U.S.-China trade war. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC and the University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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