Boston Lawyer Blog

Attorney Monica Shah Speaks to Massachussetts Lawyers Weekly on AI’s Impact on Employment Practices

Published on: March 10, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Monica Shah spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the risks artificial intelligence may pose in the employment context. “One of my concerns is that companies may use AI as a shield or as a way to [deflect] responsibility for decision-making,” Shah told the paper, adding “[u]ltimately, the decision to take an adverse action against an employee is the responsibility of the company itself.” The full article can be found here:

Artificial intelligence poses new ‘twist’ for employment bar

ZDB Attorneys Face Off Against Babson College in Employment Discrimination Case

Published on: February 28, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorneys Monica Shah and Tom Miller are now representing Lakshmi Balachandra, a female professor of color at Babson College pursuing a legal lawsuit for gender and race-based discrimination. Balachandra faced financial losses, emotional distress, and reputational harm because of persistent mistreatment as well as administrators’ failure to investigate her concerns. Attorney Shah explained to the Globe that “Today, Babson has done nothing to remedy the discriminatory environment that she’s in and has done really nothing to address her concerns…She feels like she has no choice but to file [suit].” Follow the story and ZDB’s quest to help her find justice here.

Additional links:

Mass. College Mistreated South Asian Professor, Suit Says

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz Speaks to Commonwealth Magazine About the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s First Report on Campus Sexual Assault Statistics

Published on: December 30, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to Commonwealth Magazine about the Department of Higher Education’s first report to the legislature on campus sexual assault statistics. In January 2021, Governor Baker signed into law “An Act relative to sexual violence on higher education campuses,” which we have previously discussed here. The law requires higher education institutions in Massachusetts to report annual sexual misconduct statistics to the Department of Higher Education, which in turn reports those aggregated statistics to the legislature. For the first reporting year, covering data for 2020, campuses reported a total of 901 sexual misconduct complaints. The data indicates that fewer than one third of these reported cases proceeded through adjudication to a determination of whether the school’s sexual misconduct policy was violated. The article is available here.

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz Speaks to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly About First Circuit Decision in Student Discipline Case

Published on: December 29, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about a recent First Circuit decision in Doe v. Stonehill College, where the First Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of a student’s breach of contract claims arising out of a sexual misconduct disciplinary process. The First Circuit held that the student had stated a claim for breach of contract based on various provisions in the school’s policies that had not been followed as the student expected they would. As Attorney Shatz told Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly, what is particularly interesting about the decision is that “[I]n assessing whether the school provided a fair process, the court really got into the nitty-gritty of how the people investigating and adjudicating the case at the school made their decisions and whether those decisions were reasonable.” The article is available here, and Attorney Shatz’s blog post on the case is available here.

Naomi R. Shatz quoted in Baltimore Sun article about her client’s Title IX complaint against former swim coach

Published on: September 14, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

The Baltimore Sun ran a story this week on Title IX complaints brought by six University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) swim team members, one of whom is represented by Zalkind Law. As the story explains, a law firm hired by UMBC recently finished an eighteen-month investigation into the swim team members’ sexual assault and harassment allegations against their former coach. The investigation found that the coach sexually harassed his male players and created a hostile environment by touching their genitals and buttocks, and attempting to kiss them, among other inappropriate behavior. According to the Sun, the Department of Justice is now investigating whether the school violated Title IX in its handling of this situation.

The full story is available here.

Attorney David A. Russcol speaks to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about First Circuit case on litigating under a pseudonym

Published on: September 10, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney David A. Russcol spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about a recent First Circuit decision in Doe v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the First Circuit addressed for the first time when a litigant can proceed under a pseudonym. The First Circuit held that courts must look at the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether litigating under a pseudonym is appropriate in a given case. The underlying case was brought by a student who had been found responsible for sexual misconduct at his university, and was arguing that the school’s proceedings that led to that determination were improper. One factor Attorney Russcol identified as weighing in favor of pseudonyms in these types of campus discipline cases is that “the purpose of the proceedings is not to determine the truth of the underlying allegations but merely whether a university followed its established procedures,” making the identify of the litigant less relevant than in other types of cases. The article is available here.

Press Coverage for Retaliation Claim Against Town of Williamstown Brought by Attorney David A. Russcol

Published on: October 21, 2021 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

See below for press coverage on the retaliation claim filed by Attorney David A. Russcol against the Town of Williamstown on behalf of a police sergeant who blew the whistle on discrimination, retaliation, and police misconduct. For coverage of the sergeant’s underlying suit, click here.

Naomi R. Shatz and David A. Russcol quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly article about the relationship between Title VII and Title IX

Published on: August 27, 2021 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorneys Naomi R. Shatz and David A. Russcol spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about a recent decision in Harrington v. Lesley College reaffirming that university employees can bring sex-discrimination claims under both Title IX and Title VII. Shatz said “I’m frankly surprised that attorneys for schools, especially in the 1st Circuit, are still making the argument that Title IX does not apply to employees when the case law is clear that it does.” Russcol agreed, noting, “Congress can prescribe different sets of procedures and remedies for different wrongs, even if sometimes more than one applies to the same person. It is important that all these avenues remain open to plaintiffs in appropriate situations.” Click here to read more.

Naomi R. Shatz quoted in Boston Globe Article About the Future of Flexible Workplaces

Published on: June 4, 2021 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to the Boston Globe about the SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being’s recent recommendations to the legal community about creating flexible, inclusive workplaces. She discussed her own experience working remotely during the pandemic, and her perspective that “working remotely, in my view, works just as well in many ways as being physically in the office. I think that is something that a lot of law offices did not recognize before the pandemic and are now seeing.” Click here to read more.

Naomi R. Shatz quoted in Law360 Article About Title VII’s Application to Lateral Transfers

Published on: April 19, 2021 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to Law360 about the EEOC’s recent push to convince federal courts that Title VII protects employees from discriminatory transfers and shift changes. Shatz explains, “[I]t’s just really important for employees and employers to understand that there’s so much more to a job and so much more to the terms and conditions of a job under Title VII than just what’s on paper in terms of a salary or job description . . . [E]mployers really can negatively impact employees in discriminatory ways without giving them a pay cut or demotion or something that was more traditionally considered an adverse action under Title VII.” Click here to read more.