Representative Engagements

Workplace Investigations

• 21st Century Fox in government and internal investigations, including the internal investigation of sexual harassment claims against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and the investigation of claims related to former Fox News TV personality Bill O’Reilly.
• BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, in an internal review of the company’s processes for investigating employee complaints, including its handling of former employees’ allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination reported in the media.
• The National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins franchise in conducting an independent review of the team’s signing of Mitchell Miller and providing recommendations on updated player-vetting policies.
• The independent members of the board of directors of Carta in connection with an internal investigation concerning allegations of executive mismanagement, hostile work environment, and gender discrimination raised by a former C-Suite executive.
• The Board of Directors of Consumer Reports in an independent investigation into issues impacting the organization’s workplace culture with respect to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health in an independent investigation and audit of policies and procedures regarding safety at the organization’s children’s behavioral health programs nationwide.
• The National Football League in a number of high-profile matters, including in an investigation regarding workplace conduct within the Miami Dolphins organization.
• A private equity firm in connection with multiple internal investigations concerning its portfolio companies, including an internal investigation regarding workplace conduct at a restaurant and food service company; and an audit committee investigation into allegations of employee misconduct related to sexual harassment and the misuse of expense reports at a manufacturing and packaging products company.
• A Fortune 50 energy company in connection with an internal investigation regarding an executive’s discrimination and retaliation claims arising from a corporate merger.
• A multinational financial technology company in internal investigations regarding internal reporting of sexual harassment complaints and a sexual harassment allegation involving a senior executive.
• A Fortune 500 national retail chain in internal investigations involving allegations of employee misconduct and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• A major tech e-commerce company in connection with sensitive internal investigations of employment-related claims.
• A large pharmaceutical company in an internal investigation of claims raised by a former executive asserting allegations of whistleblower retaliation, gender discrimination and wrongful discharge.
• A U.S.-based multinational energy services company in conducting an investigation and negotiating the successful resolution of harassment, retaliation and discrimination claims brought by a high-ranking legal officer.

Employment Litigation

• 21st Century Fox in litigation involving gender discrimination, sexual harassment and hostile work environment claims.
• Amazon in winning the dismissal of nearly all claims brought by a former employee in a putative state-wide class action alleging disability discrimination, failure to provide a reasonable accommodation and retaliation. The Eastern District of California dismissed the plaintiff’s discrimination and wrongful termination claims, as well as the putative class action claims, and the parties subsequently reached an agreement to resolve the litigation on favorable terms.
• Barnes & Noble in litigation related to the termination of its CEO, notably securing the dismissal of a $70 million defamation claim and the favorable settlement of all remaining claims.
• Citigroup in:
  • the successful resolution of a putative nationwide class action alleging discrimination against female brokers in the distribution of client accounts, administrative support, and partnership opportunities; and
  • an action filed by a senior executive in the Southern District of New York alleging sexual harassment and gender discrimination claims under Title VII, New York State Human Rights Law, NYC Human Rights Law, and New York’s Gender Motivated Violence Protection Law, one of the first and most high profile lawsuits filed in court after the passage of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.
• Columbia University in defense of claims brought by current and former students alleging violations of Title IX, Title VII and state and local laws based on gender discrimination, harassment and hostile work environment.
• The National Football League in defense of a putative class action brought by a former NFL head coach alleging racial discrimination in the hiring of head coaches, coordinators and general managers.
• NBCUniversal in the favorable settlement of Rule 23 class and FLSA collective actions brought by Parking Production Assistants who worked on NBC Universal-produced films and television shows alleging violations of the FLSA and New York Labor Law.
• Pfizer in securing the denial of a preliminary injunction and dismissal, affirmed by the Second Circuit, of a high-profile “reverse discrimination” suit brought by a newly created non-profit advocacy group, Do No Harm, alleging that Pfizer’s Breakthrough Fellowship Program to create a pipeline for diverse talent in the company’s leadership ranks violated Section 1981, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Affordable Care Act, and various New York State and New York City human rights laws.
• Prudential in achieving favorable settlements or dismissals of claims brought by over 200 current and former employees alleging a conspiracy related to the prior resolution of their employment-related claims in an alternative dispute resolution process.
• PSEG in a lawsuit brought by a current employee alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the New York State and City Human Rights Laws, and other ancillary claims. The Eastern District of New York granted PSEG’s motion to dismiss in its entirety.
• Numerous litigations and actions regarding the implementation of workplace policies, including representations of:
  • New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System (NYP) in numerous litigations and administrative matters regarding NYP’s compliance with the New York Department of Health’s vaccine mandates. Paul, Weiss successfully defeated 11 vaccine challenges in federal and state courts and before the state Division of Human Rights, including the complete dismissal of an action filed against Governor Kathy Hochul, former NYS Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, NYP and two other private healthcare systems;
  • the New York Unified Court System in successfully defending multiple challenges seeking to block its implementation of a vaccine mandate under labor law and on Constitutional grounds; and
  • Santa Clara University (SCU)and two SCU employees in obtaining the complete dismissal, affirmed by California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal, of a complaint brought by two students and an anti-vaccine organization challenging SCU’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on constitutional, statutory and common law grounds.
• SS&C Technologies in:
  • the settlement of a collective and class action under the FLSA and New Jersey state wage and hour laws; and
  • a settlement of putative class action brought by former employees alleging violations of New York state wage and hour laws.
• Wafra, an international investment firm, in securing the dismissal in New York State Supreme Court, affirmed on appeal by the Appellate Division, First Department, of a multimillion-dollar age discrimination suit brought by a former executive following his termination from the company. The executive alleged that Wafra used a sexual harassment complaint and a subsequent investigation as pretext to improperly terminate him on the basis of his age and also asserted claims for unjust enrichment, defamation, negligence and tortious interference with prospective business relations.

Trade Secrets, Non-Competition, Non-Solicitation & Restrictive Covenants

• BASF in a theft of trade secrets action against Honeywell International in which Paul, Weiss obtained a preliminary injunction that prohibited BASF’s former chief technology officer from joining Honeywell until the expiration of his two-year non-compete period. Honeywell was also required to return and not use certain trade secret information.
• CircusTrix Holdings in an action obtaining injunctive relief to prevent a former business partner from violating non-competition and non-solicitation obligations.
• Citigroup in the dismissal of a putative class action brought by current and former employees alleging that the non-compete provisions of their employment agreements violated California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL).
• Comtech Telecommunications in securing the favorable settlement prior to trial of two consolidated actions in federal district court involving claims against a former employee and her new employer, Motorola Solutions Inc., for breach of her employment agreement’s non-compete, non-solicit, and confidentiality provisions and tortious interference, as well as defending claims of breach of contract, wage withholding, gender discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful discharge brought by the former employee.
• Genentech, Inc. in connection with allegations of theft of trade secrets, unfair trade practice and unjust enrichment brought by an ophthalmologist who claimed to have helped Genentech develop the eye disease drug Lucentis. Plaintiff sought $1.16 billion in damages before a federal district jury in Pennsylvania rejected the claims in their entirety.
• IBM in actual and threatened litigations concerning enforcement of employee restrictive covenants, non-competition agreements and equity clawback contracts, including in:
  • winning an injunction at trial, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, prohibiting a former senior executive from accepting a competing leadership position at Microsoft in breach of his non-competition agreement. Paul, Weiss previously secured a TRO to prevent the executive from accepting the offer and at trial proved that the former executive was privy to some of IBM’s most competitively sensitive trade secrets, and, absent an injunction, IBM would suffer irreparable injury; and
  • a successful non-competition suit brought against the company’s former CIO who sought to take a competing position at a major technology firm alleging that the employee had leaked trade secrets about IBM’s next-generation cloud computing system. Paul, Weiss secured a TRO and following a trial, the parties agreed to a settlement whereby the CIO no longer works in the tech industry.
• Frederic Fekkai in litigations and investigations concerning employment discrimination and enforcement of employee restrictive covenants.
• SAP in a longstanding dispute brought by business analytics provider Teradata, seeking more than $1 billion in damages in an action involving high-stakes trade secret misappropriation claims concerning SAP’s flagship product HANA. Following extensive discovery, SAP defeated Teradata’s trade secret misappropriation claims on summary judgment. Teradata is appealing the ruling while staying or dismissing without prejudice the remaining claims.
• XPO Logistics, Inc. in an action for misappropriation of trade secrets brought by a competitor. With the assistance of experts, Paul, Weiss conducted a forensic investigation to locate, isolate, and remove from XPO’s vast computer systems certain information contained in spreadsheets brought without XPO’s knowledge by a competitor’s former employee. Our team prepared an extensive remediation report, helped to monitor ongoing compliance, and ultimately persuaded the court not to extend or increase the preliminary injunction sought by plaintiffs.
• A Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm in a trade secrets dispute with its former general counsel who, following her termination from the company, brought allegations to the SEC alleging that the VC firm had defrauded investors. On behalf of the VC firm, Paul, Weiss made a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California based on evidence that the former employee had misappropriated trade secrets and had made false statements to the FBI.