2nd Circ. Calls Starbucks' Union Discovery Order 'Overbroad'

By Gina Kim

The Second Circuit on Wednesday revived the National Labor Relations Board's suit seeking to halt Starbucks' alleged labor violations nationwide, finding that the lower court erred in tossing the suit for noncompliance with its "overbroad" discovery order granting the coffee chain's subpoenas seeking confidential union intel and workers' communications.

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Toss Of Bonus Bias Claim Too Short On Details, 5th Circ. Says

By Grace Elletson

The Fifth Circuit has reinstated a Hispanic salesman's claim that he was denied $160,000 in bonuses by a construction contractor out of racial bias after he was fired, ruling the lower court didn't adequately explain why it nixed that allegation.

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NLRB Attys Fight Union Sanctions In Strike Replacement Case

By Tim Ryan

A U.S. Department of Justice attorney urged the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday to reject a union's bid to sanction National Labor Relations Board attorneys in a case over labor law violations at a quarry, saying the contention that the union waived a key argument doesn't warrant such an "extreme measure."

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DoorDash Inks Deal To End NY AG's Conviction Bias Claims

By Bonnie Eslinger

DoorDash has reached a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James to resolve allegations that the food delivery platform regularly rejected applicants with criminal histories without considering factors such as the nature of the conviction and its bearing on the job sought, the law enforcement official's office announced Wednesday.

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Last-Mile Amazon Driver Does Interstate Work, Panel Says

By Abby Wargo

A driver for a logistics company who primarily made local deliveries for Amazon was engaged in interstate commerce and thus exempt from mandatory arbitration, a California appeals court has held, saying the worker's wage and hour claims can remain in state court.

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'Pissed Off,' 'You Need To Go': Reps Rip FDIC's Gruenberg

By Jon Hill

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg took withering, bipartisan criticism over his agency's workplace misconduct scandal at a House hearing on Wednesday, although no new Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in directly calling for his resignation.

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AstraZeneca Sales Reps Win Early Cert. In Gender Bias Suit

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday granted a bid by workers to conditionally certify a collective in a lawsuit alleging AstraZeneca paid women less than men, giving the green light for notices to be sent out to female sales representatives who have worked at the pharmaceutical giant since late 2018.

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Fees Sought For Missed Depo During Atty's Solar Eclipse Trip

By Lynn LaRowe

In following up on a Florida federal judge's sanctioning of a lawyer whose client missed a deposition while the attorney was solar eclipse viewing, AAA is asking the court to award it more than $7,800 in fees and costs as it fights a gender discrimination lawsuit.

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EEOC Suit Over Vax Refuser's Firing Survives Dismissal Bid

By Patrick Hoff

Arkansas-based Hank's Furniture Inc. must face a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit claiming it unlawfully fired a Christian manager who refused the COVID-19 vaccine, with a Florida federal judge ruling the agency plausibly alleged her beliefs conflicted with the company's inoculation policy.

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Daimler Settles Worker's Suit Claiming Pot Test Got Him Fired

By Grace Elletson

Daimler Truck North America LLC has settled an employee's New Jersey federal court suit claiming he was illegally fired over a positive cannabis test following an accident in a company vehicle, even though he wasn't found at fault for the incident, according to a Wednesday court filing.

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Staffing Co. Settles Claims It Spurned Immigrant's Work Docs

By Alyssa Aquino

A medical staffing company agreed to improve employee anti-discrimination training to resolve allegations that it fired an immigrant employee, after refusing to accept valid evidence that she could work in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

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Securities Firm Cuts Deal To End Age Bias Suit

By Emmy Freedman

A securities firm struck a deal with a former sales representative in his 60s who accused the company of firing him despite his laudable performance and replacing him with two younger, less-experienced workers, a filing in Colorado federal court said.

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WWE Says $3M Deal Sends McMahon Sex Suit To Arbitration

By Mike Curley

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. is joining a bid by former CEO Vincent McMahon to send a suit from a woman accusing him and the organization of sex trafficking and harassment to arbitration, saying she agreed to and signed a $3 million separation agreement that includes an arbitration clause.

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Knicks Owner Must Face Sexual Assault Suit, Accuser Says

By Elaine Briseño

A massage therapist has urged a California federal court to not let New York Knicks owner James Dolan out of her lawsuit accusing him of coercing her into a sexual relationship, saying she sufficiently claimed that he forced himself on her despite her refusals.

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Fired NC County Atty Launches Race Bias Suit

By Travis Bland

A former Pitt County, North Carolina, government attorney has alleged in a federal lawsuit that the county manager's racial animus and the lawyer's concerns about contracting compliance got him fired after only 90 days on the job.

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Mass. Senate Aide Alleges Retaliation After Bias Complaint

By Julie Manganis

A constituent services aide to a Massachusetts state senator is alleging that the lawmaker and his former chief of staff stonewalled his requests for accommodation after a leg injury left him unable to climb stairs, then iced him out after he filed a complaint with the state's anti-discrimination agency.

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Wage Damages Update Isn't Retroactive, NJ Justices Say

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held an amendment to the state's wage laws adding liquidated damages and extending the statute of limitations should only be applied to conduct that occurred after its effective date, backing the dismissal of some claims brought by laborers alleging unpaid pre- and post-shift work.

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Georgia Justices Weigh State Immunity In Trooper's Wage Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

Georgia's Department of Public Safety urged the state's highest court on Wednesday to undo a Georgia Court of Appeals decision that revived a state trooper's suit alleging that the department failed to pay him owed overtime for time spent in training, arguing that the state never waived its sovereign immunity privilege.

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IT Recruiters Pursue Win Against Staffing Co. In OT Class Suit

By Emily Brill

Recruiters for tech staffing company TEKsystems have asked a California federal judge to award them a pretrial win on their claim that the company misclassified them, saying recruiters are entry-level employees, not managers, so they don't qualify for the narrow exemption to California's overtime statute.

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Worker Updates Boot-Up Suit After Judge Axes State Claims

By Danielle Ferguson

A former call center worker on Tuesday lodged an amended class action complaint seeking boot-up time wages from a home healthcare company, raising only federal claims after a Michigan federal judge earlier this year stripped state law allegations from the suit.

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Chancery Nixes BuzzFeed Worker Arbitration Bid

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed from an arbitration access dispute on Wednesday 85 BuzzFeed Media Enterprises employees who sued for arbitration of a stock conversion right, rejecting claims that company employment agreements require Delaware courts to handle the issue.

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Noncompete Rule Challenge Gets More Backing

By Matthew Perlman

A slew of business groups have thrown their support behind a challenge of the Federal Trade Commission's sweeping ban on noncompete clauses for employees, saying the rule relies on "cherrypicked" data to back a policy preferred by the FTC's majority.

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Tesla Fires Back At Claims It Bullied Retired Law Professor

By Alison Knezevich

Tesla has pushed back against allegations that it tried to bully a retired law professor out of weighing in on an investor suit over CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan, according to new filings in Delaware.

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Pet Telehealth Startup Canned Vet After Bite Injury, Suit Says

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts veterinarian says she was lured to a mobile pet care startup but replaced months later by a younger vet after she claimed workers' compensation for a dog bite suffered on the job.

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Why Employers Shouldn't Overreact To Protest Activities

Recent decisions from the First Circuit in Kinzer v. Whole Foods and the National Labor Relations Board in Home Depot hold eye-opening takeaways about which employee conduct is protected as "protest activity" and make a case for fighting knee-jerk reactions that could result in costly legal proceedings, says Frank Shuster at Constangy.

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Series

Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

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BCLP Sues St. Louis Over City Taxes On Partners' Income

By Kevin Penton

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP is suing St. Louis, Missouri, after the Midwestern city accused the firm of being delinquent on nearly $275,000 in earnings taxes, contending the municipality unlawfully taxed partners who don't live in the city, according to its court filing.

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Calif. Bar Halts Plans To Develop New Bar Exam

By Ryan Boysen

The State Bar of California has shelved a plan to develop its own online bar exam, a shift that could save the cash-strapped organization up to $4 million per year, but drew opposition from law school deans concerned about its ambitious rollout timeline.

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Analysis

Thomas, Alito: Two Originalists, Two Takes On CFPB Case

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — often birds of a feather — butted heads Thursday over the original meaning and purpose of the U.S. Constitution's appropriations clause in a decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme, highlighting what experts describe as the pair's different approaches to originalism.

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Democrats Prod Justice Thomas on RV Loan, Tax Treatment

By Anna Scott Farrell

Two Senate Democrats have asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' attorney to respond to what they called a failure to answer their questions about the justice's $267,000 loan from a healthcare industry executive to finance a luxury recreational vehicle, saying the loan treatment could have violated federal tax laws.

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Investigate Pro-Gaza Reddit Post, GOP Pols Tell USPTO

By Andrew Karpan

An anonymous Reddit post purportedly from a patent examiner confessing "mixed feelings" about issuing a patent to an Israeli defense contractor, citing the country's ongoing bombardment of Gaza, has attracted the attention of Republicans in Congress and the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office herself.

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Senate Confirms South Dakota State Judge To Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 90-4 on Thursday to confirm Judge Camela C. Theeler to the District of South Dakota.

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Coverage Recap: Day 14 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

By Stewart Bishop

Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from Thursday, day 14 of the trial.

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Menendez Bribery Case Criminalizes Gifts, Jury Told

By Carla Baranauckas

Prosecutors are trying to criminalize friendship, gifts and advocacy, the counsel for one of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's co-defendants said Thursday in an opening statement in the corruption trial in Manhattan federal court.

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Judge Calls Out 'Cancel Culture' In Prof's Suit Against Penn

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge said University of Pennsylvania leaders embraced "cancel culture" when they chastised an anthropology professor for handling remains from the 1985 MOVE house bombing in Philadelphia, allowing the professor's defamation case against the school to move forward.

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Roche Freedman Gets Split Ruling On Witnesses In Atty's Suit

By Andrea Keckley

A New York federal judge has issued a split decision on witness testimony in a dispute over the litigation boutique formerly called Roche Freedman.

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11th Circ. Tries To Untangle Aftermath Of Judge's Early Exit

By Ivan Moreno

An Eleventh Circuit panel on Thursday quizzed attorneys for rival breeders of disease-resistant shrimp about whether a $10 million trade-secrets jury verdict should be overturned after a federal magistrate judge presided over the trial's ending because a federal district judge had to catch a flight, with one of the panel judges saying the parties had been put "in a very difficult position."

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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

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