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DOL Benefits Arm Needs Turnaround, Nominee Tells Senators

By Kellie Mejdrich

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits division told a Senate panel Thursday to prepare for an overhaul of the subagency if he's confirmed, vowing to change the direction of enforcement, regulation and more.

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9th Circ. Broadens Test For ERISA Claim Releases

By Craig Clough

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday reversed a finding that releases signed by two former microchip manufacturer employees bar them from leading a class action over claims the company illegally revoked its severance program, finding that the court should consider whether the company breached its fiduciary duty in obtaining the releases.

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Liberty Mutual Must Face Retirement Plan Class Action

By Patrick Hoff

Liberty Mutual can't knock out a class action claiming it saddled its employee 401(k) plan with high fees and deficient investment options, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled Thursday, saying workers had demonstrated the company's actions cost them money.

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Attorney's FMLA Suit Against Va. City Headed To Trial

By Irene Spezzamonte

A former Virginia city assistant attorney's Family and Medical Leave Act suit against the chief city prosecutor will head to trial, a federal judge said Thursday, ruling that there is an open question over whether firing the attorney was a pretext to not grant a leave request.

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Justices Fault Wis. For Denying Tax Break To Charities

By Maria Koklanaris

Wisconsin discriminated against a group of Catholic charities when it denied them an unemployment tax exemption, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday, rejecting the state's argument that the charities were not operated primarily for religious purposes.

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4 AGs Urge FDA To Lift Abortion Pill Restrictions

By Rae Ann Varona

Attorneys general from California, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey on Thursday urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lift restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, saying they aren't necessary under statutory requirements for an FDA drug safety program.

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Red States Double Down On Bid To Stymie Trans Health Rule

By Hayley Fowler

More than a dozen Republican attorneys general challenging a Biden-era rule that protected gender-affirming care under the Affordable Care Act said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can't keep the rule on the books just because the new administration is unlikely to enforce it.

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CVS Sued Over Health Plan's Tobacco, Spousal Surcharges

By Gina Kim

A CVS employee brought the pharmacy retailer into California state court Wednesday alleging in a proposed class action it discriminatorily imposes illegal surcharges to its health insurance participants who use tobacco or want to add their spouses to their plans as dependents, in violation of state and federal benefits laws.

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Walgreens Says No Standing In Suit Over Tobacco Surcharge

By Mike Curley

Walgreens is urging an Illinois federal court to throw out a suit from an employee alleging it illegally imposes a tobacco surcharge on employees in its healthcare program, saying the program complies with federal regulations, and the employee has no standing because she declined to participate in the program.

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'Sparse' OPM Record On Mass Firings Backs Win, Unions Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

A "sparse and self-serving" record provided by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management still shows the agency unlawfully directed federal agencies to fire probationary employees en masse, so a California federal court can reach a final decision now and "unwind" those terminations, a coalition including unions and advocacy groups said Thursday.

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NJ Judge Trims Pool Equipment Maker Shareholder Suit

By Sydney Price

A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed some claims in a proposed investor class action alleging pool supply company Hayward Holdings Inc. concealed it was struggling with ballooning inventory and lowered demand, but ruled that some of the claims, including the claims against the company's consortium, can continue.

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Series

Running Marathons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

After almost five years of running marathons, I’ve learned that both the race itself and the training process sharpen skills that directly translate to the practice of law, including discipline, dedication, endurance, problem-solving and mental toughness, says Lauren Meadows at Swift Currie.

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Analysis

How Trump's Pardons Could Sway Prosecutorial Discretion

By Phillip Bantz

As President Donald Trump dismantles a growing list of white collar criminal cases with a flurry of clemency grants early in his second term, erasing years of investigative and prosecutorial work with a stroke of his black Sharpie, experts worry his actions will have a chilling effect on prosecutorial decision-making.

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Bernstein Litowitz Can Hire Ex-SEC Atty Over Musk Objection

By Jessica Corso

A New York federal judge on Thursday gave the all-clear for investor-side firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP to hire the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's former litigation chief over the objections of Elon Musk.

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Seyfarth Joins Long List Of BigLaw's China Closures

By Aebra Coe

Seyfarth Shaw LLP is the latest large law firm to close an office in China, with a spokesperson confirming Thursday that the firm plans to shutter its Shanghai office later this year.

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Foley & Lardner Says Palestine Support Didn't Doom Job Offer

By Andrea Keckley

Foley & Lardner LLP urged an Illinois federal judge to dismiss a bias suit by a former summer associate, arguing her job offer was rescinded not due to her Arab Muslim identity but because her public comments on Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel "violated the firm's core values" and showed "incredibly poor judgment."

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Analysis

Trump's New Travel Ban May Be Harder To Fight This Time

By Britain Eakin

President Donald Trump's travel ban, which suffered multiple court losses during his first term before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it, may be on more solid legal footing in its renewed form, with lessons evidently applied from those losses.

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Dems, GOP Question Contempt Section Of Reconciliation Bill

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Democrats have vowed to do whatever they can to defeat a provision in the budget reconciliation that would limit federal courts' ability to hold federal officials in contempt, and some Republicans are wary of it as well. 

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Girardi's Son-In-Law Admits Contempt In Illinois Theft Case

By Lauraann Wood

Tom Girardi's son-in-law pled guilty to criminal contempt Thursday in Illinois federal court, admitting he knew the once-celebrated plaintiffs lawyer failed to pay millions of dollars in plane crash settlement funds they had been ordered to distribute to their clients "as soon as practical."

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Justices Nix Higher Hurdle For Heterosexual Bias Claims

By Ryan Harroff

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence, opining that it improperly imposed special standards on majority-group plaintiffs.

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High Court Drops Class Cert. Clarification Bid

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Thursday to weigh in on whether federal courts can certify classes that include uninjured members, holding it improperly agreed to hear a disability discrimination case against diagnostics company Labcorp that raised the important question.

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Atty Coalition Asks Fla. Bar To Open Ethics Probe Into Bondi

By Carolina Bolado

A group of lawyers, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Bar on Thursday to open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying she has pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of "zealous advocacy."

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Senate Panel Advances Picks For Nat. Sec. Post, Iowa US Atty

By Courtney Buble

The Senate voted 52-43 along party lines on Thursday to confirm John Andrew Eisenberg to be assistant attorney general for national security.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Joseph Saveri

By Daniel Connolly

Joseph Saveri, now one of the most successful plaintiffs lawyers in the U.S., said he's thought often about the story of his paternal grandparents, who left Italy around 1918, immigrated to America and traveled across the continent to settle in San Francisco.

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