The Careerist: That Greenberg Gender Bias Case—Should Your Firm Be Worried Too?

Vivia Chen

The Am Law Daily

12-04-2012

I only read legal documents under duress. But the freshly filed $200 million class action lawsuit against Greenberg Traurig is a must-read. The complaint by former Greenberg partner Francine Griesing against the 1,700-lawyer firm for gender discrimination is both fascinating and lurid. . . 

I could go on and on about the salacious details. But let's hear directly from the plaintiff's lawyer: David Sanford of Sanford Heisler, who filed the suit in New York's Southern District.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause for bias in this case, which you say is very rare. The complaint says only 3.8 percent of single-plaintiff and class cases make the cut. What made this case so compelling?
The EEOC investigated [Griesing's allegations] for over three years, and they satisfied themselves that the firm's statistics on promotions, business credits, and pay made the case credible. It was a statistically based decision.

Wait a minute. If the EEOC made its determination based on Greenberg's poor statistics on women, couldn't a lot of other firms also be in trouble?

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