Littler Files Amici Curiae Brief Urging the Supreme Court to Review Notice Standards in Collective Actions

(November 19, 2025) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of two prominent industry groups. The brief urges the United States Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari to review the decision of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richards v. Eli Lilly and Company, et al.

The brief addresses the current four-way circuit split over the standard federal district courts should apply when deciding a plaintiff’s motion for conditional certification in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) collective actions. It argues that this circuit split can be resolved by overruling the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1989 decision in Hoffman-La Roche Inc. v. Sperling.

In Hoffmann-La Roche, the Court took the unprecedented step of authorizing federal district courts to abandon their neutral role in FLSA and ADEA collective action litigation to aid plaintiffs in adding nonparties to litigation in which they previously had no involvement. The decision, however, failed to provide any guidance on the standards to be applied to determine when this extraordinary exercise of federal judicial power should be invoked.

The brief also outlines the impact of these issues on the Amici and their members, how Hoffmann-La Roche was wrongly decided and why it should be overruled, and how judicial intervention resulting from lax notice standards harms defendants in FLSA and ADEA actions.

To read the brief, please click here.

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