Employment

  • June 14, 2024

    Tata Must Pay $168M For Trade Secret Theft, Texas Judge Says

    A Texas federal judge has ordered Tata Consultancy to pay $168 million for willfully misappropriating an IT company's trade secrets concerning source code and life insurance software documentation, plus $25 million in prejudgment interest.

  • June 14, 2024

    No Associational Shield In Conn. Employment Law, Panel Says

    Connecticut's key employment practices law does not create a cause of action for discriminating against a worker because they associate with a person who has disabilities, according to a Friday opinion by the Connecticut Appellate Court.

  • June 14, 2024

    FCA Boss' N-Word Use Not Enough For Racial Bias Suit

    A Black FCA worker's allegations that his supervisor used the N-word twice and that it was written on the bathroom wall are not enough to prove he experienced a hostile work environment or was prevented from doing his job, a Michigan appeal panel has ruled.

  • June 14, 2024

    Publishing Exec's Family Says Ohio Law Allowed His Ouster

    The board of an Ohio-based media company have said state law empowered them to oust former CEO Allan Block from his family's namesake company and urged an Ohio state court to dismiss the suit he brought over the potential sale of the company that publishes newspapers in Toledo and Pittsburgh.

  • June 14, 2024

    GOP AGs Demand Stay For DOL's H-2A Protections Rule

    Seventeen Republican attorneys general requested a pause on the effective date for the U.S. Department of Labor's final rule covering foreign farmworkers within the H-2A visa program, telling the court that the rule provides protections that U.S. citizen agricultural workers lack under federal labor law.

  • June 14, 2024

    9th Circ. Revives Union Pacific Workers' Disability Bias Suits

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday reversed Union Pacific Railroad's wins in three worker disability discrimination lawsuits involving plaintiffs with color-vision concerns, saying the lower court incorrectly determined that their individual claims were time-barred after an Eighth Circuit decision decertifying a thousands-strong class in similar litigation against the company.

  • June 14, 2024

    Employment Authority: High Court's NLRB Injunction Shift

    Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion involving Starbucks that standardized the National Labor Relations Board's injunction test, a look at Law360's pay disclosure law tracker and a review of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's amicus briefs in the first half of 2024.

  • June 14, 2024

    Red States Look To Block ACA Trans Discrimination Rule

    A group of 15 conservative states urged a Mississippi federal court to halt recently finalized regulations clarifying gender identity-based discrimination under the Affordable Care Act from taking effect, saying the new rule strips the states of their right to oversee medical ethics.

  • June 14, 2024

    Off The Bench: Ex-Players Claim NIL, Loss For Trans Swimmer

    In this week's Off The Bench, the 1983 men's college basketball champions want a piece of the loot the NCAA made off of their names, swimmer Lia Thomas loses in her bid to overturn an international trans athlete ban, and the House gets a bill through committee that would keep college athletes from becoming employees.

  • June 14, 2024

    Popeyes Accused Of Skimping On Breaks And Wages

    Popeyes made employees in California work through lunch and rest breaks without appropriate pay and provided them with "confusing" wage statements, according to a putative class action lodged in a Los Angeles court.

  • June 14, 2024

    Healthcare Worker's Solo PAGA Claim Heads To Arbitration

    A California state appeals court ruled an employee's individual wage claims under the state's Private Attorneys General Act should be heard in arbitration, overturning a lower court's decision to keep the lawsuit in state court and finding the arbitration agreement encompassed the worker's claims.

  • June 14, 2024

    Acting NJ Banking Director Denied Title Due To Sex, Suit Says

    The former acting director of banking for the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance was denied the permanent role because of her gender and as retaliation for reporting pay discrepancies, according to a lawsuit filed in New Jersey state court.

  • June 14, 2024

    NJ Chief Justice Depo 'Redundant' In Pension Fight, Court Told

    The New Jersey judiciary urged the state court to deny a bid to depose Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in a suit brought by a former Superior Court judge over the denial of her disability pension application, arguing she can't meet the heightened burden required to depose a high-ranking official and that the chief justice's testimony is privileged.

  • June 14, 2024

    Littler Aims To End Theft Suit After $1M Deal With Ex-Firm Atty

    Littler Mendelson PC this week moved to drop a lawsuit accusing a former associate of stealing confidential documents following a settlement in which the firm agreed to pay her nearly $1 million, though a separate, newer case in which the lawyer accuses Littler of violating that deal remains open.

  • June 14, 2024

    Red State Challenge To EEOC Pregnant Worker Rule Falls Flat

    An Arkansas federal judge on Friday rejected a bid from a group of Republican state attorneys' general to freeze the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's rule implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ahead of its June 18 effective date, refusing to issue an injunction and ruling they lacked standing to invalidate the regulations. 

  • June 14, 2024

    Former IT Worker Wants Outright Win In FMLA Suit

    A former information technology worker asked a Florida federal court Friday to reconsider a win it denied him in his lawsuit alleging he was fired after he took medical leave to treat anxiety, arguing the court should have found his company acted illegally.

  • June 14, 2024

    Update On Ex-George Mason Prof's Suits Over Sex Allegations

    After two women came forward last August accusing former BigLaw partner, FTC commissioner and George Mason University law professor Joshua D. Wright of sexual improprieties with students and direct reports, a number of additional accusations and lawsuits followed. Here are updates on the litigation and everything else surrounding the allegations.

  • June 14, 2024

    Dunkin' Franchise Must Face Customer's Race Bias Suit

    An intermediate appellate court in Massachusetts on Friday revived part of a lawsuit brought by a Black customer of a Dunkin' franchise who says an employee deliberately ignored his order for 15 minutes, then threw his food at him and called him a racist epithet.

  • June 14, 2024

    Lockheed Worker Fired For Romantic Emails Claims Age Bias

    Lockheed Martin used romantic messages that a longtime engineer sent to a "high school sweetheart" over his company email as an excuse to get rid of him because he was 70 years old, the former worker told a California state court.

  • June 13, 2024

    Ex-Duke Doc Wants Panel To Redo Disability Bias Ruling

    A fired Duke University hospital doctor pressed a North Carolina state appeals court to reconsider not reviving the disability claims in his suit against the hospital, arguing that the case belongs before a jury.

  • June 13, 2024

    Seattle Port Presses Ex-Police Chief At Trial On HR Bashing

    The Port of Seattle confronted its former police chief on the stand Thursday in attempt to show it lawfully fired him for retaliating against an officer, presenting to jurors an email in which the ex-chief criticized the officer for complaining to HR, "the one place who would give him sanctuary."

  • June 13, 2024

    Canadian Businessman Cops To Stealing Tesla Trade Secrets

    A Canadian businessman residing in China pled guilty in New York federal court to scheming to sell secret battery manufacturing technology that belongs to Tesla, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

  • June 13, 2024

    Apple Workers' Suit Says Women Are Paid Less For Same Work

    A pair of Apple workers lodged a proposed class action in California state court Thursday claiming that the company has systematically paid thousands of women less than their male counterparts for substantially similar work for years.

  • June 13, 2024

    Alston & Bird Wins Bid To Arbitrate COVID Vax Claims

    Alston & Bird LLP can arbitrate a former aide's allegations that she was fired after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a Georgia federal judge ruled Thursday, putting the litigation on ice pending the outcome of arbitration.

  • June 13, 2024

    Bill Banning College Athletes As Workers Gets Committee Nod

    A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday moved new legislation that would prohibit classifying student-athletes as employees of any institution, conference or association to the floor for a vote, as the bill's sponsor pushed back at what he described as the influence of big labor.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Watch As Justices Consider Appeal Deadline Case

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    Next week, in Harrow v. U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider for the first time whether a statutory deadline for appealing from a federal agency to an Article III court is jurisdictional, setting the stage for a decision that could dramatically reshape the landscape for challenging agency decisions, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from consumer fraud to employment — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including coercive communications with putative class members and Article III standing at the class certification stage.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • What The NIL Negotiation Rules Injunction Means For NCAA

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent preliminary injunction reverses several prominent and well-established NCAA rules on negotiations with student-athletes over name, image and likeness compensation and shows that collegiate athletics is a profoundly unsettled legal environment, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • EEOC Case Reminds That Men Can Also Claim Pay Bias

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    The Maryland State Highway Administration recently settled U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that a male employee was paid less than his female colleagues, highlighting why employers should not focus on a particular protected class when it comes to assessing pay bias risk, say Barbara Grandjean and Audrey Merkel at Husch Blackwell.

  • 3 Litigation Strategies To Combat 'Safetyism'

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    Amid the rise of safetyism — the idea that every person should be free from the risk of harm or discomfort — among jurors and even judges, defense counsel can mount several tactics from the very start of litigation to counteract these views and blunt the potential for jackpot damages, says Ann Marie Duffy at Hollingsworth.

  • Takeaways From NLRB Advice On 'Outside' Employment

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    Rebecca Leaf at Miles & Stockbridge examines a recent memo from the National Labor Relations Board’s Division of Advice that said it’s unlawful for employers to restrict secondary or outside employment, and explains what companies should know about the use of certain restrictive covenants going forward.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Shaping Speech Policies After NLRB's BLM Protest Ruling

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    After the National Labor Relations Board decided last month that a Home Depot employee was protected by federal labor law when they wore a Black Lives Matter slogan on their apron, employers should consider four questions in order to mitigate legal risks associated with workplace political speech policies, say Louis Cannon and Cassandra Horton at Baker Donelson.

  • What To Know About Employee Retention Credit Disclosures

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    Employers that filed potentially erroneous employee retention credit claims should take certain steps to determine whether the IRS’ voluntary disclosure program is a good fit and, if so, prepare a strong application before the window closes on March 22, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • 2026 World Cup: Companies Face Labor Challenges And More

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    Companies sponsoring or otherwise involved with the 2026 FIFA World Cup — hosted jointly by the U.S., Canada and Mexico — should be proactive in preparing to navigate many legal considerations in immigration, labor management and multijurisdictional workforces surrounding the event, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • 5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers

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    Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.

  • Avoiding Jurisdictional Risks From Execs' Remote Work

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    Following a California federal court's recent decision in Evans v. Cardlytics — where the case was remanded to state court because the company’s executives worked remotely in California — there are several steps employers can take to ensure they will not be exposed to unfavored jurisdictions, says Eric Fox at Quarles & Brady.

  • 11th Circ. FMLA Ruling Deepens Divide Over Causation

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent ruling in Lapham v. Walgreen distinguishes the circuit as the loudest advocate for the but-for causation standard for assessing Family and Medical Leave Act retaliation claims, though employers in other jurisdictions may encounter less favorable standards and the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have to address the circuit split eventually, say attorneys at Benesch.

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