BG Welcomes New Lawyer Paul-Kalvin Collins to Washington, D.C. Office

Bailey Glasser is pleased to announce Paul-Kalvin Collins has joined the firm’s Washington, D.C. office as a lawyer in its national Commercial & Environmental Litigation Practice Group.

Cary Joshi, Bailey Glasser’s Commercial & Environmental Litigation Practice Group Leader, stated: “Congratulations to our newest D.C. attorney, Paul-Kalvin Collins. Paul-Kalvin brings unique work experience from his previous career and education that will be valuable to the clients we serve.”

As part of the Commercial and Environmental Litigation team, Paul-Kalvin will represent clients in complex, high-stakes litigation across the full spectrum of business interests. He will also be assisting in matters with the firm’s corporate practice group, which handles corporate and commercial transactional matters of many kinds.

Paul-Kalvin is a 2023 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and while a law student he served as a law clerk and summer associate with Bailey Glasser, as well as a summer law clerk in the Civil Division of the D.C. Superior Court.

Paul-Kalvin previously was the Director of Urban Teachers, an alternative teacher preparation program located in Baltimore, Maryland and has more than 10 years of educational leadership experience.

To learn more about Paul-Kalvin Collins, please visit here.

#Welcome #NewLawyer #BaileyGlasser

Arthur Bryant Tells Sportico: Federal Title IX Report “Confirms the Sad, Shameful Truth.”

Arthur Bryant, Bailey Glasser partner and Title IX team leader, was quoted in a new Sportico article discussing the recent U.S. Government Accountability Office’s report: “COLLEGE ATHLETICS: Education Should Improve Its Title IX Enforcement Efforts.”

According to Sportico, the GAO report found that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, responsible for enforcing Title IX, was failing in its efforts. It noted that, during the 2021-22 academic year, 93% of universities had female athletic participation rates lower than their enrollment rate, while 63% of schools had participation-enrollment gaps of 10% or more. You can read the full GAO report here.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by schools that receive federal funds, including almost all colleges and universities nationwide. The report, Bryant said, shows that “[m]ost colleges in America are violating Title IX and depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. The federal government isn’t enforcing the law and making them comply like it should. So this illegal sex discrimination is continuing.”

Arthur Bryant is the nation’s leading Title IX attorney representing both female and male athletes in gender equity lawsuits against schools like San Diego State, Fresno State, and Oregon to the University of Central Oklahoma, Florida State, and Clemson. He has successfully represented more women athletes and potential athletes in Title IX litigation against schools and universities than any lawyer in the country.

“This report confirms the sad, shameful truth,” Bryant told Sportico. “If girls and women want it to stop, they have to be willing to stand up, fight, and sue.”

To read the full Sportico article, please visit here.

To learn more about our recent Title IX cases, visit here.

Arthur Bryant Quoted in On3NIL Article: “How Will Title IX Shape a Revenue-Sharing College Sports World”

“If a revenue-sharing model does not provide equal treatment and benefits, ‘[schools] will be held accountable.’” Arthur Bryant, Bailey Glasser partner and Title IX Team Leader.

In a recent On3.com article, Arthur discusses the Title IX parameters colleges and universities must consider in creating revenue-sharing models for student-athletes. “Institutions, conferences and the NCAA need to be aware that, whatever revenue-sharing model is implemented, Title IX requires that female and male student-athletes receive equal treatment and benefits,” he said.

Under Title IX, Bryant told On3, when it comes to “straight-out payments” – like scholarship dollars – “equal” means proportional.

Arthur and the Bailey Glasser Title IX team are on the forefront of Title IX litigation, representing both female and male athletes in gender equity lawsuits against schools nationwide from San Diego State, Fresno State, and Oregon to the University of Central Oklahoma, Florida State, and Clemson.

Read the full On3 article here.

To learn more about Arthur Bryant and his Title IX practice, please visit here.

#TitleIX #TitleIXAthletics

Federal Appeals Court Protects Worker Class Action Rights, Rejecting Demands for Individual Arbitrations

Bailey Glasser’s ERISA litigation team won a victory before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on behalf of a proposed class of employees seeking relief under federal ERISA law.

The Second Circuit ruled May 1st that an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) trustee and former shareholders of the ESOP’s wholly-owned financial services firm can’t compel individual arbitration of a proposed class action accusing them of overcharging the ESOP for company stock, saying that doing so would prevent a plan participant from seeking plan-wide remedies authorized by federal benefits law. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that the lower court was right to deny the motion to compel arbitration by Argent Trust Co., which served as trustee to Strategic Financial Solutions, LLC’s ESOP, and the former shareholders. Plaintiff and BG client, employee Ramon Dejesus Cedeno, filed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) suit in November 2020, alleging the defendants cost the retirement plan and its participants millions when they overcharged the ESOP in a $242 million sale of company stock.

The ruling comes more than a year after oral arguments in which a three-judge federal appeals panel questioned whether individual arbitration could be forced on Dejesus Cedeno given a plan participant’s right to seek relief on behalf of a plan as a whole under ERISA Sections 409(a) and 502(a)(2). The majority decision held that arbitration could not be so compelled, writing: “Because Cedeno’s avenue for relief under ERISA is to seek a plan-wide remedy, and the specific terms of the arbitration agreement seek to prevent Cedeno from doing so, the agreement is unenforceable.” This decision addressed one of the most important issues in employee benefits litigation today: Whether ERISA plan sponsors can force employees to waive plan-wide relief in favor of individualized arbitration, thereby gutting participants’ ability to enforce the core private right of action ERISA affords. This victory for participant rights follows a victory by BG’s ERISA litigation team on the same issue before the Third Circuit in June 2023.

The Bailey Glasser team in this matter is comprised of partner and Practice Group Leader Gregory Porter and partner Ryan Jenny, both in Bailey Glasser’s Washington, D.C. office. Co-counsel in this case is Tillman J. Breckenridge, Peter K. Stris, Rachana A. Pathak, and John Stokes of Stris & Maher LLP.

To learn more about Gregory Porter, visit this link.

To learn more about Ryan Jenny, visit this link.

To learn more about our award-winning ERISA practice, visit here.

To read a Law 360 article about this win, visit this link.

BG Lawyer Bryce Tish Publishes Note in Drake Law Review

Congratulations to BG lawyer Bryce Tish on the publication of his note in the Drake University Law Review, titled “Such Good Boys: The Dogmatic Casting Alert and Probable Cause for Drug Sniffing Dogs.” Bryce is a member of the firm’s Consumer Protection Practice Group, and is in our Iowa office.

“Police canines are very smart and highly trained—but just like humans, they make mistakes,” Bryce writes in the note’s summary. “As a matter of constitutional principle, it would be better to err on the side of caution and require a hard alert as opposed to a casting alert by a drug-sniffing dog—especially when someone’s liberty and freedom are at stake.” This Note addresses the circuit split between the Eleventh and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals on what kind of dog alert—a hard or casting alert—gives rise to probable cause and a subsequent warrantless search and argues that hard alerts should be required for probable cause to search a vehicle.

This note was selected by Bryce’s law school peers for publication in the Spring 2024 edition of the Drake Law Review. And the handsome dogs featured in the image above are Bryce’s dogs Randy and Ruby.

To read the full Note, please visit here.

To learn more about Bryce Tish, please visit here.

#LawReview #BaileyGlasser #Thoughtleadership

Bailey Glasser Secures $3.6 Million Settlement in “Pay-to-Pay” Class Action Against Mr. Cooper

Bailey & Glasser, LLP secured a groundbreaking $3.6 million settlement in a class action before a federal district court in Washington, D.C on behalf of consumers who were charged illegal fees just for paying their mortgages over the phone. BG partner James Kauffman, along with attorneys from the law firm Tycko & Zavareei LLP are class counsel in this case.

The lawsuit against Mr. Cooper – formerly known as Nationstar Mortgage LLC – and one of the country’s largest home loan servicers, alleges that the servicer charged mortgage borrowers in D.C. and nationwide illegal “Pay-to-Pay” fees, or extra charges up to $14 to process each monthly payment by phone in violation of several federal and state consumer protection laws. The settlement, which obtained final approval on Thursday, included the nearly $3.6 million payment to 72,555 class members and was based on a novel legal argument under the D.C. “Protecting Consumers from Unjust Debt Collections Practices Act,” which provides additional statutory damages to consumers for each illegal transaction.

“The settlement obtained is an excellent result for the class, and we are pleased that the court agreed,” James Kauffman said. “While our work has caused many servicers to stop charging these fees, others persist in this abuse, and we will continue to fight to protect hardworking consumers from junk fees.”

You can learn more about this settlement by reading this Law360 article here.

To learn more about our “Pay-to-Pay” and Illegal Convenience Fee services, visit here.

#baileyglasser #classactions #paytopay #consumerprotection #illegalfees #mortgage

BG Files Lawsuit Against the State of Illinois on Behalf of Survivors of Sexual Assault & Abuse


Bailey Glasser has filed a complaint on behalf of 95 survivors of sexual abuse against the State of Illinois, alleging that the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice failed to protect children from rampant sexual abuse perpetrated by adult employees at Illinois Youth Centers. As alleged in the complaint filed on May 6, 2024, between 1996 and 2017, hundreds of youths were victimized in Illinois Youth Centers.
Bailey Glasser is on the forefront of lawsuits seeking justice on behalf of childhood sexual abuse survivors and has brought hundreds of similar lawsuits in the State of Maryland on behalf of survivors of abuse in its juvenile hall detention facilities.

Partner D. Todd Mathews, lead counsel on the Bailey Glasser litigation team, stated: “The abuse suffered by our clients, then minors entrusted to the care of the State of Illinois, created great suffering, and has reverberated across their lives. We salute their strength and we’re honored to fight for these survivors in court.”

The Bailey Glasser team in this case includes D. Todd Mathews; founding partner Brian A. Glasser; partner and Mass Tort Practice Group Leader David Selby; and lawyer Samira Bode.

MEDIA REQUESTS: To schedule an interview with counsel or for other media inquiries, please contact Joe Carey at joe@careystrategiccommunications.com.

To read more about the lawsuit please visit: https://www.baileyglasser.com/news-BG-Files-Lawsuit-Against-State-of-Illinois-on-Behalf-of-Survivors-of-Sexual-Abuse

To learn more about how we fight on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse across the country, please visit: https://www.baileyglasser.com/services-sexual-abuse#Overview

BG Wins Writ of Prohibition Before State of West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals

A Bailey Glasser litigation team composed of founding partner Ben Bailey and lawyer Christopher Smith succeeded in obtaining a writ of prohibition from the State of West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on behalf of our client, Pachira Energy.

In this action for extraordinary relief, Pachira sought a writ of prohibition to prevent the Circuit Court of Monongalia County from a January 2023 order by that court which ordered disassociation of a partnership even though no party to the litigation sought disassociation in the underlying litigation. The underlying litigation involved the requested dissolution and winding up of a partnership under the West Virginia Revised Uniform Partnership Act. However, instead of ordering this dissolution, the circuit court disassociated Pachira from the partnership, effectively kicking it out of the partnership while allowing the partnership to continue operating.

In recognizing that “extraordinary remedies are reserved for ‘really extraordinary causes,’ the appellate court found for our client and determined that: “[a]fter a careful review of the parties’ arguments, the record before this Court and the applicable law, we conclude that the circuit court committed a clear legal error in ordering dissociation when that relief was not requested by either party. Accordingly, we grant the petition for writ of prohibition, vacate the order dissociating Pachira from the water system association, and remand this case to the circuit court for further proceedings.”

Obtaining relief of this nature is rare, but our litigators felt was warranted in this particular case. The case is now back before the Circuit Court for additional litigation. To read the Court’s Memorandum Decision, please visit here.

Sharon Iskra Argues Case Before Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia

On April 17, BG partner and Institutional Abuse and Neglect team leader Sharon Iskra argued before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in support of a $3.5 million jury verdict rendered against a residential care facility on behalf of two developmentally disabled individuals who had been abused as children.

As April is Child Abuse Prevention Month as well as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Sharon was proud to argue on behalf of her clients before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

To learn more about Sharon and her work, visit this link.

To learn more about the work of Bailey Glasser on behalf of the survivors of sexual abuse, visit here.

Brian Glasser Named a Top 200 Lawyer in America by Forbes

Bailey Glasser founding partner Brian Glasser has been named one of “America’s Top 200 Lawyers” by Forbes in its first-ever elite lawyer list.

Forbes described its criteria as follows: “[t]he elite lawyers on this list were selected through a rigorous, multi-stage process of researching, evaluating and rating thousands of candidates, conducted by an editorial team with broad experience in law practice and the legal marketplace. The result is a collection of top lawyers involved in the most consequential cases, deals or legal trends in recent years . . . . they all share reputations for integrity, records of excellence—and Forbes’ recognition as the best in the business. What follows is a power list of lawyers whose skill, passion and purpose set them apart—for when you or your business need it most.”

In the last two years alone, Brian won a $5 million award against MyPillow CEO and election conspiracist Michael Lindell; helped lead the challenge to Johnson & Johnson’s “Texas Two Step” bankruptcy maneuver on behalf of people injured by J&J’s asbestos-riddled talc products; helped win dismissal of the bankruptcy of 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies by a federal judge which thereafter resulted in the $6 billion settlement of more than 260,000 lawsuits brought by veterans and U.S. service members alleging that 3M military earplugs caused their hearing loss; and has won tens of millions of dollars for his clients in other lawsuits. He has also led the filing of hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of people abused as minors by the State of Maryland’s juvenile hall facilities via a new law passed in October 2023 that permitted previously time-barred claims by abuse survivors.

Read more here.

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