Employment Law Victories

$468,000 For Victim of Retaliation

A Los Angeles company hired our client to work as an in-house recruiter. After one week of employment, he received an email stating that the company was rejecting a female job candidate he had submitted because the vice president wanted to hire a man. Our client sent an email objecting to the instruction, citing the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in the workplace and asking what the job's requirements were. He also confronted the vice president in person. The company fired our client a week later. Although the company told our client he was being laid off for "economic reasons" and was eligible for re-hire, the company told others that he had been fired for performance reasons. Our client was unable to find comparable work and also suffered depression (a condition that runs in his family).

We sued the company for unlawful retaliation under California's employment civil rights statute, the Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA"). During discovery, the company could not get its story straight about why it fired our client or who made the decision to do so. It also was caught (a) trying to hide a key witness and (b) trying to tamper with her testimony before she could be subpoenaed for a deposition. We filed a special motion for discovery sanctions and an instruction to the jury about the company's misconduct and the inferences that could be drawn from it. The judge hinted that he was going to grant the motion and then deferred ruling on it. The lawsuit then settled just two weeks before trial for $468,000.