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The Cowan Law Firm
Employment & Civil Rights Law,
Business Litigation & Class Actions
Phone: (310) 394-
Fax: (310) 394-
Email: info@cowan-
Two Locations
BEVERLY HILLS
9301 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 609
Beverly Hills, California 90210
SANTA MONICA
401 Wilshire Blvd., 12th Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90401
© The Cowan Law Firm
Phone: (310) 394 -
Fax: (310) 394 -
9301 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 609
Beverly Hills, California 90210
Employment Attorney
Business Trial Lawyer
National Chain Pays $435,000 to Sexual Harassment Victim
A Fortune 100 corporation doing business in Southern California had a policy prohibiting sexual harassment that existed only on paper. As a result, for years our client was subjected to crude sexual comments by not only her fellow employees (male and female) but also her managers. When our client reported this conduct -
When our client finally reported her sexual harassment to managers willing to act, the company not only failed to follow its own procedures but also failed to take the kind of remedial action that either California or federal law requires. Shockingly, the company’s district manager supervising the investigation knew little about how to investigate sexual harassment. This supervisor also rebuffed our client’s efforts to report all of the harassment that had been occurring because this manager assumed (incorrectly) that she had been told about all incidents of sexual harassment.
All of these actions caused our client to become depressed -
We sued the company for sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(j)) and for failing to prevent sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(k)) after it rejected our offer to talk settlement without a lawsuit. After the company got the lawsuit transferred from court to an arbitrator (our client had signed an arbitration agreement), we started deposing key witnesses. Not surprisingly, the managers who had either turned a blind eye or perpetrated sexual harassment lied at their depositions about their actions. As a result, Jeffrey Cowan canvassed Southern California to find witnesses whom we believed would impeach the lying managers. Sure enough, both former and current disinterested employees gave testimony that contradicted the managers (and corroborated our client’s story).
Two months before trial, the company asked to mediate the lawsuit. After a mediation in San Francisco, the lawsuit settled in June 2009 for $435,000 and a promise from the corporation that its non-
Contact Southern California Sexual Harassment Lawyer Jeffrey Cowan at (310) 394-