Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs
Lawyers from Haynes Boone, King & Spalding, Legal Aid at Work and the Impact Fund reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Defense that will allow LGBTQ+ veterans discharged before the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to remove discriminatory indicators from their military records and potentially upgrade their discharge statuses.
January 10, 2025 at 08:25 AM
7 minute read
First up this week are lawyers from Haynes Boone, King & Spalding, Legal Aid at Work and the Impact Fund who represent a class of LGBTQ+ veterans who were discharged prior to the end of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. A proposed settlement with the U.S. Department of Defense filed this week would allow class members to remove discriminatory indicators from their military records through a streamlined process and potentially upgrade their discharge status. The deal is pending approval from U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco. The list of class counsel includes Chelsea Corey of Haynes Boone; David Willingham, Radha Sathe Manthe and Rachel Yeung of King & Spalding; Elizabeth Kristen and Lynnette Miner of Legal Aid at Work and Jocelyn Larkin, Lindsay Polastri Nako, Lori Rifkin, Fawn Rajbhandari-Korr and Meredith Dixon of the Impact Fund.
A Greenberg Traurig team led by Robert “Bobby” Kane III helped telecommunications and technology companies secure a win in a long-running case involving underwater fiber-optic cables in Florida. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John J. Parnofiello last week granted summary judgment to the defendants on the last remaining claims in a case where they were accused of trespassing on private property without consent. The ruling comes after a separate judge found after a four-day trial last year that the property in question was “sovereign submerged lands held in trust for the people of the State of Florida” and not subject to private claims. The Greenberg Traurig team included shareholders Mark Bideau, Lorence Jon Bielby, John Londot, Jessica Johnson Fishfeld and Humberto Ocariz, of counsel Joshua Forman, and associates Corey Gross and Taylor Patton.
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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