Employment

  • October 28, 2024

    Farm Co. Can't Push Worker's Wage Suit To Arbitration

    A California appeals court refused to send to arbitration a farm laborer's suit accusing a farm labor contractor of shorting workers on wages, saying the company can't rely on an arbitration pact that one of its clients signed with the workers.

  • October 25, 2024

    5th Circ. Punts Musk Tweet Lawfulness, But Axes NLRB Order

    An en banc Fifth Circuit majority on Friday overturned a National Labor Relations Board decision that a tweet Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent during a United Auto Workers unionization campaign violated federal labor law, while the court's dissenting members criticized the majority's decision as "logically incoherent."

  • October 25, 2024

    OpenAI, Authors Battle Over Execs' Texts And Proof Of Harm

    California labor law doesn't shield OpenAI from producing CEO Sam Altman's and President Greg Brockman's texts and social media messages relevant to a copyright infringement lawsuit, authors alleging OpenAI and Microsoft illegally used their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence program ChatGPT have told a New York federal judge.

  • October 25, 2024

    NLRB Wins Injunction, Defeats Constitutional Claims In Mich.

    A Michigan federal judge handed the National Labor Relations Board two victories Friday in the agency's dispute with a hospital, ordering the hospital to resume recognizing the Service Employees International Union affiliate it ousted last year and rejecting the hospital's argument that the agency's structure is unconstitutional.

  • October 25, 2024

    How Big Crash Verdict Revealed Blueprint For Suing Amazon

    A rare $16.2 million verdict against Amazon recently awarded by a Georgia jury is proof that a blueprint of sorts now exists for pinning liability on the retail giant in crash cases involving independent contractors, according to a veteran attorney who helped win the case.

  • October 25, 2024

    Ex-Venture Global Exec Says Co. Lowballed, Then Fired Her

    A former Venture Global executive has sued the U.S. natural gas company in Virginia federal court for allegedly breaching a decades-old stock option agreement, claiming the company's co-founders refused to let her exercise millions of dollars' worth of soon-to-expire options, then fired her for complaining.

  • October 25, 2024

    Vidal Warned Of 'Heightened' Burden, 'Loophole' In Seed Fight

    Two new petitions in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director say the patent administrative board created "a heightened new standard" in one instance and a trade secrets "loophole" in another in order to protect patents covering purportedly novel corn seeds developed by a unit of DowDuPont spin-off Corteva.

  • October 25, 2024

    Employment Authority: W&H Compliance Under AI Guidance

    Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on how the U.S. Department of Labor's recent guidance for artificial intelligence highlights how employers need to keep an eye on wage and hour compliance and how Alaska could open new paths for captive audience bans. 

  • October 25, 2024

    Yale, Travelers Beat Conn. Age Bias Appeals

    A Connecticut appeals court on Friday declined to revive claims that Yale University and Travelers Indemnity Co. committed age discrimination with job postings seeking "recent" college graduates, reasoning that the court that threw out the cases properly interpreted state high court precedent.

  • October 25, 2024

    Jury Mostly Sides With Woodland Tools On False Ad Claims

    A Wisconsin federal jury has largely found in favor of gardening toolmaker Woodland Tools on allegations that competitor Fiskars Brands made false claims about the design origin and cutting power of Fiskars products including pruners and shears.

  • October 25, 2024

    NJ Ethics Board Faces Contempt Bid In Retaliation Fight

    Counsel for a New Jersey health official who claimed his firing during the COVID-19 pandemic was retaliatory asked a court to hold the State Ethics Commission in contempt for stalling discovery under the guise that the state health regulator initiated the termination, despite "well documented" evidence that it was the commission and Gov. Phil Murphy.

  • October 25, 2024

    Split Mich. Panel Won't Revive Janitor's Burn Injury Suit

    A divided Michigan appellate panel has declined to revive a former manufacturing plant janitor's lawsuit over a workplace explosion that left him severely injured, with the majority saying the case is time-barred by a statute of limitations clause in his employment agreement.

  • October 25, 2024

    'Quiet On Set' Free Speech Row Has Judge Reaching For Advil

    A California judge was undecided Friday about tossing on free speech grounds a defamation lawsuit from former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider against Warner Brothers Discovery Inc. over its "Quiet on Set" docuseries, remarking during a hearing that such motions are so headache-inducing he must "remember to bring [his] Advil."

  • October 25, 2024

    Premera Rejection Seems Sparse, 9th Circ. Judges Say

    A Ninth Circuit judge pressed Premera Blue Cross on Friday to defend refusing coverage for a Washington teen's lengthy mental health residential treatment, questioning if the insurer engaged in a meaningful dialogue as required with the youth's family in letters explaining why the treatment was medically unnecessary.

  • October 25, 2024

    Lyft To Pay $2.1M FTC Fine Over Driver Earnings Claims

    Lyft Inc. will pay $2.1 million and clarify its claims about driver pay in order to settle allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that the ride-hailing company made deceptive statements about what drivers could expect to earn hourly and through special incentives, according to a Friday announcement from the agency.

  • October 25, 2024

    Wrongful Firing Suit Alleges Clippers Mishandled Star's Health

    A former trainer for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers has filed a wrongful termination suit in California state court against the team, alleging he was fired after raising concerns about the health of star forward Kawhi Leonard.

  • October 25, 2024

    Off The Bench: Toss-Up For Ohtani Ball, UFC Fighters' Payday

    In this week's Off The Bench, the three claimants to a historic baseball now know how much is at stake for the winner, a long fight against wage suppression for mixed martial arts fighters is a step closer to ending, and WNBA players want a bigger piece of a growing revenue pie.

  • October 25, 2024

    Mass. Panel Flips Teacher's Tenure Denial Over Family Leave

    Massachusetts' intermediate-level appeals court on Friday invalidated an arbitrator's denial of tenure to a teacher who took maternity leave during one of her first three years of teaching, ruling that the decision had wrongly penalized her for taking the protected time away from work.

  • October 25, 2024

    Ga. Woman Gets 12 Years For $30M COVID Fraud Scheme

    A Georgia woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday for her role in filing more than 5,000 fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment insurance claims with the Georgia Department of Labor, which resulted in at least $30 million in stolen benefits.

  • October 25, 2024

    Ex-Abercrombie CEO Pleads Not Guilty, Gets $10M Home Bail

    Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries pled not guilty on Friday to charges of operating a sex trafficking and prostitution ring that preyed on male models, and was released to home confinement on a $10 million bond.

  • October 25, 2024

    Amazon Presses Drivers To Hand Over Docs, Info In Wage Suit

    Amazon said that 17 named plaintiffs in an eight-year suit accusing the online retail giant of misclassifying drivers as independent contractors failed to meet discovery demands, urging a Washington federal judge to order them to fulfill the requests within 10 days.

  • October 25, 2024

    Ex-Worker Says Circle K Failed To Provide OT, Breaks

    Convenience store company Circle K failed to pay workers overtime wages and provide them with meal and rest periods, the workers alleged Friday in California state court.

  • October 25, 2024

    Spirit Airlines Eyes $80M In Cost Cuts Amid New Deal Rumor

    Spirit Airlines will implement layoffs as part of a plan to cut roughly $80 million in costs and has agreed to sell 23 Airbus aircraft to GA Telesis for about $519 million, disclosing the measures as the company is said to be in renewed talks to potentially sell itself to Frontier Airlines. 

  • October 25, 2024

    Maritime Unions Tell EPA To Reject Calif. Workboat Rule

    Three maritime labor unions and a tugboat trade association called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to deny California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver to enforce its rule mandating the installation of diesel particulate filter technology on workboats.

  • October 25, 2024

    Bimbo Fired 72-Year-Old 1 Year Before Retirement, Suit Says

    A longtime employee of Bimbo Bakeries USA filed a federal age discrimination lawsuit against his former employer Wednesday claiming that the company forced him out of his job just over a year before he was scheduled to retire, over bogus allegations that he stole company time.

Expert Analysis

  • How The Tide Of EEOC Litigation Rolled Back In FY 2024

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    An analysis of the location, timing and underlying claims asserted in U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-initiated cases during fiscal year 2024 shows that the commission saw a substantial decrease in litigation activity after a surge last year, but employers should not drop their guard, say Christopher DeGroff and Andrew Scroggins at Seyfarth.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Using Primacy And Recency Effects In Opening Statements

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    By understanding and strategically employing the primacy and recency effects in opening statements, attorneys can significantly enhance their persuasive impact, ensuring that their narrative is both compelling and memorable from the outset, says Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Secret Service Failures Offer Lessons For Private Sector GCs

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    The Secret Service’s problematic response to two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this summer provides a crash course for general counsel on how not to handle crisis communications, says Keith Nahigian at Nahigian Strategies.

  • A Primer On Navigating The Conrad 30 Immigration Program

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    As the Conrad 30 program opens its annual window to help place immigrant physicians in medically underserved areas, employers and physicians engaged in the process must carefully understand the program's nuanced requirements, say Andrew Desposito and Greg Berk at Sheppard Mullin.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike

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    With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • 4 Ways To Prepare For DOD Cyber Certification Rule

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice's increased scrutiny of contractor compliance with cybersecurity requirements, it is critical that contractors take certain steps now in response to the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation rule, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Key Takeaways From DOJ's New Corp. Compliance Guidance

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated guidance to federal prosecutors on evaluating corporate compliance programs addresses how entities manage new technology-related risks and expands on preexisting policies, providing key insights for companies about increasing regulatory expectations, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • The Key Changes In Revised FDIC Hiring Regulations

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    Attorneys at Ogletree break down the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s new rule, effective Oct. 1, that will ease restrictions on financial institutions hiring employees with criminal histories, amend the FDIC's treatment of minor offenses and clarify its stance on expunged or dismissed criminal records.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.

  • How Lucia, Jarkesy Could Affect Grocery Merger Challenge

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    While the Federal Trade Commission is taking a dual federal court and administrative tribunal approach to block Kroger's merger with Alberstons, Kroger's long-shot unconstitutionality claims could potentially lead to a reevaluation of the FTC's reliance on administrative processes in complex merger cases, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • 6 Tips For Trying Cases Away From Home

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    A truly national litigation practice, by definition, often requires trying cases in jurisdictions across the country, which presents unique challenges that require methodical preparation and coordination both within the trial team and externally, say Edward Bennett and Suzanne Salgado at Williams & Connolly.

  • How NLRB Memo Balances Schools' Labor, Privacy Concerns

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    Natale DiNatale at Robinson & Cole highlights the recent National Labor Relations Board advice memorandum that aims to help colleges reconcile competing obligations under the National Labor Relations Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as university students flock toward unionization.

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