His own emails sank the case - a lesson for hiring managers on reference checks

A federal court threw out a job candidate's retaliation lawsuit against tech firm AlphaSense, ruling on July 1, 2026, that his own emails undercut the claims in his complaint.

The plaintiff, a Stanford-educated litigation associate and licensed D.C. attorney, applied to several tech companies last spring, AlphaSense among them. In late April 2025, after making it through much of the interview process, he learned the company wouldn't be making an offer. At his own request for "candid feedback," AlphaSense's vice president of legal got in touch. Over the following week the two traded emails while the company tried to confirm the plaintiff's standing with his law firm. The firm wouldn't discuss his performance, so AlphaSense moved on to other candidates.

A few months later, the plaintiff sued AlphaSense in D.C. Superior Court. His argument: the company had violated the D.C. Human Rights Act - the district's law against workplace discrimination and retaliation - by conditioning his continued candidacy on getting his law firm to hand over confidential information. When he wouldn't do it, he said, AlphaSense cut him loose. AlphaSense moved the case to federal court and asked for it to be dismissed. The plaintiff pushed back and asked the judge to send it back to state court instead.

The court sided with AlphaSense on both counts. On jurisdiction, it found the case belonged in federal court - the two...

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