Dallas Austin

A jury recently awarded $2.6 million in damages to a highly decorated police officer because of discriminatory behavior premised on her gender and sexual orientation.  How did this happen? Stacey Yerkes, who identifies as gay, filed suit against her employer, the Ohio State Highway Patrol (“OSHP”), where she worked from 1994 to 2018, and four of her direct supervisors. During her employment with OSHP, Yerkes was promoted to Criminal Interdiction Training Sergeant, a special role created for her and her work partner. In this role, Yerkes was tasked with representing OSHP by training law en

In August 2023, a California jury awarded $9.5 million for disparate treatment of an employee due to mental health disability. How did this happen? Lowry McCray was initially hired by WestRock Services, a global packaging manufacturer, in 1994. According to McCray, he received positive performance reviews and customer feedback throughout his employment at WestRock. By 2017, when WestRock transferred McCray to its La Mirada warehouse that was operated by a third party company, McCray was a distribution specialist coordinator for the company’s Beverage division. In January 2020, WestRock’s c

Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) insurance policies are the backbone to any contractor’s risk management plan.  One endorsement with a significantly reduced sublimit that is finding its way into more CGL policies issued in Texas is worth a closer look and careful monitoring. Several CGL insurers have begun including endorsements that make coverage subject to having lower tier subcontractors fulfill certain insurance requirements.  In one such endorsement that we recently reviewed for a general contractor, the following subcontractor insurance requirements were listed as conditions

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, whose jurisdiction includes all of Texas, recently broadened the types of employment discrimination claims that may be brought under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  In so doing, it overturned nearly 50 years of precedent. In Hamilton v Dallas County, nine female detention officers filed suit against Dallas County Sherriff’s Office for violations of Title VII and the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (TCHRA). Relying on Title VII’s anti-discrimination provision, the female officers claimed that the county had “engaged

In the age of artificial intelligence and expanding technology, the advancements are endless, but does AI have the capacity to practice law? The apparent answer is no, at least not without exhaustive checking by an attorney. On June 22, 2023, a Federal District Judge in New York sanctioned two attorneys and their law firm, jointly, because one attorney, who was not licensed to practice law in the New York Federal Court, relied on responses from ChatGPT with made-up case law and citations in preparing his response to a motion to dismiss, and the other attorney, who was licensed to practice in t