This June, I won a summary judgment (i.e., dismissal) motion in federal court in Chicago. This case involved a client’s ex-employee who was allegedly fired in violation of their constitutional rights. My client, a social services agency in Chicago, was alleged to have acted in concert and as an arm of the state of Illinois (“state actor”), and consequently denied their employee due process rights upon terminating employment. The court, adopted my motion for dismissal (summary judgment motion), and essentially held that my client is an at-will employer and not a “state actor.” Therefore, due process wasn’t needed. If interested in further detail, you can read the judge’s decision here.

Also this month, on behalf of another social services client in Chicago, I negotiated very favorable terms for a pre-trial settlement at the National Labor Relations Board.   In this case, which is similar to the NLRB’s recent spate of social networking cases involving non-union companies, the NLRB brought a complaint against my client for firing a non-union employee for complaining to a third-party that had no managerial authority or control over the employee’s issues.  Here, even though the client is non-union, and the complaining employee had no authority to insert themselves into these types of issues, the NLRB alleged that the employee was representing the rights of other employees (none of whom lost their job or were disciplined).  The settlement reached requires no posting of notices, no reinstatement, and my client only had to pay a fraction of full backpay to the employee.