U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

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On July 14, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a significant decision addressing the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime exemption for highly compensated employees (HCEs) in the oilfield services sector. In Gilchrist v. Schlumberger Technology Company, the court reversed a district court ruling and held…

With the drop oil prices several years ago, many energy companies conducted reductions in force. Some of those headcount reductions triggered litigation under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).  WARN requires employers with 100 or more full time employees conducting plant closings and mass layoffs to provide at least 60 days advance notice…

The Fifth Circuit recently held that a plaintiff-employee in an FLSA retaliation claim can recover damages for emotional distress but that the statute does not provide a retaliation cause of action for a nonemployee spouse. In Pineda v. JTCH Apartments, LLC, an employee of the apartment complex who did maintenance work around the property…

The Fifth Circuit issued an important opinion on an issue (i.e., judicial estoppel) that arises frequently when litigating employment disputes.  The issue is whether an innocent bankruptcy trustee is judicially estopped from collecting assets, on behalf of the creditors, that were not disclosed by the debtor in his bankruptcy filings.  The court of appeals held that, like…

In a discrimination case it is very important to determine whether the plaintiff is alleging direct or circumstantial evidence of discrimination.  This is important because the standard by which a court determines if the case should proceed to trial or not depends on this determination. In Jackson v. Cal-Western Packaging Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals…