Lawrence & Bundy is honored to be selected for the seventh year in a row for inclusion in the U.S. News – Best Lawyers® 2024 edition of “Best Law Firms.” We are especially grateful to our clients for sharing their experiences working with our firm and taking the time to highlight our agility, expertise, and ability to find creative solutions to resolve complex employment and commercial litigation matters.

On Thursday, October 26, 2023, a Georgia federal judge issued a 516-page opinion that has already prompted the Governor to call a Special Session of the Georgia General Assembly to redraw the maps for Georgia's 14 congressional districts and state House and Senate districts. The opinion may compel realignment of political forces across the northwestern part of the state as a new map will likely create a majority-Black district northwest of Atlanta.

This article was written by Thomas Bundy and Andrew D. Herman and first appeared in Maryland Matters.

Shortly after his inauguration, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) visited a research institute addressing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality. He touted the project as “a perfect example of how Maryland can become more economically competitive by creating opportunities through innovative partnerships.” As the state embraces the promise of AI, however, it must also address the risks presented by the technology.

We are honored to announce that Maia Cogen has once again been selected for inclusion in National Black Lawyers (NBL) Top 100 for Georgia. She joins Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Lovita Tandy who are also recognized in NBL as some of the nation’s most accomplished Black lawyers. 

Lawrence & Bundy is pleased to congratulate six of its attorneys recognized this week by Best Lawyers in America® 2024.  Allegra J. Lawrence-Hardy, Thomas R. Bundy III, Andrew D. Herman, Lisa Haldar, Leslie J. Bryan, and Maia Cogen received the distinction after undergoing the extensive peer-review process.  
 
“As a boutique litigation firm, it is particularly rewarding to have the talent of our attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers® every year since the firm’s inception,” said Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, co-founder of the firm. “We are humbled by the honor and very grateful to our colleagues for their recognition of the exceptional quality and commitment to excellence of our attorneys.”
 
The firm’s attorneys were recognized in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Employment Law – Management and Litigation, Litigation – Labor and Employment, White Collar, and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions. 
 
The Best Lawyers® distinction comes on the heels of the firm’s repeated inclusion in Chambers USA®, which is a ranking of the leading law firms and lawyers in the country based on client feedback.

Yesterday, in Groff v. DeJoy, a unanimous Supreme Court jettisoned the standard that courts and employers have relied on for decades to determine the existence of an “undue hardship” as a basis to reject religious accommodation requests. After Groff, an employer can reject a religious accommodation request as an undue burden only if granting the accommodation would result in “substantial increased costs” for the employer.

On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court issued a significant ruling on personal jurisdiction over corporate defendants in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co.—specifically, corporations that are authorized to conduct business in Pennsylvania. For those corporations, the simple act of registering with the Pennsylvania Department of State means the corporation has consented to being sued in Pennsylvania—by anyone and for conduct that happened anywhere. 

Today, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, deciding two companion cases challenging race-based admissions practices at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina. As many predicted, the Court held that using race as a factor in public college admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and, when carried out by institutions receiving federal funding, violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.