Organizations Mentioned:Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, PC | PPD Development, L.P. | PPD Development, LP
After the employee requested accommodations, an HR employee emailed the HR executive director, mentioning “delicately working” the employee out of her position.
Affirming a district court’s dismissal of an employer’s motions for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial, and remittitur, the First Circuit determined that the employer failed to avail itself of opportunities to articulate its Rule 50(a) motion for judgment as a matter of law prior to the case going to the jury and could not use a subsequent Rule 50(b) motion to flesh out these grounds. In addition, the employer did not object to additional language added to jury instructions after it had been apprised of the proposed modification. Finally, the court found that a reasonable jury could have viewed the evidence in a manner supporting its punitive damage award (Menninger v. PPD Development, L.P., No. 23-2030 (1st Cir. July 24, 2025)).
The employer is a clinical research organization. The employee who brought this suit was its executive director for laboratory operations.
Client focus. In 2017, with its business stagnating, the employer decided to implement a plan focusing on client relationships. To that end, it tasked its operational leads, including the employee, with increasing their involvement with client pitches and other engagements.
Social anxiety. When the employee’s supervisor told her...
Governors from across the country played host to a variety of health conspiracy theories in Colorado Springs on Saturday, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expounded on ...