It’s GrubHub on Trial but Uber Has a Dog in This Fight Too

The gig economy—and especially Uber Technologies Inc.—is watching an aspiring Los Angeles actor.

Raef Lawson, who worked as a food-delivery driver for GrubHub Inc. while pursuing a career as an actor and writer, is the first to go to trial in a U.S. court to challenge what some see as the future of the American workplace—a model built on treating workers as independent contractors instead of as employees (Lawson v. GrubHub, N.D. Cal., No. 15-cv-05128, proposed findings of fact 10/24/17.

The dueling lawyers in Lawson’s case are also fighting in the same San Francisco federal courthouse over ...