Employment

  • October 16, 2026

    Employment Authority: Data Centers Divide Labor Unions

    Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on divisions within the labor movement over data center regulation, what the U.S. Department of Labor's top lawyer told a room of attorneys and what recent lawsuits reveal about protections for pregnant workers.

  • October 16, 2026

    Target Can't Nix Wash. Workers' Unpaid Walking Time Claims

    Target must face proposed class claims that it shortchanged distribution center workers on wages for minutes spent passing through security checkpoints and walking to their departments each shift, a Washington federal judge said Friday, finding the plaintiffs had shown the time qualified as "on duty."

  • October 16, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Religious Org. Can't Invoke Bias Law Carveout

    A split Fourth Circuit panel refused Friday to disturb a trial court's ruling that a religious humanitarian nonprofit violated discrimination laws by nixing health insurance coverage for a gay employee's husband, saying the employer was pushing for "nearly unbounded immunity."

  • October 16, 2026

    Could A Criminal Sentencing Case Upend Loper Bright?

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is concerned that a ruling instructing trial courts to defer to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines could blow a "pretty big hole" in the court's recent rejection of deference doctrines. His colleagues, however, don't appear as perturbed.

  • October 16, 2026

    Ex-Legal Tech Co. Exec Says Pregnancy Got Her Fired

    A legal technology company abruptly fired its director of partnerships after it learned she was pregnant, and has since withheld a nearly $40,000 bonus, according to a lawsuit lodged in New Jersey state court.

  • October 16, 2026

    Gap Workers In Wash. Sue Over Unpaid OT, Missed Breaks

    Gap and Athleta were hit with a proposed class action in Washington state court alleging that the retail giants failed to pay hourly employees with overtime wages and also failed to ensure that they took the meal and rest breaks they were entitled to.

  • October 16, 2026

    Pitt Can't Appeal Due Process Loss In Professor's Suit

    The University of Pittsburgh cannot immediately appeal a ruling that it violated a tenured professor's due process rights by suspending him without pay for a year and removing him from an endowed chair, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.

  • October 16, 2026

    Fired Atlanta Golf Club Worker Says Age Cost Him His Job

    A country club in Atlanta has been hit with an age discrimination suit in Georgia federal court by an ex-worker who alleges he was fired and replaced by someone younger after reporting his former boss for mistreating him.

  • October 16, 2026

    She Has A Point: Munger Tolles' Carolyn Luedtke

    Munger Tolles & Olson LLP partner Carolyn Hoecker Luedtke has been great at providing sound judgment during trade secret litigation between top artificial intelligence companies, according to Jessica Kaempf of Fenwick & West LLP.

  • October 15, 2026

    Ex-FBI Agents Claim Trump's Vendetta Led To Firings

    Ex-FBI agents and analysts who investigated President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents sued FBI Director Kash Patel in D.C. federal court Thursday, alleging Patel unconstitutionally fired them after a video of him drinking went viral to get back in Trump's good graces and "to satisfy the president's personal vendetta."

  • October 15, 2026

    Ex-Microsoft Manager Says Her Bias Complaints Led To Firing

    A former Microsoft Corp. engineering manager sued the tech giant in Washington state court Wednesday over claims the company eliminated her role after she raised concerns about race and gender discrimination against women of color.

  • October 15, 2026

    Wash. Justices Doubt Prosecutor Immunity In Judge DQ Case

    Washington Supreme Court justices pushed back Thursday on assertions by a county prosecutor's office that it's immune from claims that it improperly used disqualification affidavits to remove a former judge from its cases, with one justice noting that a line-level prosecutor acknowledged an officewide policy to seek disqualification of the judge.

  • October 15, 2026

    Texas Appeals Court Says Perot VC Suit Belongs In Biz Court

    A Texas appellate court on Thursday found that a multimillion-dollar suit brought by a Dallas businessman against billionaire Ross Perot Jr. belongs in the Texas Business Court, saying the businessman's claims arose from the sale of a healthcare company.

  • October 15, 2026

    Ex-Racing Director Says Deleted Texts Don't Merit Sanctions

    The former competition director for NASCAR superteam Joe Gibbs Racing LLC said his "candor" should save him from sanctions after he admitted to deleting text messages with the owner of a rival team before his old employer sued him for trade secrets theft.

  • October 15, 2026

    Fighters Resist Funding Inquiry In UFC Wage Antitrust Case

    A group of MMA fighters suing the UFC over alleged wage-fixing are resisting the organization's attempt to obtain information about the fighters' litigation funding, casting the effort as a distraction from their lawsuit.

  • October 15, 2026

    Colo. Aerospace Co. Fabricated $40M Programs, Ex-COO Says

    The former chief operating officer of an aerospace company told a Colorado state court Wednesday that the company tricked him into accepting the role by presenting him with investor projections and sales figures based on fraudulent programs.

  • October 15, 2026

    No Sanctions Over Lost Evidence In Tax Software Dispute

    A Pennsylvania federal court won't sanction tax software company Avalara Inc. for destroying evidence in an employee poaching suit brought by a rival, as the judge adopted a special master's findings that the rival couldn't show the missing evidence harmed its case.

  • October 15, 2026

    Norfolk Southern On The Hook For $1.6M In Age Bias Suit

    An Alabama federal judge entered final judgment Thursday in favor of a former longtime Norfolk Southern worker who claimed the Atlanta-based company and two subsidiaries violated federal age discrimination law by forcing him out of his job, cementing a jury's $1.6 million verdict for the worker.

  • October 15, 2026

    Dog Hotel Accused Of Denying Pay For Off-Clock Work

    A dog hotel chain failed to pay workers for time spent waiting to clock in, assisting customers and working through meal breaks, according to a proposed class action in California state court.

  • October 15, 2026

    11th Circ. Backs Allegiant Win Over Race Bias, Retaliation Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused to reopen a Black former Allegiant Airlines employee's suit alleging she was fired for complaining to the CEO that white colleagues were harassing her and making racist jokes, finding she only contacted the executive after she was caught lying about an altercation with a co-worker.

  • October 15, 2026

    Josh Cellars Cos. Say Court, Not Jury, Must Decide Defenses

    Entities that help manage and market Josh Cellars wines say a Connecticut state judge, not a jury, must decide fairness defenses in former company president Thomas Steffanci's bid for millions in royalties, urging the judge to decline Steffanci's request to revisit a September order as a November trial date looms.

  • October 15, 2026

    Earth Sues Ex-CEO Over Walmart Business, Arbitration

    Earth Enterprises Inc. and two affiliated investment entities have sued former company chief Philippe Meynard in the Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to block him from expanding a Massachusetts arbitration while also accusing him of hiding the loss of Walmart business before a 2021 sale and later putting his own interests ahead of Earth Enterprises. 

  • October 15, 2026

    Union Can't Arbitrate Quarrel Over Kraft Retiree Benefits

    A Delaware federal judge blocked a Teamsters union from arbitrating claims that the Kraft Heinz Company improperly withheld health benefits from retirees, ruling the parties' collective bargaining agreement makes clear that the dispute must be resolved through different means.

  • October 15, 2026

    Union Illegally Rejected Member's Resignation, Ruling Says

    A Michigan electrical workers union has unlawfully refused to accept a member's resignation and fined him more than $6,000 for starting his own contracting business, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled.

  • October 15, 2026

    Gov't Urges Justices To Reject Google, Intel Fight Over Fintiv

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Intel Corp. and Google LLC's challenge to a precedent allowing Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions to be denied based on related litigation.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Cultivating Good Judgment

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    Law schools generally overlook the role that solid judgment skills play in real-world practice, but attorneys can bridge the gap by strengthening their abilities to assess a case’s strengths and weaknesses, develop and execute effective strategies, and provide clear recommendations to clients, says Manny Caixeiro at Venable.

  • 5th Circ. Ruling Hints At Loper Bright's Effect On OSHA Suits

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Exxon Mobil v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission relied on Loper Bright to narrow the scope of illnesses that employers must record, signaling that courts may continue to scrutinize agency assertions that deference is due, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • What Trial Teams Should Know About AI Jury Research Tools

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    Using artificial intelligence for jury research is quickly becoming part of the litigation consulting landscape, and can be a useful part of a case assessment toolkit — but litigators must understand what these systems are built to measure, and what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from their output, say Bill Kanasky and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

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    The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

  • OpenAI Deal Highlights AI Hiring Risks In PERM Process

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlement of allegations that OpenAI discriminated against U.S. applicants for positions connected to the permanent labor certification process underscores that employers providing or using artificial intelligence must align their recruitment practices with their overlapping compliance obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Series

    Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

  • Expert Witness's ChatGPT Use Highlights New AI Risks

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    An expert witness's recent use of ChatGPT in multidistrict litigation involving 3M to formulate most of his opinion illustrates the lack of clear rules for how an expert may use generative AI in an opinion, expanding both offensive and defensive discovery considerations, says David Shargel at Bracewell.

  • The Future Of DOL Judge Removal Challenges After Slaughter

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Slaughter calls into question whether U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judges exercising significant governmental authority remain insulated from presidential removal, but the answer depends on the governing statute, its severability provisions and other factors, says Mark Ishu at Conn Maciel.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Lays Out Administrative Right-Of-Access Blueprint

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    In Civil Rights Corps v. LaSalle, the Second Circuit recently held that the First Amendment dictates a presumptive right of access to sealed attorney grievance proceedings, providing a framework for challenging other administrative regimes that operate behind closed doors, says Jonathan Ginsberg at Carlton Fields.

  • How Rogue AI May Shape Corporate Liability, Responsibility

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    Recent artificial intelligence cyber incidents offer a window into how companies deploying autonomous systems should document risk controls even when systems exceed their intended boundaries, as jurors may treat unexpected AI conduct as foreseeable evidence of inadequate safeguards, says Jorge Monroy at Verdict Insight Partners.

  • Meta Layoff Suit Serves As Early Test Of AI Bias Claims

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    A lawsuit in California federal court alleging that Meta's use of artificial intelligence in recent layoffs negatively affected employees on protected leave provides insight for plaintiffs about what evidence to preserve and how to build these discrimination claims, says Manny Starr at Frontier Law Center.

  • 11th Circ. FCA Qui Tam Revival Queues Up Next Challenges

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    Though the Eleventh Circuit on Sept. 1 upheld the constitutionality of the False Claims Act's qui tam provision, it will probably face continued litigation since the appellate court declined to rule on other constitutional challenges and the decision will likely be petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Series

    Ballet Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of learning and performing ballet taught me that success — whether in dance or practicing law — comes only through hours of thorough preparation, boundless energy and relentless effort, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.

  • AI Prompt-Injection Hacking Creates Emerging Legal Risks

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    Last month, the first decision sanctioning a prompt-injection attack aimed at a U.S. court highlights the risks that this tactic — attempting to manipulate artificial intelligence systems by hiding invisible instructions in a document — poses for trade secrets, patent prosecution and other areas, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • Rejection Of NLRB Successor Bar Renews An Employer Tool

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    Although the D.C. Circuit's recent ruling in Hospital Menonita v. National Labor Relations Board does not allow purchasers to disregard incumbent unions, employers acquiring a unionized business have regained a tool to challenge a union's majority support, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

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