Back in September we described a case of same sex harassment and retaliation at a small mom & pop type business. It may be no surprise that a company with only a few employees and no compliance department would fail to prevent violations. But as a recent lawsuit by the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the victimized former employee shows, risk reduction measures by large corporations are also only as good as the persons implementing them. According to the lawsuit’s allegations, fast food chain Chipotle’s efforts to prevent harassment failed spectacularly. See generall ..read more

To state the obvious: yes, sexual harassment is not limited to men harassing women and yes, same sex harassment exists. Perhaps it is rarer, but it does happen. What almost certainly happens less often in 2020 than in prior decades—given the prevalence of corporate anti-discrimination policies, trainings, HR personnel and an increased cultural awareness—is brazen, unapologetic harassment, compounded by retaliatory termination. But that is what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleges occurred in a lawsuit it filed on behalf of a terminated employee in central Florida in July ..read more

Can a School District’s Policy to Allow Transgender Students to Access Bathrooms Consistent With Their Gender Identity Be a Basis for a Sexual Harassment Claim? The Transgender Student Paul is a 17-year-old junior high school student in Louisville, Kentucky whose sex was female at birth, but who, since at least the age of five, has had a lasting, persistent male gender identity. Because Paul’s birth-determined sex is different from his gender identity, Paul experienced relentless bullying in school due to others’ unwillingness to accept him as a boy, causing him significant emotional distress ..read more

Federal law not only protects you from workplace discrimination during pregnancy, but also from discrimination after pregnancy. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) of 1978 amended the Civil Rights Act to include discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k). Some federal courts have held that breastfeeding or pumping milk at work constitutes a “related medical condition” protected from discrimination. In the recent case of Mercado v. Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, L.P.a federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that a ..read more

Inmediatamente después de graduarse de la escuela de leyes, Carl comenzó a trabajar como asistente del juez Jorge Martinez.  A Carl le encantaba su trabajo, el cual le permitía presenciar juicios civiles y criminales, hacer búsquedas legales, redactar opiniones legales para el juez, hacer recomendaciones legales, y conocer a otros jueces, asistentes legales, y abogados prominentes de la comunidad.  Después de varios meses de trabajar con el juez Martinez, él le presentó a su colega, la jueza Martha Stone, y Carl inmediatamente se sintió atraído hacia ella. Para sorpresa de Carl, la atracción f ..read more