Mark W. Batten
Partner
Mark Batten is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Class & Collective Actions Group.
Mark represents employers nationwide at all stages of complex employment litigation, including class and collective actions on wage and hour matters and discrimination claims. Ranked by Chambers USA, Mark is hailed as “a fabulous lawyer, handling interesting and complex cases.” Clients “highly recommend him to anyone seeking litigation counsel in the Boston area,” as well as note “he is responsive, pragmatic and team-oriented, and offers excellent legal advice.”
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Class action defense counsel, at least, have argued for a long time that there is a basic incompatibility between collective action claims under the FLSA, which require individual plaintiffs to opt in to the litigation, and wage claims brought under state law, which generally are opt -out cases — meaning that everyone in the job classification … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court, not surprisingly, granted Wal-Mart’s petition for certiorari today, agreeing to review the 500,000-member class certification decision from the Ninth Circuit, which had held 6-5 that the class could be certified, even though, as Judge Kozinski wrote, the class members held a multitude of jobs, at different levels of Wal-Mart’s hierarchy, for variable … Continue Reading
Since the Supreme Court’s decisions in Iqbal and Twombly, which seemed to require greater “heft” in pleadings than the more liberal standard that went before, class action defense lawyers (and non-class action defenders, for that matter) have been testing the value of those decisions, with inconsistent results. Some courts have imposed little more burden on … Continue Reading
The post-oral-argument betting is that the Supreme Court will uphold California’s prohibition on class action waivers in arbitration agreements, in AT&T v. Concepcion — through some combination of conservative Justices concerned about protecting states’ rights and less conservative judges concerned about unconscionability.… Continue Reading
One of the most popular flavors of FLSA collective action these days is a claim by exempt employees claiming that they are not really exempt, and so are owed overtime. But those cases can be hard to certify, as the Second Circuit pointed out again Oct. 27 in Myers v. Hertz (PDF).… Continue Reading
On September 24, 2010, Justice Scalia granted a stay, pending a certiorari petition, of a $241 million judgment against Philip Morris brought in Louisiana state court by a class of Louisiana residents. Rejecting several arguments in favor of the stay, Justice Scalia found one persuasive: that defendants were denied due process because the individual class members were … Continue Reading
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers pay exempt employees on a salary basis, generally thought to mean a fixed amount regardless of hours worked. But many employers have either considered or implemented programs that pay bonuses to exempt employees who work extraordinary hours (please don’t call it “overtime”!). Some cautious lawyers worry … Continue Reading
