Filing FLSA Collective Actions After Provencher: Plaintiff Forum and Notice Strategy

This session examines how the Second Circuit’s May 2026 decision in Provencher v. Bimbo Foods Bakeries Distribution LLC completed a 6-1 circuit supermajority applying Bristol-Myers Squibb’s specific-jurisdiction rule to FLSA collective actions, effectively foreclosing nationwide collectives in most federal forums. Attorneys will learn how to evaluate forum options for multi-state FLSA collectives—including filing in the employer’s home forum, leveraging the First Circuit’s Waters decision, and structuring parallel statespecific collectives. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for forum selection, an understanding of the Rule 23 pivot as a jurisdictional workaround, and awareness of the unresolved Fifth Amendment briefing argument and Supreme Court cert risk.

This session examines how plaintiffs’ FLSA counsel can secure court-authorized notice and maximize collective size and settlement leverage under the four competing circuit standards now left in place by the Supreme Court’s February 2026 cert denials. Attendees will learn how Bristol-Myers personal jurisdiction constraints, arbitration agreement conflicts, and the Provencher decision reshape notice scope and geographic strategy, and how hybrid Rule 23/FLSA settlement structures can recover case value lost to narrowed collectives. Attorneys will leave with a framework for drafting notice motions, choosing multi-forum filing strategies, and structuring settlements in a landscape where a single filing can no longer reach a nationwide workforce.