Labor & Employment

Lawyer Sues for Unpaid Bonuses After Big Wal-Mart Verdict

A lawyer who once worked for a San Francisco law firm that won a $172 million award against Wal-Mart claims in a lawsuit that she was never paid promised bonuses. Carolyn Burton claims in her suit against her former boss, Fred Furth, that she accepted a below-market salary with the…

Nov 15, 2007 12:15 PM CST

Judge Adds $49M in Atty Fees to Wal-Mart OT Bill; Total Nears $200M

A judge in Pennsylvania has awarded $49 million in attorney fees to plaintiffs counsel in a successful class action against the world’s biggest retailer over unpaid overtime, bringing the total judgment in the state court case to nearly $200 million. Including $10 million in interest that has accrued since an…

Nov 14, 2007 10:28 PM CST

Lawyer-Turned-Secretary Takes McGuireWoods Suit to Trial

A lawyer-turned-legal secretary who is suing McGuireWoods claims in a Maryland trial now under way that she was illegally fired for taking time off to care for her ailing mother. Nancy Adair said in her 2006 lawsuit that at the time of her firing she was working for Joseph Tirone…

Nov 14, 2007 3:45 PM CST

Fired Book Publisher Sues, Claims ‘Deliberate Smear Campaign’

Former book publisher Judith Regan, fired after her decision to publish a book by O.J. Simpson called If I Did It, claims in a lawsuit filed yesterday that she lost her job based on a trumped-up charge. The $100 million suit (PDF posted by the New York Times) also claims…

Nov 14, 2007 2:41 PM CST

Court Declines Civil Rights Case Against NCAA

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit that claims the NCAA colluded with a state university to defame a basketball coach. The coach’s lawsuit seeks to hold the private organization liable for civil rights violations because of its involvement with a state agency, SCOTUSblog…

Nov 13, 2007 5:08 PM CST

Lawyer’s Poems Nix Discrimination Case

An in-house intellectual property lawyer in the Worcester, Mass., office of a Pennsylvania company apparently wrote his way out of a job by sending four anonymous “sexually tinged” poems to a co-worker. Although David Bennett denied that he did so, company officials hired a private investigator to look into the…

Nov 12, 2007 5:17 PM CST

Ex-Partner Drops Freshfields Age Bias Claim

A former partner with London-based Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has dropped her age bias case following a ruling for the law firm on similar claim. Lois Moore had alleged that changes to the firm’s pension plan discriminated against older partners. Now she is unconditionally dropping all of her claims, Legal Week…

Nov 9, 2007 1:09 PM CST

House Approves Bill to Protect Gay Workers

The House has approved a bill to protect gay men and lesbians from employment discrimination. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he would introduce similar legislation in the Senate, the New York Times reports. Many Democrats expected President Bush to veto the bill, although a White House spokesman said no final…

Nov 8, 2007 11:37 AM CST

Former Freddie Mac CEO Settles for $16.4M

A few weeks into what was expected to be a lengthy trial before an administrative law judge, a former chairman and chief executive of Freddie Mac has agreed to settle his case for $16.4 million, without admitting liability. While a stunning sum, the $16.4 million is a fraction of the…

Nov 8, 2007 1:33 AM CST

Ex-Prosecutor Claims DA Fired Him for Being White

A former prosecutor in the Dallas County district attorney’s office has filed a suit that contends he was fired because he was white. Rick Jackson, who headed the organized crime unit, says he was one of 10 senior prosecutors fired in a shakeup by DA Craig Watkins, the Dallas Morning…

Nov 7, 2007 7:10 PM CST

BigLaw Firms End Mandatory Retirement

Another BigLaw firm has just announced that it will end its mandatory retirement program for lawyers, following a high-profile $27.5 million settlement in a law firm partner age discrimination case and an ABA recommendation against such policies. Effective immediately, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis will no longer require its…

Nov 7, 2007 6:13 PM CST

Big Interest in Form Employment Case

Interest in a U.S. Supreme Court employment case that focuses on an obscure issue is high after a decision last term that restricted the time frame for filing pay discrimination suits. The seats reserved for lawyers were nearly full when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the case,…

Nov 7, 2007 12:29 PM CST

Eager Job Hoppers May Face Suit for Taking Clients, Co-Workers

Those who switch jobs are increasingly facing lawsuits for trying to poach co-workers or clients before moving to a new employer. And sometimes the plaintiff is a law firm. The suits typically allege breach of fiduciary duty and do not necessarily rely on noncompete agreements, the Wall Street Journal reports…

Nov 6, 2007 3:47 PM CST

Wal-Mart and Fired Exec Drop Dueling Lawsuits

The mudslinging and the litigation that stemmed from a lawsuit by fired Wal-Mart marketing executive Julie Roehm appear to be drawing to a conclusion. Roehm has agreed to drop her suit and is admitting that some of her allegations concerning the store’s CEO and a Minnesota businessman turned out to…

Nov 5, 2007 2:15 PM CST

It’s Only Fair

ABA urges Congress to clarify filing rules for wage discrimination claims

Nov 1, 2007 9:06 PM CDT