RPJ’s Ethan Krasnoo was recently interviewed regarding his and RPJ’s Alice K. Jump’s client, Kimberly Steefel, in an article for Law360. A former attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP, Ms. Steefel filed a lawsuit against the firm and its employee benefits group leader, Brian Pinheiro, claiming that she was fired due...
By Ethan Krasnoo California, already known for its progressive and extensive anti-discrimination legislation, has once again raised the bar for workplace protections. Senate Bill 1137, which amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, went into effect on January 1, 2025. It is the first legislation in the nation to...
Recently, in Rajaram v. Meta Platforms, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that 42 U.S.C. § 1981 bars discrimination against U.S. citizens in hiring decisions when such decisions are made on the basis of their U.S. citizenship. The holding directly conflicts with a prior federal...
In Syeed v. Bloomberg L.P., 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 01330, 2024 WL 1097279, at **3-4 (Mar. 14, 2024), the New York Court of Appeals held that New York State and City Human Rights Laws apply to out-of-state job applicants who are seeking employment in New York, thus clarifying its prior...
By Deena Merlen and Cleopatra Elrashidy While many forms of discrimination are outlawed in the United States, there are quite a few forms of discrimination that are not expressly covered by discrimination laws and policies. One such form of discrimination is caste-based discrimination. The caste system, which regulates people’s social...
By Jill Kahn Marshall and Anna Beckelman On May 11, 2023, the New York City Council passed a bill that amends the New York City Human Rights Law to prohibit discrimination based on weight and height in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The bill is expected to be...
As the fall semester gets under way, Law360 published an article by Amanda Ottaway on the discrimination issues that U.S. colleges and universities should watch out for in the months to come, quoting RPJ Partner Helen D. “Heidi” Reavis. Legal experts opined on how schools of higher education nation-wide should...
During the past five years, the New York City Council has enacted a remarkably large number of amendments to the New York City Human Rights Laws that significantly expand employees’ protections against discrimination and harassment. The following is a listing of those amendments with a short description of the new...
Last week on July 9, RPJ Partner Helen D. (Heidi) Reavis presented via Zoom to Columbia University Law School’s LLM and U.S. Business Law programs, open to foreign lawyers and MBA graduate students around the world, on the history of American racial and gender profiling, the lead-up to the #MeToo...
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear three cases on the issue of whether gay and transgender workers are protected under the federal anti-discrimination laws. As noted in a prior post, in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., the en banc Second Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers New York) recently...