On April 22, 2025, the Tenth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of a sales manager and his new employer on claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), the Oklahoma Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“OUTSA”), and...more
On April 4, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama’s ruling dismissing Alabama Aircraft Industries’ (“AAI”) trade secret misappropriation claim against Boeing, thereby...more
As we previously reported, on March 3, 2025, the Maryland District Court denied Defendants’ motion to stay the preliminary injunction in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump, preventing the...more
On February 26, 2025, the United States Supreme Court entertained oral argument in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, a case that centered on whether a plaintiff who is a member of a majority group must meet a higher...more
On October 18, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) gave notice that it would appeal a Texas federal court’s decision halting its non-compete rule (the “Rule”) from taking effect as to all employers nationwide. The...more
On September 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board’s rejection of an employee’s Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) retaliation claim, holding the...more
On August 18, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit expanded the types of employment actions that may constitute “adverse employment action” under Title VII in Hamilton v. Dallas Cnty., 5th Cir. en banc. No....more
Before closing the book on 2022, we look back at the most significant verdicts issued in trade secret trials this past year. In 2022, several juries awarded extraordinary verdicts to plaintiffs. These verdicts suggest a...more
3/3/2023
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Breach of Contract ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Misappropriation ,
Patent Infringement ,
Popular ,
Proprietary Information ,
Securities Litigation ,
Semiconductors ,
Trade Secrets ,
UTSA
On February 2, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed in part the decision of an Illinois Appellate Court and held that all claims brought pursuant to Section 15 of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”),...more
2022 saw highly impactful whistleblower and retaliation events primarily resulting from an active U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an aggressive approach taken by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and...more
1/4/2023
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
NEPA ,
OSHA ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Uber ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On August 26, 2022, the Third Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer, holding that whistleblower retaliation protections in the False Claims Act did not protect an employee from being discharged...more
On July 20, 2022, the Tenth Circuit affirmed a $1 million jury award to a former employee who claimed he was demoted in retaliation for reporting that his supervisor instructed him to falsify test results on a program used by...more
On April 19, 2022, a California Appeals Court reversed and remanded a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in an employer’s favor, concluding there was a triable issue of material fact regarding whether a defendant had...more
On May 8, 2019, the Seventh Circuit reaffirmed its test for determining employee status under federal anti-discrimination laws, holding that a physician lacked standing to bring Title VII claims against the hospital at which...more
5/15/2019
/ Anti-Doping Issues ,
Appeals ,
Classification ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Hospitals ,
Negligent Hiring ,
Non-Employees ,
Peer Review ,
Physicians ,
Standing ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII
On January 23, 2019, the Seventh Circuit held that the ADEA’s prohibition of disparate impact discrimination do not extend to job applicants. Kleber v. CareFusion Corp., No. 17-cv-1206....more
On January 22, 2018, the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict awarding approximately $1.5 million in damages to a radiation oncologist after finding that she had been constructively and wrongfully terminated in...more
2/1/2018
/ Appeals ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Public Policy ,
Retaliation ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wrongful Termination
On October 17, 2017, the Tenth Circuit overturned the ARB’s decision in favor of complainant for want of protected activity under SOX. Dietz v. Cypress Semiconductor Corp., No. 16-9529 (Oct. 17, 2017). This decision rolled...more
10/27/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Review Board ,
Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Mail Fraud ,
Offer Letters ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Deductions ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wire Fraud
In a recent decision in Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc. (Sept. 20, 2017), the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that an employer did not violate the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to...more
The Seventh Circuit recently concluded that the EEOC’s investigative powers do not end when a lawsuit related to the originating charge ends. EEOC v. Union Pacific, No. 15-cv-3452 (Aug. 15, 2017)....more
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a grant of summary judgment in an employer’s favor, dismissing a SOX and Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation case based on the plaintiff’s lack of an objectively reasonable belief of...more
8/7/2017
/ Appeals ,
Dismissals ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Objective Unreasonableness Standard ,
OFCCP ,
Reaffirmation ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities Fraud ,
Summary Judgment ,
Whistleblowers
On July 25, 2017, the Third Circuit allowed a plaintiff who was an in-house attorney to proceed with a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) based on its...more
7/31/2017
/ Appeals ,
CEPA ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Ethics ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Patents ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Rules of Professional Conduct ,
Whistleblowers
On June 20, 2017, the Seventh Circuit ruled that a defendant cannot moot the individual claims of a putative class representative by depositing an unaccepted settlement offer with the court covering all relief purportedly...more
6/24/2017
/ Appeals ,
Campbell Ewald v Gomez ,
Class Action ,
Class Representatives ,
Mootness ,
Popular ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reversal ,
Rule 68 ,
Settlement Offer ,
TCPA
On April 12, 2017, the Third Circuit partially revived a former in-house attorney’s whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against his previous employer. Danon v. Vanguard Group, Inc., No. 16-cv-2881....more
4/19/2017
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Remand ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State False Claims Acts ,
Vacated ,
Whistleblowers
On May 28, 2015, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an employee who reports allegedly fraudulent conduct engages in protected activity under SOX where he or she has a reasonable belief that the activity reported is...more
On October 24, 2014, in Khazin v. TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral argument on an issue of first impression (within that forum): whether Dodd-Frank applies...more