This week's latest in Suits by Suits:

• A trombonist and former leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra is in the mood for some litigation.  Gary Tole, who is white, has sued the orchestra’s production company claiming that he was fired in retaliation for him promoting and hiring African Americans and Hispanics.  Among other things, Tole alleges that the president of the company questioned his hiring of two African American musicians, saying at the time to Tole that “[T]his is the Glenn Miller Orchestra, not the Count Basie Orchestra,” or words to that effect.

• Discrimination
• The Inbox
• Title VII
• Wrongful Termination

It feels like most of Suits by Suits' home city of Washington has gone on vacation this week.  Perhaps, then, it's no coincidence that news about employee travel expenses has filled the Inbox. 

We start this trip with news of a four-star Army general, William "Kip" Ward -- who until recently commanded the Army's operations in Africa -- facing demotion for unauthorized and extravagant travel.  Maybe he should have followed Hannibal's lead and gone by elephant -- or George Washington's example of travel by rowboat. 

At the same time, some Republican lawmakers are questioning Attorney General Eric Holder's use of FBI planes for what they claim is personal and inapproriate travel. 

Also, here's an interesting article in the New York Times, noting that top candidates for some jobs are negotiating for exemptions from company travel policies as part of their employment agreements.  No Motel 6 for these folks. 

• The Inbox

This week in suits by suits:

• Two former interns amended their class action lawsuit against Fox Entertainment, arguing that Fox's unpaid internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws by effectively using unpaid interns to replace regular employees.  The lawsuit alleges that unpaid interns were used as "a crucial labor force on its productions," serving as production assistants, bookkeepers, secretaries, and janitors.
• Deborah Sturgeon and ten other named plaintiffs filed a class action against AT&T, arguing that AT&T's lunch break policies for technicians -- which allegedly prohibit technicians eating in their vehicles from playing music, using the vehicle's heating or air conditioning, and from reading or otherwise using the balance of their lunch hour for personal activities -- effectively amount to requiring those employees to work through lunch without pay.
• California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a civil suit against Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV), a charitable organization based in California that provides hospitalized veterans with therapeutic arts & crafts activities.  The Attorney General's lawsuit alleges that certain officers and directors of HHV breached their fiduciary duties by wasting charitable assets on excessive compensation and retirement payments to its officers, golf memberships, and a condominium, and also alleges improper accounting and self-dealing in connection with HHV's fundraising efforts.  The suit seeks the removal of the named officers and directors, restitution, civil penalties, and punitive damages.  In 2008, HHV's then-president, Roger Chapin, was required to testify before Congress regarding similar allegations.
• In perhaps the strangest item on this list, U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken denied a terminated employee's motion for summary judgment on her breach of contract claims against her former employer, Watson Enterprises, Inc. (WEI), a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as dismissed the employer's counterclaims for unjust enrichment and civil theft.  Judge Oetken allowed both parties to proceed to trial on the central allegation -- whether the employee was "worthless" and hired solely because she was the mistress of one of WEI's former partners.  Salacious details (safe for work) from the record are excerpted by Courthouse News Service.
• A federal jury in Washington D.C. awarded $3.5 million to a lifeguard who was sexually harassed by her supervisor at the Takoma Aquatic Center, a public swimming pool in Takoma Park, Maryland.
• U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema required a plaintiff alleging discrimination in her termination by her employer, Navy Federal Credit Union, to pay nearly $34,000 in legal fees incurred as defense costs after Judge Brinkema advised the plaintiff at a pretrial conference that her lawsuit could not survive summary judgment.  The plaintiff proceeded anyway, and the Court ordered her to pay defense costs associated with defending the motion.

• The Inbox

This week's latest news in suits by suits:

• Former Univision National Radio Sales President Laura Hagan has sued the company, its parent company, Katz Media, and the now-deceased CEO of Katz Media, Stu Olds, for discrimination and breach of her employment contract in federal court in New York. Hagan is 66 and was born in Ecuador. She claims that, despite her division consistently exceeding sales projections, Olds asked her to resign without explanation in October 2008. The EEOC issued Hagan a right to sue letter in May 2012. According to Hagan, Olds made repeated remarks to Hagan concerning her age, race and national origin, and, at a managers’ meeting in 2004 attended by 250 company employees, included in a slide presentation a photo of Carmen Miranda (of Chiquita Banana) that was manipulated to show Hagan’s face.
• Earlier this week, Facebook and the ACLU filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit presenting the issue of whether "liking" a political candidate on Facebook is constitutionally-protected speech. The issue arose in the workplace. Plaintiff was a deputy in the sheriff’s office in Hampton, Virginia, and clicked that he "liked" the Facebook page of the candidate challenging his boss in an election. His boss was re-elected sheriff and then fired plaintiff and some of his colleagues, allegedly because they did not support him in the election. A federal judge found that "liking" on Facebook is not protected speech and granted summary judgment to the sheriff. Kashmir Hill of Forbes has written this analysis of the arguments presented by Facebook and the ACLU that "liking" is, in fact, speech protected by the First Amendment.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has held that former Thomas M. Cooley Law School professor Lynn Branham was not entitled to any rights protecting her against termination beyond those provided in her one-year employment contract. Branham argued that the ABA’s suggested tenure policies, including its suggestion that professors "should have permanent or continuous tenure" should be read into her employment contract. The Sixth Circuit held that Branham’s employment contract did not incorporate that suggestion from the ABA, which is only a suggestion, not a requirement, in any event.

• Breach of Contract
• Discrimination
• Social Media
• Summary Judgment
• The Inbox

The latest gold medalists in the race for our attention: 

• Not that Chick-fil-A needed more publicity, but Laura Hautala of the Los Angeles Times brought us the fascinating story of Adam Smith, chief financial officer of a Tuscon medical equipment manufacturer named Vante.  Smith went to the drive-thru of his local Chick-fil-A, told the employees that they worked for a hateful company, and then posted the confrontation on YouTube.  Shortly thereafter, Vante fired him.  In a press statement, Vante did not identify Smith’s ordering of free water as the straw that broke the camel’s back.

• Discrimination
• The Inbox
• Wrongful Termination

• Bill Singer, writing in Forbes, discusses one potential consequence for financial industry employees who arbitrate employment disputes with former employers: future employers can see them as willing to fight these disputes and this negative branding can harm chances of employment.
• Evan J. Shenkman, in a piece posted on Lexology, discusses an interesting New Jersey case involving an alcoholic nurse who also had anxiety problems: when she was terminated for not showing up to work, the employer suggested she was being fired for both alcoholism and lack of attendance – and that, therefore, a jury could have concluded she was wrongfully terminated for her alcoholism (attendance is generally a valid reason for termination, the court held).
• This article doesn’t deal with United States law (our usual focus here on Suits by Suits), but in a ‎tip of our beret to our friends in Britain hosting the Olympics, here’s an article that those with an ‎interest in UK employment law might like: Charlotte Lloyd-Jones discusses a recent case there ‎where employees were fired for “gross misconduct on the basis that they were preparing to ‎compete with their employer,” as a breach of an employment contract. The appellate tribunal ‎held that just because the employees might compete in the future didn’t supply a basis for firing ‎them in the present. It also held that the employees have to drive on the left.‎
• And, from the nightmares of the near future department: should employees post on Facebook ‎while they’re in termination meetings with their employers? And if they do, what should ‎employers do about it? It’s already happened, in a case involving an American Airlines ‎employee. Daniel Schwarz has some interesting commentary on this issue here. Welcome to the ‎future!‎

• Arbitration
• The Inbox

This week in suits by suits and other related items of interest:

• The EEOC has brought a lawsuit against Pace Solano -- a firm that provides services to disabled adults -- on behalf of a woman who claims that her hiring offer was rescinded after Pace Solano learned that she has partial paralysis in one of her hands.
• Four former sales representatives have brought a federal class action lawsuit against New York-based drug manufacturer Forest Laboratories, Inc., seeking more than $100 million in damages.  The lawsuit alleges that Forest Labs engaged in pervasive sexual discrimination against women, denying female employees -- particularly those who became pregnant or had young children at home -- the same pay, bonuses, and promotions as its male employees.
• Mary Ruotolo, the former executive director of a New York chapter of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, has sued her former employer under a New Jersey state whistleblower statute, alleging retaliatory termination after she began raising concerns about her chapter's financial condition.  Ms. Ruotolo's suit also alleges fraudulent inducement in connection with her hiring.
• In a case we continue to monitor, Law360 (membership required) reports that two former ArthroCare Corp. executives moved to dismiss a lawsuit by the SEC demanding repayment of bonuses and stock profits under section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, arguing that the SEC's interpretation -- which would seek to clawback bonuses from executives even where those individuals have not been specifically charged with any wrongdoing -- would violate constitutional principles of fairness and due process.  A separate motion sought to declare Section 304 "void for vagueness."
• Law360 also reports that the trustee overseeing the Radar Networks, Inc. bankruptcy has reached a stipulation permitting a lawsuit to go forward against outgoing Yahoo, Inc. CEO Ross Levinsohn -- a former Radar director -- and other former Radar insiders, alleging fraud and conversion of approximately $3 million in Radar assets.  The trustee concluded that permitting the lawsuit would be "in the best interests of the estate" and recommended approval by the bankruptcy court.  Levinsohn replaced Scott Thompson as CEO of Yahoo! after Thompson was forced to resign amidst allegations of resume padding, as we discussed previously.
• Speaking of Yahoo!, Elizabeth Dilts of Law.com's Corporation Counsel has written an interesting article discussing non-compete agreements in light of Marissa Mayer's recent decision to leave Google, Inc. to become CEO at Yahoo! (following Levinsohn and Thompson).  Yahoo! is, of course, one of Google's chief competitors.

• Breach of Contract
• Discrimination
• Motions to Dismiss
• The Inbox
• Wrongful Termination

• A former D.C. teacher’s lawsuit alleging that he was fired in retaliation for reporting to the then-D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee that his principal instructed him and other teachers to alter students’ scores on standardized tests has survived a motion to dismiss in federal court. 
• After a San Francisco judge already rejected its argument, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins has filed additional pleadings in the sexual harassment case brought against it by its partner Ellen Pao contending that her claims should be arbitrated because she signed agreements with investment funds raised by Kleiner Perkins (although not Kleiner Perkins itself) agreeing to arbitrate these kinds of disputes.

• JP Morgan reports that it has clawed back about two years of annual compensation from the three London-based traders it says are responsible for the trading losses reported by the company in May.  The traders are fighting back.  

• The Inbox

A rare news recap that has nothing to do with health care reform:

• Live Nation Entertainment has finally found harmony with its former chairman Michael Cohl, settling a dispute over a claim that Cohl owed it money under his severance agreement.  When Cohl left Live Nation in 2008, he agreed to pay $9.85 million over two years to buy parts of the business and get out from under parts of a broad noncompete provision.  Live Nation sued him in 2010, saying he still owed $5.4 million.  Marketwatch.
• An employee who insisted on getting paid under a severance agreement because he was competing with his former employer (apparently the severance agreement did provide for such payments) was socked with $40,000 in fees for his efforts after the trial court granted summary judgment for the employer, which argued that he was not competing with it.  Odd.  JD Supra.
• Daniel Foreman, an investment fund executive, filed suit against Cardinal Growth Corp., claiming that it misrepresented the value of funds when it asked him to help it find companies to invest in.  He seeks $82,000 in unpaid fees, as well as other payments.  AltAssets.
• The former chief executive of Extended Stay hotels was socked with a $100 million judgment in that company’s bankruptcy, based on a series of personal guarantees.  But he’s not taking the judgment lying down.  He’s sued Extended Stay’s bankruptcy lawyers, alleging that their malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty caused the judgment against him.  Thomson Reuters.

• Bankruptcy
• The Inbox

This week in suits by suits:

• BankUnited Inc. CEO John Kanas and vice-chairman John Bohlsen will pay a combined $20 million to their former employer, Capital One Financial Corp, to settle claims that Kanas and Bohlson breached their noncompete agreements with Capital One when they led BankUnited to acquire New York-based Herald National Bank.
• In an unpublished opinion, Bennett v. R&L Carriers Shared Services, LLC, the Fourth Circuit upheld a $1.7 million jury verdict to a night dock supervisor alleging malicious prosecution after he had been accused of stealing computers from a loading dock of a Colonial Heights shipping company.  Despite characterizing the verdict as "bizarrely excessive," Judge Andre M. Davis, writing for the Court's 2-1 majority, held that the award was justified by Virginia precedent and the plaintiff's circumstances.  In dissent, Judge G. Steven Agee noted that Bennett was awarded nearly seven times the combined amount of every prior malicious prosecution verdict in the past century.
• The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to rehire three whistleblowers who had been fired for reporting workplace injuries, and to pay the plaintiffs $802,168.70 in damages, including $525,000 in punitive damages and attorneys' fees.
• Chicago private equity veteran Daniel Foreman is suing his former employer, Cardinal Growth Corp., alleging that top managers at Cardinal Growth Corp. misrepresented investment fund value and assets in order to convince him to join the firm, and then failed to pay him his full compensation. 
• Hampton Roads Bankshares has filed a federal suit seeking a declaration that it is prohibited from paying former executive Scott C. Harvard a "golden parachute" severance package worth nearly $700,000 under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
• A New York state trial court has dismissed a lawsuit by a pension fund against clothing giant Ralph Lauren seeking damages and disgorgement of allegedly excessive executive compensation and benefits, deferring to the corporate judgment of Ralph Lauren's board of directors in approving the compensation.
• Finally, in a related item of interest:  the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules directing U.S. stock exchanges to adopt listing standards for compensation committees and compensation advisers.  Under the new rules, the stock exchanges have 90 days to propose listing standards and one year to finalize those standards.

• The Inbox