Gary Young

April 13, 2004 | The Recorder

The four federal judges who were named earlier this year to oversee more than 90 lawsuits against the mutual fund industry have already given signs that they want to hang on to the cases from start to finish. That's a goal made more complicated by 1998's Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach in which the Supreme Court ruled that similar suits filed in multiple districts could be consolidated for pretrial matters only, and had to be returned to their original districts for trial.

By Gary Young

4 minute read

March 05, 2003 | New York Law Journal

By Gary Young

5 minute read

September 17, 2003 | Law.com

Are sexual harassment law and the First Amendment on a collision course? And if so, which will give way? A recent suit poses those questions in a sensational fashion. On Aug. 15, the Minneapolis Public Library said it had agreed to pay $435,000 to employees who accused the administration of subjecting them to a hostile work environment by leaving them exposed to patrons' displays of explicit Web sites. It may be the first such case in which an employer has paid out.

By Gary Young

10 minute read

November 26, 2001 | Law.com

A high-profile suit involving oil and gas royalties that Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil pays to the state of Alabama is now before the Alabama Supreme Court. On the line is a $3.5 billion judgment against Exxon and, for some, the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege. At issue is a memo written by an Exxon in-house lawyer concerning the interpretation of its lease with Alabama, which a judge ruled was discoverable.

By Catherine Aman and Gary Young

3 minute read

August 06, 2004 | The Recorder

The House Judiciary Committee last month approved the "Family Movie Act," a bill that would immunize some manufacturers and retailers of movie-filtering technology from trademark and copyright worries. The bill was prompted by Huntsman v. Soderbergh, a lawsuit pending in U.S. district court in Colorado since 2002 that raises novel questions of trademark and copyright law. At issue are two types of filtering, referred to by lawyers in the case as "technology" and "cut-and-paste."

By Gary Young

4 minute read

November 03, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

A decision in May by the U.S. Supreme Court held that states are subject to private lawsuits under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The decision left many court watchers wondering if the justices had concluded that their long effort to rehabilitate 11th Amendment state sovereign immunity had gone far enough in Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs.

By Gary Young

10 minute read

June 09, 2003 | Law.com

A federal judge in Oklahoma has approved a $36 million settlement that -- subject to one condition -- will require McDonnell Douglas to compensate about 1,100 of its former employees for the pensions and other benefits they lost when the company shut down a plant. It's only the third time that employees have prevailed on a claim that a company violated ERISA by closing a plant to shed employees with high benefit or pension costs.

By Gary Young

5 minute read

April 14, 2003 | New York Law Journal

By Gary Young

6 minute read

November 13, 2002 | Law.com

The change in control of the U.S. Senate promises to pop the cork on judicial nominations bottled up during the last 15 months, according to Senate staff members and experts in the judicial nominating process. President Bush could now push through strict timetables for judicial appointments and give two 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominees who were denied floor votes, including Priscilla Owen, a new shot at the bench.

By Gary Young

5 minute read

April 30, 2004 | Law.com

The Chicago district office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- which has won pioneering victories in sexual harassment class actions -- was recently dealt a setback by a federal judge. In EEOC v. Custom Cos. Inc. Judge Harry D. Leineweber called into question the legal reasoning behind a decision that magnified the EEOC's leverage against soap maker Dial Corp. in a harassment class action that resulted in a $10 million settlement.

By Gary Young

4 minute read