Eli Lilly wins Seventh Circuit ruling rejecting lenient collective action notice standard
Client(s) Eli Lilly and Company
Jones Day successfully represented Eli Lilly and Company in this Age Discrimination in Employment Act collective action in which the plaintiff sought court-authorized notice to thousands of current and former Lilly employees over age 40 who allegedly had been denied promotions since February 2022. After Jones Day took over the defense, the Firm obtained a stay and pursued interlocutory appellate review of the district court's notice order before notice issued. The Seventh Circuit granted rehearing, accepted the appeal, vacated the notice order, and rejected the decades-old Lusardi standard, holding that defendants must be permitted to submit rebuttal evidence and evidence that overlaps with the merits, and that district courts have discretion to apply a more balanced framework at the notice stage than Lusardi allowed. The decision aligns the Seventh Circuit with the Fifth and Sixth Circuits and provides employers an important tool for challenging collective actions before notice is sent to large groups of employees.
Richards v. Eli Lilly and Company, et al., No. 1:23-cv-00242, (N.D. Ind.); No. 24-2574 (7th Cir. )
