In a forceful slap at both the industry’s casual attitude toward employment laws and risk-averse lawyers who decline to push strong cases to trial, a Silicon Valley judge on Friday took the highly unusual move of rejecting the settlement in a class action accusing tech companies of agreeing not to solicit one another’s employees… [Lucy H. Koh of United States District Court in San Jose] also said … that Steve Jobs, Apple’s late chief executive, was “a, if not the, central figure in the alleged conspiracy.”
~ Judge Rejects Settlement in Hiring Suit Against Google, Apple and Intel, by David Streitfeld. NY Times.

See also: Silicon Valley hiring practices gets class action status