Urban Outfitters defeated a putative class and collective action in which plaintiffs alleged that the lifestyle retailer had misclassified current and former department managers as exempt from state and federal overtime requirements and sought to recover, among other things, unpaid overtime pay, liquidated damages and attorneys' fees. Our firm represented Urban Outfitters in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where a motion to decertify the class action was granted. The court held that the plaintiffs and opt-ins performed materially different duties with different levels of managerial authority and that, as a result, permitting the lawsuit to proceed as a collective action would not serve the interests of procedural economy or fairness.
Decertification reduced a putative class of 1,470 employees and a potential opt-in class of 211 employees to 47 individual cases in 20 jurisdictions around the country, which settled on terms favorable to our client.
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