Richard Lapp and Joshua Ditelberg Quoted in Law360, Business Insurance and BNA on Major Victory for Client DHL

Chicago Labor & Employment partners Rich Lapp and Joshua Ditelberg scored a major victory January 11 when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to resuscitate a putative class action suit claiming shipping company DHL violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when it closed its U.S. domestic service and shut down five Chicago-area facilities. The district court had dismissed the claims on summary judgment. The articles point out that the court of appeals, in a case of first impression, held that hundreds of employees who had executed releases could not be counted as "employment losses" under the Statute because their departures were "voluntary."  

Law 360 quoted Rich saying, "We are very pleased on our clients' behalf.  This dispute has been going for quite some time. It's been a long haul for them. And they've invested a lot of time and effort to comply with WARN."  Rich added that the ruling now for the first time gives other courts guidance on how to determine whether employees voluntarily resigned under the context of WARN.

Similarly, Josh told Business Insurance: “This is the first 7th Circuit case that confirmed that employers can waive WARN Act claims.”