Employment

  • July 29, 2026

    Seattle Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty In $1.4M Tax Case

    A Seattle restaurant owner pled guilty to willfully failing to pay more than $1.4 million in unemployment, Social Security and Medicare taxes, some of it withheld from his employees' paychecks, according to federal prosecutors and court documents.

  • July 29, 2026

    'Vibe Coding' Pushes Cos. To Rethink Copyright Protection

    As artificial intelligence takes on more software development projects, businesses embracing “vibe coding” are adapting to uncertain copyright protection by documenting engineers’ contributions, keeping humans involved in high-value projects and leaning more heavily on trade secrets.

  • July 29, 2026

    Tech Company Gets Sex Bias Suit Kicked To Arbitration

    A California federal judge said an ex-Tencent worker must arbitrate her claims that the company fired her after she complained that a male colleague sexually harassed her, ruling that the behavior she protested wasn't sufficiently severe or sexual in nature to trigger a law that could have kept her case in court.

  • July 29, 2026

    Insurer Says It Won't Cover $10M Bias Award Against HR Org.

    An insurance company urged a Virginia federal judge to rule that it doesn't have to cover a $10 million award won by a former Society for Human Resources Management employee who sued the association for race bias, arguing the applicable policy doesn't cover punitive damages based on deliberate actions.

  • July 29, 2026

    Judge Says Jet Co. Should Escape Sex, Pay Bias Claims

    A former private jet company executive failed to plausibly allege that she was denied a promotion, underpaid, subjected to a hostile workplace or forced to resign because she is a woman, a North Carolina federal magistrate judge said in recommending dismissal of her federal claims.

  • July 29, 2026

    Legal Aid Union Alleges Unlawful Incentives To Break Strike

    The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem union announced on the third workday of its strike Tuesday that it has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing its management of offering unlawful incentives to cross the picket line.

  • July 29, 2026

    Lowe's Coverage Row, NASCAR Team Tiff: NC Midyear Report

    The North Carolina courts are teeing up for a busy second half of 2026, including readying for a multimillion-dollar insurance trial with Lowe's and speeding through discovery in a high-profile trade secrets dispute involving former NFL coach Joe Gibbs' championship NASCAR team.

  • July 28, 2026

    11th Circ. Sides With Lockheed Martin In Toxic Exposure Suits

    The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday refused to disturb a Florida federal court's decision excluding testimony from plaintiffs' experts in a pair of suits claiming Lockheed Martin allowed toxic waste to leach into the area surrounding its Orlando facility, ruling that both experts' testimony fell short of evidentiary requirements.

  • July 28, 2026

    Houston's Race-Conscious Contracting Program Struck Down

    A Texas federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Houston's program awarding public contracts on a race-conscious basis violated the Fourteenth Amendment in the first federal challenge to such a program following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down affirmative action admissions policies.

  • July 28, 2026

    Baldoni's Studio Owes NYT $170K For Failed Defamation Suit

    "It Ends With Us" director and star Justin Baldoni's production company must pay The New York Times more than $170,000 after it defeated the studio's defamation claims, a New York state judge has ruled, saying the newspaper is entitled to recoup its legal fees.

  • July 28, 2026

    DHS Can't Undo Order Halting TSA Union Deal Cancellation

    A federal judge in Seattle denied the Trump administration's bid on Tuesday to lift a court order blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from canceling a collective bargaining agreement covering thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers, saying the government failed to debunk two independent grounds for the injunction.

  • July 28, 2026

    Amazon To Pay $2M To End Suit Over Rest Breaks In Wash.

    Amazon will pay $2 million to resolve Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go store workers' accusations that the e-commerce giant failed to provide them with meal and rest breaks required under Washington state law, according to a settlement given final approval by a Pierce County judge.

  • July 28, 2026

    1st Circ. Wary Of Reinstating 'Fork In The Road' Suit

    A First Circuit judge on Tuesday questioned the repercussions of a court nixing the Trump administration's deferred-resignation program more than a year after federal workers accepted the buyouts. 

  • July 28, 2026

    Ortho Practice Owes More Damages After Sex Bias Verdict

    A Pennsylvania-based orthopedic practice and a group of five female employees who accused the healthcare provider and its related entities of sex discrimination came to an agreement Tuesday on how much back and front pay should be awarded to the plaintiffs months after a federal jury awarded them $4.35 million.

  • July 28, 2026

    Union Pacific Won't Hire Drivers Using Opioid Meds, Suit Says

    Union Pacific Railroad Co. refuses to hire train drivers who take certain medications for opioid use disorder without evaluating their cases individually, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a proposed class action filed in Wisconsin federal court.

  • July 28, 2026

    Wash. Panel Upholds DoorDash's $14.5M Insurance Penalty

    DoorDash must pay $14.5 million in taxes and penalties for failing to pay its Dashers' industrial insurance premiums each quarter from 2017 to 2019, Washington appellate judges ruled Tuesday, finding the Dashers were covered workers under state law since their personal labor was the essence of their contracts.

  • July 28, 2026

    Counsel's Conduct Can't Decertify Server Class In Tips Suit

    A Connecticut state judge refused to decertify a class of steakhouse servers alleging they were shorted on wages for untipped work, ruling their attorney's emotional and unprofessional conduct did not cast serious doubt on the court's ability to reach a just outcome.

  • July 28, 2026

    3rd Circ. Upholds Alecto Health's Small-Biz Ch. 11 Plan

    The Third Circuit affirmed Tuesday that hospital owner Alecto Healthcare Services' streamlined Chapter 11 and the resulting plan confirmation withstood an appeal by a creditors' group.

  • July 28, 2026

    Flawed NLRB Protections Can't Stop Case, Texas Judge Says

    National Labor Relations Board members' and judges' job protections are unconstitutional, but these flaws don't block the agency from prosecuting labor violations, a Texas federal judge said in a decision splitting with a recent ruling from a different district.

  • July 28, 2026

    Judge Won't Enforce $25K Wage Deal With Ad Tech Co.

    A North Carolina federal judge has tossed a worker's bid to force his former employer to pay a $25,000 settlement, finding the court lacks the authority to enforce the agreement because it was never incorporated into a court order.

  • July 28, 2026

    Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

  • July 28, 2026

    Delta, EEOC Seek Approval For Pregnancy Bias Suit Deal

    Delta Air Lines Inc. will pay nearly $17,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging it unlawfully revoked a job offer from a worker who was prevented from completing a physical screening because she was pregnant, according to a filing in New York federal court.

  • July 28, 2026

    Charges Dropped Against SEIU Official Who Protested ICE

    Federal prosecutors in California have dropped charges against a Service Employees International Union official who was arrested after he blocked a police vehicle during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Los Angeles, according to a court filing.

  • July 28, 2026

    Ex-Comcast Worker Says Pie 'Assaults' Punished Low Sales

    Comcast Xfinity is being sued by a former Connecticut employee who says his retail store manager repeatedly ordered colleagues to tie her lowest-performing salespersons to a chair and then "violently" hit them in the face with a cream pie, allegedly as a shaming procedure to drive increased sales.

  • July 28, 2026

    1st Circ. Skeptical That JPMorgan AI Tool Broke Mass. Law

    A First Circuit panel appeared doubtful Tuesday that an artificial intelligence-powered applicant screening tool used by JPMorgan Chase & Co. constituted the kind of lie detector test that Massachusetts law bars employers from using in interviews. 

Expert Analysis

  • AI Recruiting Suit Shows Old Laws May Implicate New Tools

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    The Fair Credit Reporting Act allegations recently filed in Kistler v. Eightfold AI, are the latest example of broad definitional language in legacy statutes proving far more dangerous to companies deploying artificial intelligence – particularly in hiring – than any purpose-built artificial intelligence regulation, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • Pivotal 6th Circ. Ruling Threatens Decades Of NLRB Decisions

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Brown-Forman v. National Labor Relations Board fundamentally challenged the NLRB's long-standing practice of establishing policies through adjudication rather than formal rulemaking, giving employers and unions a new avenue to procedurally attack the vast majority of its rules, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • How Justices' GEO Ruling Resets Gov't Contractor Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent GEO Group v. Menocal decision, holding that government contractors cannot immediately exit cases via interlocutory appeals, may increase litigation costs, strengthen plaintiffs' leverage in settlement negotiations and dampen the government's ability to attract bids on high-risk or sensitive projects, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • What's Missing From Latest Gov't Claims Against Harvard

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    The most interesting thing about the Trump administration’s recent civil rights enforcement efforts targeting Harvard University is its decision not to assert violations of the False Claims Act when given the opportunity, despite signals that its enforcement efforts will include use of the federal FCA, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

  • Preparing For New Calif. Pay Data Reporting Requirements

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    California's S.B. 464 overhauls the state's pay data reporting framework by requiring employers to use job categories that are based on the Standard Occupational Classification system, increasing both the potential visibility of pay disparities and the complexity of compliance, say attorneys at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Pension Case Offers Entertainment Work Exception Insights

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    A recent Ninth Circuit decision clarified that any amount of entertainment work can satisfy the entertainment industry exception under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act, reinforcing that statutory language, rather than evolving business models, dictates withdrawal liability outcomes, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Justices May Hesitate To Limit Courts' Arbitration Review

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    Based on Monday's argument in Jules v. Andre Balazs, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to preserve federal jurisdiction over arbitral award enforcement stemming from actions originated in federal court, a holding that would markedly limit the court's 2022 Walters v. Badgerow decision, says Ashwini Jayaratnam at DarrowEverett.

  • Series

    Ultramarathons Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Completing a 100-mile ultramarathon was tougher, more humbling and more rewarding than I ever imagined, and the experience highlighted how long-distance running has sharpened my ability to adapt to the evolving nature of antitrust law and strengthened my resolve to handle demanding, unforeseen challenges, says Dan Oakes at Axinn.

  • Motorola Case Shows Reach Of NLRA Dishonesty Protections

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    A recent National Labor Relations Board case, involving a Motorola employee who was terminated for lying about discussing wages, illustrates the broad reach of National Labor Relations Act protections for concerted activity, which may take on new significance as the agency shifts toward more restrained enforcement, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Spotlight On Legal Battles Over EEOC Subpoena Powers

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    Attorneys at Wilson Elser consider the spate of litigation over the past year, spurred by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s focus on alleged religious discrimination at universities, and corporate diversity, equity and inclusion practices, and how it may affect the attempts to assert privacy rights against the agency's broad subpoena powers.

  • Getting The Most Out Of Learning And Development Programs

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Junior associates can better develop the legal, business and interpersonal skills they need for long-term success by approaching their firms’ learning and development programs armed with five tips for getting the most out of these resources, says Lauren Hakala at Reed Smith.

  • Opinion

    AI Presents A Make-Or-Break Moment For Outside Counsel

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    The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by corporate legal departments is forcing a long-overdue reset of the relationship between inside and outside counsel, and introducing a significant opportunity to shed frustrating inefficiencies and strengthen collaboration for firms willing to embrace the shift, says Intel Chief Legal Officer April Miller Boise.

  • NFL Hiring Bias Ruling Signals Trend Away From Arbitration

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    A New York federal court's recent decision in Flores v. NFL, declining to compel arbitration in a class action alleging racial discrimination in the league's hiring practices, reflects courts' increasing reluctance to allow private dispute resolution for systemic discrimination claims, says Masood Ali at Segal McCambridge.

  • Series

    Watching Hallmark Movies Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    I realize you may be judging me for watching, and actually enjoying, Hallmark Channel movies, but the escapism and storylines actually demonstrate qualities and actions that lead to an efficient, productive and positive legal practice, says Karen Ross at Tucker Ellis.

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