Month: January 2015

Is Your Employer Different From the NFL?

This Sunday we will watch advertisements. We will see ads from an Official Pizza Sponsor (Papa John’s); an Official Dip Sponsor (Sabra Humus), an Official Chip and Dip Sponsor (Tostitos), and of course, an Official Beer Sponsor (Anheuser Busch). But among the gimmicks and cameos filling million-dollar ad slots, at least one ad will grab our attention in a more sobering and…

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Pay Disparity on the Silver Screen

Think fast: Can you name three pictures in which the actor Jeremy Renner has appeared? I ask this question because: (1) I wonder if I am uniquely out-of-step with pop culture; and (2) Renner is at the center of a growing conversation about Hollywood’s gendered pay gap. Due to the recent Sony leaks, we learned that  Renner — still not quite a…

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Lady Lawyer Lessons*: #LeanIn #LeanOut : The Hokey Pokey Pay Game

Recently, many of my clients and friends have been discussing problems and questions surrounding negotiating their pay.  One observed that, after negotiating her starting pay with her employer, her supervisor branded her as a trouble-maker – a reputation that, when she asked for a raise two years later, led to them (wrongfully) terminating her.  Along with being incensed at this…

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Ava DuVernay and the Blame That Women Carry

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the movie Selma and all of the controversy that has swirled around it. One way you could frame that controversy might be to lay out this series of questions that could be asked: Why wasn’t the movie more historically-accurate when it came to President Johnson’s position regarding the Voting Rights Act? Why wasn’t…

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Are Women Outpacing Men in the Workplace Because They’re Mind Readers?

As detailed last week in a New York Times article, a team of researchers from M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon, and Union College has published two studies demonstrating that there is a strong correlation between the number of women in a working group and the ability of that group to accomplish real-world tasks.  The first of the studies, which was published in 2010…

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Who Needs Representation More, People or Fetuses?

I am a huge “Daily Show” fan (and cried myself to sleep when “The Colbert Report” went off the air).  Last night, Jessica Williams had an AMAZING segment on a new Alabama law authorizing judges to appoint attorneys for fetuses still in utero.  Yes, that’s right: Alabama won’t appoint an attorney to help a woman prosecute, oh, say, a pregnancy…

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For the Children

Often employers seek to portray the employee who files a discrimination claim as self-interested, pursuing the claim out of spite or greed.  We, who do this work, know that righting discrimination is a socially valuable undertaking because a more diverse workplace benefits employees, clients, consumers, and the business itself.  But remedying employment discrimination also has another, less visible effect on…

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Sanford Heisler Kimpel Settles Office Depot Whistleblower Case for $68.5 Million

Posted January 14th, 2015. Estate of Relator David Sherwin and Some 1,000 California Public Agencies Share Award  For more information, contact Jamie Moss, newsPRos,201-493-1027, [email protected] (January 14, 2015, Los Angeles, CA) – A whistleblower’s estate and more than 1,000 California public agencies will share a $68.5 million settlement in a false claims act case (State of California ex. rel David Sherwin…

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Sanford Heisler Kimpel Celebrates New Name

Posted January 12th, 2015. National Public Interest Litigation Firm Announces Promotions and Hires For more information, contact Jamie Moss, newsPRos, , [email protected] (January 12, 2015, Washington, DC & New York City) – One of the nation’s most successful public interest litigation law firms has changed its name to “Sanford Heisler Kimpel, LLP” – adding “Kimpel” to what was previously known…

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What’s in a Name?

I work at a law firm that did something extraordinary last month: it added a woman’s name to the door. When the firm announced this name change, I immediately recognized its significance for the female name partner.  This distinction would raise her profile and signal to those outside the firm what those of us inside the firm already knew –…

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