Category: Media

Times West Virginian Article Covers BG’s Asbestos Lawsuit against Fairmont State University

A lawsuit brought by Bailey Glasser Asbestos & Lung Disease partners Michael Robb and Travis Prince on behalf of Donna Spurling, a former Fairmont State University (FSU) nursing student who developed terminal lung cancer from asbestos exposure, continues to draw significant media coverage.

The latest coverage comes from the Times West Virginian, highlighting the legal fight for transparency and accountability from both FSU and the West Virginia Board of Risk Insurance Management (BRIM).

The article details how FSU and BRIM are using sovereign immunity defenses to avoid liability and block discovery into their insurance policies that could cover the Plaintiff’s claims and would pierce the sovereign immunity defense. The lawsuit alleges Ms. Spurling contracted terminal lung cancer after being exposed to asbestos while a nursing student at Fairmont State University in the late 90s. Spurling argues that Fairmont State’s failure to cover her for asbestos exposure violates her constitutional rights and that the defendants have engaged in bad-faith settlement negotiations, denying discovery that would reveal the extent of insurance coverage provided by the state.

In the article, Travis Prince strongly criticizes the Defendants’ tactics, stating: “BRIM, in concert with FSU’s Board of Governors, has engaged in a game of charades to prevent Ms. Spurling from understanding the true extent of insurance coverage provided by the state.” Prince also calls for greater transparency, arguing that discovery is essential to uncover whether additional insurance exists to cover Spurling’s claims.

Read the full article here.

To learn more about Michael Robb, visit here.

To learn more about Travis Prince, visit here.

#BaileyGlasser #AsbestosLitigation #Asbestos

Partner Mark Boyko Quoted in Bloomberg Law About Federal Court Appellate Ruling

BG ERISA litigator Mark Boyko is quoted in a Bloomberg Law article (“Parker-Hannifin Suit Revival Hints at Lower 401(k) Challenge Bar”) related to a recent worker-friendly appellate decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The decision (note: Bailey Glasser is not counsel in this case) requires Parker-Hannifin, a Cleveland-based company, to defend claims that it mismanaged its 32,000-person 401(k) plan when it retained unproven and underperforming target date funds from Northern Trust. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found in a 2-1 split decision that Parker-Hannifin workers have viable ERISA claims because they plausibly alleged that the Northern Trust Focus Funds had high investor turnover and underperformed a target date fund index from S&P Global.

The decision marks the latest word on the “meaningful benchmark” standard that several courts, including the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth circuits, have used to assess whether retirement investors have identified a better alternative that’s sufficiently similar to the fund or fee structure they challenge.

In the Bloomberg article, Mr. Boyko states that an overly restrictive interpretation of the “meaningful benchmark” standard creates “huge obstacles for workers challenging actively managed funds or target date funds with distinct characteristics.”

To read the full article (subscription necessary) click this link.

To learn more about Mr. Boyko’s practice where he protects workers’ and retirees’ hard-earned money, please visit his firm bio here.

To learn more about BG’s nationally-ranked ERISA practice, please visit our ERISA Practice Group webpage.

Bailey Glasser’s Appellate Win Against NBA Gains National Media Attention

Bailey Glasser’s recent appellate victory in Salazar v. NBA is garnering national media attention, with new coverage by Bloomberg Law and Reuters. Partners Michael Murphy and Joshua Hammack achieved a landmark win in the Second Circuit, defending the right of consumers to control information about their video-watching history under the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

“They’ve got two choices—they either don’t use the pixel, or they get consent from their consumer,” partner Michael Murphy told Bloomberg Law regarding the importance of the recent Second Circuit decision requiring clear consent in data-handling practices.

At the heart of the case, Mr. Salazar, a subscriber to the NBA’s newsletter, alleged the NBA unlawfully shared his video-watching history with Facebook. A lower court dismissed Salazar’s VPPA claim based on its view that he didn’t meet the statutory definition of a “consumer.” The Second Circuit, however, vacated this decision, holding the VPPA protects anyone who subscribes to any “goods or services” from a video provider—even to non-audiovisual goods or services, like the online newsletters at issue in this case. The Second Circuit’s interpretation, which is the first in the country from a federal appellate court, sets a powerful precedent for future cases.

To Reuters, Joshua Hammack, lead appellate counsel who argued the appeal, described the decision’s impact. After noting that businesses profiting from targeted-advertising regimes that violate consumers’ privacy interests might have preferred a different outcome, Hammack said: “The Second Circuit confirmed Congress said what it meant and meant what it said. The decision is a slam dunk for consumers hoping to keep their personal information private.”

The case is Salazar v. National Basketball Association, Case number 23-1147, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. To learn more and to read the Court’s full decision, visit here.

To learn more about Josh Hammack, visit here.

To learn more about Michael Murphy, visit here.

WaPo: “Mike Lindell Must Pay Man $5M in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ Challenge, Judge Says”

Mike Lindell, MyPillow founder and 2020 election conspiracy theorist, has lost his challenge to the multi-million-dollar arbitration award made in favor of Robert Zeidman, a respected cyber expert. BG’s Brian Glasser and Cary Joshi represent Mr. Zeidman in this matter, as well as partner Lori Bullock and paralegal Manuel Rios.

Following the 2020 election, Lindell prominently trumpeted the false theory that the 2020 presidential election involved alleged Chinese government hacking that resulted in votes cast for Donald Trump being switched to Joe Biden. In July 2021, Mike Lindell sponsored his own so-called “Cyber Symposium”, which he said would provide an opportunity for technical experts in cyber forensics to examine and evaluate the evidence presented by Lindell. Lindell was so confident in the validity of his so-called “evidence” that, as part of his Cyber Symposium, he held the “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” and offered a $5 million prize to anyone who could prove the data was not valid.

As described in this Washington Post article, Zeidman compiled a report of his findings and sent a letter to Lindell’s firm asking for the reward, and filed for arbitration after Lindell denied his payment request. The arbitration panel required Lindell to pay Zeidman within 30 days, and when it was not paid Zeidman asked a federal court to confirm his arbitration award. On Wednesday, the federal district judge in Minnesota upheld the previous ruling from the arbitration panel and Zeidman is now owed the $5 million payout plus interest.

“The chances of a confirmation were in Zeidman’s favor,” Brian Glasser said, as arbitration rulings are upheld unless they are found to be obtained by “corruption, fraud or undue means.”

Read the full Washington Post article here.

To learn more about this case please visit here.

#ProveMikeWrong #BaileyGlasser #Electionfraud #Arbitration #Litigation

Op-Ed: “Without Funding, Student Discipline Bill Will Hurt the Kids Who Need the Most Help”

“This bill gives just half the solution: it relieves the teacher and protects the other kids, but in the majority of counties, steers the disruptive child out of the classroom and into a void where much-needed help simply does not exist.”

In their second op-ed, Sharon Iskra, BG’s Institutional Abuse & Neglect team leader, and Kellie Caseman, Executive Director of Think Kids in West Virginia, provide a persuasive analysis of a new West Virginia discipline bill they say will hurt the kids who need the most help.

The op-ed published in News From The States, points out that to many, Senate Bill 614 seems to be a balanced solution, allowing elementary teachers to remove disruptive students ages 5-12 from the classroom, however, it “puts nothing in place to help them,” they argue.

The article details important underlying facts to consider: only 13 of the state’s 55 counties have an elementary alternative discipline program, and many of the schools lack the proper program resources, which requires significant funding. Other factors such as law enforcement involvement and childhood poverty rates have considerable implications for the children subjected to these disciplinary actions and must also be addressed, they contend.

Read the full op-ed here.

To learn more about Sharon, follow this link.
To learn more about the firm’s Institutional Abuse & Neglect practice, visit here.

University of Iowa Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Attracting Media Coverage

A Bailey Glasser lawsuit filed last week against the University of Iowa on behalf of a former professor for sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, and unequal pay, is gaining local media attention – most recently by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, The People’s Network, and The Gazette.

The lawsuit alleges that Mélisse Brunet, the former Director of Orchestral Activities, was the victim of repeated sexual advances by Associate Director Alan Huckleberry, and also alleges she was subjected to gender-based discrimination and retaliation resulting in her resignation.

Partner Lori Bullock, who is representing the plaintiff said, “These disparities, are not only a violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act but also a reflection of the school’s ongoing failure to make the cultural changes necessary to address gender discrimination throughout the university.”

The lawsuit “has sent shockwaves through the University of Iowa’s School of Music and the broader academic community,” according to the article by the People’s Network.

Read this article and other news coverage of this lawsuit below:

The People’s Network

Iowa Capital Dispatch

The Gazette

#EmploymentDiscrimination #GenderEquality #SexDiscrimination

BG ESOP Lawsuit Noted in New York Times Article

The New York Times reported on a lawsuit filed by Bailey Glasser. The article, titled “He Grew Up in the Shadow of the ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ Then He Got Into Debt Settlement” (Saturday, February 10, 2024), details a debt settlement operation run by Ryan Sasson (the stepson of Stephen Drescher, a close associate of Jordan Belfort, the self-proclaimed “Wolf of Wall Street”) across several states and involving various entities and law firms – and even shoe designer Steve Madden – now facing serious civil fraud changes brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the attorneys general of New York, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

To cash out his stake in the company before the regulators pounced, Sasson sold the company to “to its employees, through a financial transaction known as an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). The deal valued the company at $242 million. Mr. Sasson described the transaction as something of a gift to the employees — ‘our Strategic family,’ he called them — who had built the company. Mr. Sasson had, effectively, cashed out. His employees now owed 100 percent of Strategic.”

Bailey Glasser’s highly experienced ESOP team filed a lawsuit challenging the fair market value of the $242 million ESOP transaction, which the Times linked to in its article. In 2019, the ESOP trust allowed Sasson and others to reap an additional $104.5 million from the ESOP, supposedly because the company met certain targets. Sasson and the other defendants are trying to move the lawsuit to a secret arbitration proceeding and limit the damages to a fraction of the excess money paid to Sasson and others. A decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on that issue is forthcoming.

Our award-winning and nationally ranked ERISA/ESOP team has deep experience in handling matters such as the one described by the New York Time article and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of employees and retirees. To learn more about our ERISA group visit here.

To read the New York Time article, visit here

Op-Ed: “What Are We Waiting For? Legislators, Our Child Welfare System Needs Immediate Action.”

“We can’t just plug holes. We need to fix the foundation. Everyone says children are our priority, so what’s the plan?” Sharon Iskra, BG’s Institutional Abuse & Neglect team leader, co-authors this insightful and powerful op-ed about the state of West Virginia’s child welfare system with Kellie Caseman, Executive Director of Think Kids in West Virginia.

Some data: “In 2023 alone, the Bureau of Social Services’ Centralized Intake hotline received roughly 40,000 referrals. Our state now has the highest ratio of child victims in the country: 17 per 1,000 children, which is twice the national average. And, despite the pediatric population decreasing by 10,000 between 2017-2021, more kids entered West Virginia’s foster care system in 2021 than in the five years prior.”

To read this article, visit here.

To learn more about Sharon, follow this link.
To learn more about the firm’s Institutional Abuse & Neglect practice, visit here.

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