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Beginning of Employment Law Posted: August 29th, 2007 By: Zach Heller Category: Employment Law, Law Firms, Lawyer Profiles, SHOWCASE CORNER, Videos
Many of us have sat in an orientation meeting at our new job and listened to the workplace harassment warnings given by someone from the HR department. It seems like anytime you pick up the paper you read about a new harassment case of some kind. Well, not too long ago, employment law and sexual harassment did not even exist. In fact, it wasn’t until 1990 that an amendment to the civil rights laws brought the idea of workplace discrimination into sight.
Murray Schwartz has been practicing law since 1949. You may have heard his name mentioned before. After all, he is managing partner of Schwartz & Perry, LLP, a well-known employment law firm focusing on workplace harassment on the basis of sex, age, race, and disability. This is an area of law that he has become very passionate about and to which he has devoted his entire practice. A certified expert in the field, Murray has spent years educating his peers on the many aspects of employment law through lectures and counseling. He has become a well respected member of the law community and deserves everything he has achieved.
Murray Schwartz and his daughter, Davida Perry, won the first sexual harassment case in the US in 1990 called Thoreson v. Guccione and Penthouse Magazine. The ruling in this case set an extremely important precedent in employment law, that a defendant could establish a claim of sexual harassment against his or her employer based solely on the testimony of the victim. Many of today’s sexual harassment laws can be traced back to the ruling that Murray Schwartz won years ago.
Another important case that Schwartz & Perry has tried is Bracker v. Cohen. In 1991, the City of New York enacted a Human Rights Law authorizing a private cause of judicial action for victims of employment discrimination. The New York City law was challenged and Mr. Schwartz successfully argued at both the trial court and the appellate level on behalf of the law’s constitutionality. His position was upheld in both courts and as a result, New York City has the benefits of an effective New York City Human Rights Law.
Additionally, a jury in the New York County Supreme Court, awarded a Schwartz & Perry client in the case of McIntyre v. Manhattan Ford, an award of $6.6 million dollars in a sexual harassment and retaliation suit. This was the highest award that had been granted to a single plaintiff in a sexual harassment claim. Although the award was reduced to $3.1 million dollars on appeal, on the ground that the court considered the jury verdict too high, the reduced award stands as one of the highest jury awards for a single plaintiff in a sexual harassment case in the United States.
These three cases Thoreson, Bracker and McIntyre, have frequently been referred to as the "trilogy" of cases, each of which is highly significant in the development of the field of employment law. Schwartz & Perry understandably considers themselves privileged to have been the attorneys for the plaintiff in each of those three landmark cases.
Murray Schwartz is also a faculty member with Lawline.com. He has presented lectures that can be viewed for CLE credits on Age Discrimination and Trial Strategies for Employment Law. In the following video, Mr. Schwartz shares with us first hand that employment law and workplace harassment cases have unique challenges. There are a number of reasons for this of course, most importantly because is that it happens behind closed doors. There is usually a lack of evidence, a lack of witnesses, and a cover-up that naturally took place. However, Mr. Schwartz has continued to break down barriers and overcome hurdles to make these issues heard. For all of that we honor him, and praise his continued devotion to the field.
Featured Interview with attorneys at Schwartz & Perry
Comments
Interesting piece...I learned about the Penthouse case in law school, so it's interesting to actually hear Murray Schwartz talk about it here Comment By: Ben Gruber - August 30, 2007
Interesting to learn that one of the first sexual harassment cases had to do with someone who worked at Penthouse. Makes sense I guess. Comment By: Mike Sanders - September 1, 2007
