DC Circ. Boots Retired EPA Director's Age Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

The D.C. Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a suit from a retired U.S. Environmental Protection Agency director who said she was pushed into a junior role to make way for younger workers, finding she couldn't pursue the case because she didn't lose benefits or pay.

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Remote Atty Is No Reason For Mistrial, 10th Circ. Says

By Emily Sawicki

In a published opinion Tuesday, a Tenth Circuit panel ruled that the remote court appearance of a plaintiff's attorney who contracted COVID-19 was not grounds to declare a mistrial after a Black utility worker lost his Title VII workplace discrimination case in Kansas, finding that the plaintiff could not show that he was prejudiced by his lead counsel's absence.

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NLRB Signals Appeal Of Joint Employer Rule Spat To 5th Circ.

By Beverly Banks

The National Labor Relations Board is fighting a Texas federal judge's decision striking down the board's 2023 joint employer rule, telling the court on Tuesday that the agency will appeal the ruling to the Fifth Circuit.

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Starbucks Can't End Investor Suit Over Union-Busting Stance

By Rachel Riley

A Washington state judge won't toss a shareholder suit accusing Starbucks' corporate leadership of diminishing stock values by allowing store managers to quash baristas' organizing efforts.

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FDIC Review Flags 'Patriarchal' Workplace, Chief's 'Temper'

By Jon Hill

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s workplace culture has suffered "far too long" from sexual harassment, discrimination and other abuses that higher-ups failed to adequately address, according to a report released Tuesday that is drawing renewed calls for FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg's exit.

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7th Circ. Ruling Imperils Anonymity In NCAA, Netflix Cases

By Rose Krebs

Anonymous plaintiffs suing the NCAA and Netflix in separate cases in Indiana federal court must explain why they should be allowed to keep their identities hidden following a recent Seventh Circuit ruling that established "a stringent standard" relating to anonymity, a magistrate judge has ruled.

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Gov't Enforcement Concerns Employers, Littler Report Finds

By Irene Spezzamonte

Almost three-quarters of U.S. employers share great concern over the impact the U.S. Department of Labor's and the National Labor Relations Board's enforcement actions will have on their businesses, according to a survey Littler Mendelson PC released Wednesday.

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NJ Justices Say Survivor Gag Orders Flout #MeToo Law

By George Woolston

A nondisparagement clause in a former New Jersey police sergeant's settlement agreement resolving sex discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation claims against her former employer is against public policy and unenforceable, the New Jersey Supreme Court held on Tuesday.

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10th Circ. Finds 'Religious Animus' In School's Vaccine Rules

By Daniel Ducassi

The Tenth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the University of Colorado System's policies regarding COVID-19 vaccine exemptions violated constitutional religious liberty protections, saying its rules were motivated by "religious animus" and should have been blocked by a trial court.

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Google Says Exec's Firing Based On Behavior, Not Bias

By Emmy Freedman

Google urged a New York federal court to toss a lawsuit from a former executive who said he was fired for being a white man, arguing his termination came because he threw a raucous, alcohol-fueled party at his lake house despite receiving prior warnings about bad behavior.

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Ohio City Escapes Police Officer's Age Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

An Ohio city on Tuesday defeated a lawsuit from a police officer who claimed he was fired because he was in his 50s, with a federal judge finding he had a record of policy violations that a younger colleague did not.

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5th Circ. Urged To Reject Challenge To Board Diversity Rule

By Jessica Corso

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund urged the Fifth Circuit not to upend a Nasdaq Stock Market rule meant to encourage corporate board diversity, saying in a brief Monday that the rule's opponents have staked out a "radical" position on the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution that threatens to "entrench ... barriers to opportunity."

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Ex-LSU Director Denied New Trial Bid In Bias Suit

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

A former associate athletic director cannot revive her suit claiming that Louisiana State University fired her after she reported sex- and race-based discrimination and harassment, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that the former director failed to show that her termination was caused by her reporting of the discrimination.

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Hospital Can't Force Nurse's Retaliation Suit Into Arbitration

By Grace Elletson

A Texas appellate court said Tuesday that a former nurse does not have to arbitrate claims that she was fired after reporting that a patient slapped her buttock, stating that a recently enacted federal law barring sexual assault-related claims from out-of-court resolutions applies to her case.

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DOJ Tells High Court To Undo 4th Circ. OT Carveout Ruling

By Abby Wargo

Employers need only adhere to a less stringent standard in proving whether a worker is overtime-exempt, the U.S. Department of Justice told the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday in support of the reversal of a Fourth Circuit ruling that sales workers didn't fit the carveout's guidelines.

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NYC Eatery Asks 2nd Circ. To Undo Revival Of Workers' Suit

By Emlyn Cameron

A New York City restaurant operator urged the Second Circuit Tuesday to reject a lower court finding that its workers' federal wage claims may be cut from their class action but can also be reinstated if the appeals court were to vacate their state wage claims, insisting the decision is unfair.

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Apple, Amazon Accused Of Shorting Background Actors

By Abby Wargo

Apple TV and Amazon Studios LLC failed to pay background actors their full overtime wages, denied them meal breaks and forced them to cover work-related expenses, a former actor for the studios said in two proposed class actions filed in California state court.

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Starbucks Wants NLRB Injunction Bid To Wait On High Court

By Emily Brill

A Michigan federal judge should wait on deciding whether to issue an injunction against Starbucks in a wrongful firing case out of Ann Arbor, the company argued, saying the U.S. Supreme Court must first decide a case concerning how injunctions are dispensed to National Labor Relations Board prosecutors.

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Tax Software Co. Still Can't Trim Rival's Trade Secrets Suit

By Anna Bongardino

A corporate-focused tax preparation software company still can't pare back a suit alleging that it poached workers from its rival's recently acquired company, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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Fisher Phillips Adds Ex-Lyons HR GC To Employment Group

By Emily Johnson

Employer-side labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips has brought on the former general counsel and senior vice president of human resources for professional employer organization Lyons HR to its Atlanta office, strengthening its professional employer organization and staffing practice.

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Sidley Brings On Wilson Sonsini Employment Pro In Palo Alto

By Lynn LaRowe

Sidley Austin LLP has boosted its labor and employment practice with a partner joining from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC who boasts more than a decade of experience handling employment-related matters in Silicon Valley.

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Ogletree Adds Shareholder In Detroit From Miller Canfield

By Emma Cueto

Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has added a labor and employment partner from Michigan firm Miller Canfield Paddock & Stone PLC to its Detroit office, the firm announced Tuesday.

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Justices' Title VII Ruling Requires Greater Employer Vigilance

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Muldrow v. St. Louis ruling expands the types of employment decisions that can be challenged under Title VII, so employers will need to carefully review decisions that affect a term, condition or privilege of employment, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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FTC Noncompete Rule May Still Face Historical Hurdles

The Federal Trade Commission's final rule banning noncompetes might face challenges that could have been avoided with more cautious consideration of the commission's long history of failed lawsuits that went beyond the agency's statutory authority, as well as the mountain of judicial precedent justifying noncompete agreements in employment contracts, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

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Northeast Firms Harris Beach, Murtha Cullina To Join Forces

By Christine DeRosa

Midsize law firms Harris Beach PLLC and Murtha Cullina LLP on Tuesday announced plans to combine starting next year, creating one firm with a footprint across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and nearby states.

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Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Susman's Brook, Shackelford

By Sydney Price

Susman Godfrey LLP attorneys Davida Brook and Stephen Shackelford Jr. learned very early on in their working relationship that they needed to trust each other. That concept, they say, has been foundational to their success as defamation attorneys, and those who have worked alongside them say everyone else has reason to trust them, too.

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Florida Judge Delays Trump's Classified Docs Trial Indefinitely

By David Minsky

The Florida judge overseeing the criminal case that accuses former President Donald Trump of holding onto classified documents upon leaving office extended indefinitely the planned May 20 start of the trial, citing "myriad and interconnected pretrial" issues regarding the Classified Information Procedures Act, according to a federal court order filed on Tuesday.

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Stormy Daniels Tells NY Jury 'Fear' Drove Hush Money Deal

By Frank G. Runyeon, Stewart Bishop and Rachel Scharf

Adult film star Stormy Daniels detailed for a Manhattan jury on Tuesday how a sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 led to an alleged $130,000 hush money payment in 2016, describing how it was "fear and not money" that led her to make the deal.

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Coverage Recap: Day 9 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

By Rachel Scharf, Stewart Bishop and Frank Runyeon

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 to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from day nine.

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Prepetition Waivers Sway Invitae Judge On Kirkland Hire

By Vince Sullivan

A New Jersey bankruptcy judge approved the retention of Kirkland & Ellis LLP as bankruptcy counsel for debtor Invitae Corp. Tuesday, the same day he approved a $239 million sale of its assets to Labcorp.

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Atty Dons Muppet Head To Open Sesame Place Race Bias Trial

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A federal jury in Philadelphia on Tuesday gazed at the googly eyes and blue fur of an attorney who donned the head of Sesame Street's Grover to tell them that performers wearing the fluorescent bodysuits of other beloved Muppets discriminated against children at a Pennsylvania theme park because of the color of their skin.

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