Know Your Judge: Jorge L. Alonso

This week in Know Your Judge, we feature Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Alonso took the bench in 2014 after being nominated by then-President Barack Obama. Born in Cuba, Alonso obtained his J.D. from George Washington University Law School in 1991.

Last week, Alonso handed a complete victory to Northwestern University in a lawsuit challenging how the university managed its workers’ retirement savings. In ruling against the workers, Alonso held that their theory—that certain investment options in their retirement plan lineup were imprudent because there were better ones—was “paternalistic.” The ruling marked the second time in two years that a prominent college defeated such a claim involving the administration of its retirement plans.

Earlier this year, Alonso ruled that Walmart had to defend claims by an Illinois worker who alleged that the retailer denied her promotions and pay raises because of her sex.

Alonso said that allegations of sex bias, including that the worker was told early in her employment that she wouldn’t be promoted because she wore jeans and a T-shirt to work were sufficient to support the claim at trial. Among other claims, the worker alleged that such comments wouldn’t be addressed to male employees.

Numbers & Statistics

Alonso has been more likely to grant requests to dismiss lawsuits in employment discrimination cases than to grant such requests in employee benefits disputes. During his tenure, he has fully or partially granted more than 75 percent of employers’ motions to dismiss employment discrimination claims.

In the past four years, Alonso’s rulings have been fully or partially affirmed in most cases involving labor, employment, and benefits matters. During this time, only one of his employment discrimination rulings was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, according to Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Analytics.

Alonso usually takes less time to resolve disputes involving benefits, wage and hour, and labor issues than he takes in cases over employment discrimination. On average, it took Alonso:

• 569 days to resolve a disability discrimination lawsuit (he heard 10);
• 263 days to close a lawsuit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (he heard 64);
• 482 days to dispose of an employment discrimination dispute (68);
• 306 days to resolve a Fair Labor Standards Act claim (65); and
• 331 days to dispose of a general labor case (7).

This data reflects Alonso’s rulings through May 25, 2018.

Looking for more analytics on judges? Check back each Wednesday for our Know Your Judge feature, or try Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Analytics. And contact us if there’s a judge you want us to feature.