AI Isn't the Problem. Lazy Lawyering Is.

Another day, another sanctions opinion involving a lawyer who filed AI-generated legal work product riddled with hallucinated cases.

This time, it's the 11th Circuit.

The court's opinion reads like something that should be satire but unfortunately isn't. Counsel submitted an opening brief citing at least eight nonexistent cases. After opposing counsel pointed out the problem, he tried to fix it by withdrawing the bad citations. Except the eight cases he "withdrew" weren't the same eight fake cases from his opening brief.

Worse still?

The replacement list consisted of eight more hallucinated cases.

You almost couldn't script it better.

Apple v. OpenAI offers a master class in spotting trade secret theft before it's too late

Apple's newly filed trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI contains an allegation that should make every employer's ears perk up.

According to the complaint, multiple departing Apple employees allegedly emailed Apple's confidential information to their personal email accounts on their way out the door. Apple also claims that some former employees later used Apple's confidential and trade secret information to help OpenAI develop competing hardware.

Whether Apple ultimately proves those allegations is for the courts to decide.

But the behavior it describes is one of the oldest—and most obvious—red flags in the employee-theft playbook.

When someone suddenly starts forwarding company files to Gmail the week before resigning, odds are they're not creating a personal scrapbook.

The good news is that employees who steal information often leave breadcrumbs. The key is knowing what to look for.

 

WIRTW #802: the 'it's a small world' edition

I love to travel. It's not just about the places you see or the things you do. It's also about the people you meet.

"Where are you from?" is one of the best conversation starters when you're traveling. That simple question just led to one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

My wife and I were on the ferry from Split to Korčula when a family sat down next to us, and we started chatting.

"So, where are you from?" the dad asked.

"Cleveland," my wife replied.

"But I grew up in Philly," I added.

"Philly? Me too," he said, giving me a fist bump.

"Where in Philly?"

"The Northeast."

"Same! Where did you go to high school?"

And that's when things got downright weird.

We didn't go to the same high school. As it turns out, he went to Central and I went to George Washington. But we both graduated in 1990, attended the same middle school, and discovered we have dozens of mutual friends. He even remembered my middle school homeroom number, a fact I had long forgotten.

Forty years after leaving Baldi Middle School, we finally became friends … on a ferry in Croatia. All because one of us asked a fellow traveler, "Where are you from?"

The world is a big place. Sometimes, though, it has a funny way of reminding us just how small it really is.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

When the boss gets involved, the investigation is already in trouble.

Last week, The New York Times published a deeply reported investigation alleging that Donald Trump personally intervened with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to have U.S. striker Folarin "Flo" Balogon’s red card suspended so he could play in the United States' World Cup Round of 16 match against Belgium.

Whether you're a soccer fan or not almost doesn’t matter.

The allegation is what matters.

The President of the United States allegedly used the weight of his office to influence what should have been an independent disciplinary decision. And according to the report, it worked.

That's not just a sports story. It's also a workplace investigation story.

The 4th Circuit just made wage-and-hour class actions a lot harder to certify

Not every wage-and-hour lawsuit belongs as a class action.

That's the lesson from the 4th Circuit's recent decision in Overby v. Anheuser-Busch, where the court vacated certification of a Virginia wage-and-hour class alleging employees weren't paid for mandatory pre- and post-shift work.

The case involved hourly employees at Anheuser-Busch's Williamsburg brewery. Employees claimed they performed a variety of unpaid activities outside their scheduled shifts, including donning and doffing personal protective equipment, complying with COVID-era screening protocols, attending shift-handoff meetings, and putting away tools. The district court certified a class of essentially all hourly brewery employees, concluding that the central question was whether Anheuser-Busch had a policy of paying only scheduled shift time despite requiring additional work.

Why your noncompete agreement could become "Exhibit A" in a discrimination lawsuit.

For years, employers have treated noncompete agreements as just another item in the onboarding paperwork. Hand over the offer letter, the handbook acknowledgment, the tax forms, and somewhere in the stack sits a restrictive covenant that employees sign without much thought.

The recently settled lawsuit against Boston Beer Company serves as a reminder that noncompetes rarely stay confined to contract disputes. They can become Exhibit A in a much larger employment-law battle.

The case was brought by several former sales employees who alleged gender discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, and unlawful noncompete practices. According to the complaint, Boston Beer required broad noncompete agreements for sales employees and aggressively enforced them against departing workers. The plaintiffs claimed those restrictions trapped employees in jobs they wanted to leave, prevented them from pursuing opportunities with competitors, and amplified the effects of alleged discrimination and retaliation.

Boston Beer denied the allegations. The parties have now settled.

The settlement itself doesn't establish liability. But the allegations offer several important lessons for employers.

The DOL's World Cup warning is really an overtime compliance warning

The Department of Labor has a message for employers in cities hosting the 2026 World Cup: We're here to help you comply with federal wage and hour laws.

Translation: We're watching.

The DOL's Wage and Hour Division recently announced compliance-assistance resources for employers in the 11 U.S. host cities preparing for the flood of soccer fans, tourists, hotel guests, restaurant patrons, bar tabs, rideshare trips, security needs, cleaning shifts, temporary staffing, and event work that will come with the tournament. The agency specifically pointed employers to resources for industries expecting World Cup-driven spikes, including restaurants, hotels, and other businesses serving fans.

That sounds friendly enough.

It's also a warning.