In 2018, we had two of the Top 20 largest labor & employment jury verdicts in the country!

Race Discrimination and Retaliation

We represented a brave client who stood up to racism at Spire, a natural gas utility.  Just before the trial, the company did not offer even a penny to settle.  A jury in St. Louis awarded our client $8.5 million in actual and punitive damages - believed to be the largest verdict in Missouri history for race discrimination.  

Click here for the article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Retaliation and Service Letter

 Our firm represented a pharmaceutical sales manager at Astellas who lost his job after a false accusation in the workplace.  After protracted discovery battles and a scorched-earth litigation approach by the defendant, we tried the case for two weeks to a jury.  The jury in Independence, Missouri, returned a verdict for our client of $432,001 in actual and nominal damages, and  $6 million in punitive damages.  This is believed to be the largest verdict ever rendered under Missouri's century-old Service Letter Law.

Age Discrimination 

Along with the Popham Law Firm, we tried a three-week age discrimination case to verdict in Wyandotte County, Kansas, for a group of veteran employees who lost their jobs at natural gas utility ONEOK.  The jury returned a verdict of approximately $917,000, awarding our clients their full backpay; this is believed to be the largest discrimination verdict ever in a Kansas state court.  Our clients have gone on to rewarding and fulfilling careers and to spending quality time with their families. 

Click here for the article in the Kansas City Star.

Age/Disability Discrimination

A NICU nurse worked  successfully for 18 years at the same hospital. As she hit age 60, her health problems increased and grew more severe in nature.  One day, she had an asthma attack, and was given oxygen by her co-workers at the hospital.  She was also hospitalized for her asthma.  Soon after, she was fired, and in an unemployment hearing, her supervisor admitted that they were firing her for her problems with asthma. Our team worked this case up and deposed the discriminators, leading to a final settlement which made our client more than whole. 

Our client, an accomplished employee of the City of Kansas City who worked in community outreach and violence prevention, was fired following a flare-up of a medical condition.  Management failed to account for our client's medical needs and treated her differently than they did similarly-situated male employees.  A Jackson County jury returned a verdict of $172,000, and the Court also entered an award of over $300,000 in attorney's fees and costs.  Related actions against other defendants were resolved confidentially before trial.

Our client worked for a large, national financial services company.  As the only African-American in his department, he faced stereotyping about his abilities, competence, and demeanor.  When White employees got mentorship and constructive feedback, he got writeups.  At a holiday party, a drunk executive said a comment to the effect of: "Get this Black guy out of here!"  After our client made a report of discrimination to Human Resources, the stereotyping and microaggression began, culminating in his termination.  After hard-fought litigation, we obtained a $675,000 settlement.  Today, he is a real estate investor and entrepreneur.