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Monica Shah authors amicus brief on behalf of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association in Burns v. Johnson, a case involving gender discrimination and hostile work environment claims pending before the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.  The plaintiff – a longtime employee with Department of Homeland Security and a mother of five children who worked an alternative schedule due to her childcare obligations – was almost immediately stripped of her responsibilities when a new male supervisor took over, singled her out and questioned her work schedule, and reassigned her main duties to a group of male employees to promote their “leadership” skills.  He further asserted his authority over her by wielding a baseball bat in every interaction he had with her.  MELA’s brief addresses the district court’s failure to consider the circumstantial evidence of gender-based discrimination and harassment against the plaintiff, including unconscious bias about women in leadership roles and gender stereotypes, and urges the Court of Appeals to vacate and reverse the district court’s decision to dismiss all of plaintiff’s claims.

On February 10, 2016, Inga Bernstein and Monica Shah had the pleasure of volunteering at the Cradles to Crayons’ Presidents’ Day Celebration of Service event.  Cradles to Crayons is a not-for-profit organization that works to provide essential items to low-income children, including clothing, school supplies and toys.  Monica has served on the Board of C2C since 2015. If you’d like more information about this terrific organization and opportunities to donate and get involved, visit the C2C website.

In January 2016, Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah spoke at the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association program regarding their recent nearly $11 million verdict in a race discrimination and retaliation case against the City of Boston. For more information about the case, click here for Boston Globe coverage and here for Boston Herald.

Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP is proud to announce that it has named two new partners.  Ruth O’Meara-Costello and Emma Quinn-Judge joined the firm’s partnership effective January 1, 2016.  For more firm news and information on our firm’s work, please follow us on social media at the following links.

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Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah represented Chantal Charles, a black woman and longtime public servant, in a race discrimination and retaliation case against the City of Boston and the City’s First Assistant Collector-Treasurer Vivian Leo.  The Boston jury awarded a nearly $11 million verdict to Ms. Charles, finding that the City and Ms. Leo engaged in a consistently enforced pattern and practice of discrimination against black employees.  The jury also found that the City and Ms. Leo retaliated against Ms. Charles for filing a charge of discrimination at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

The jury awarded Ms. Charles approximately $390,000 in economic damages, $500,000 for emotional distress, and $10 million in punitive damages.  The scope of the punitive damages award shows that the jury found the City and Ms. Leo’s conduct was outrageous and egregious.

Click here for the Boston Globe coverage and here for Boston Herald.

We are pleased to announce that five of our attorneys have been selected to the 2015 Massachusetts Super Lawyers List. We would also like to congratulate two of our attorneys for being selected to the 2015 Massachusetts Rising Stars list.

Super Lawyers rates outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Only up to 5 percent of the lawyers in a state are named to the Super Lawyers list, and no more than 2.5 percent are named to the Rising Stars list.

Please join us in congratulating the following attorneys who have been selected as “Super Lawyers” and “Rising Stars” this year.

Inga Bernstein and Rachel Stroup, along with attorneys representing co-defendants in a multi-defendant criminal case in federal court, successfully challenged the U.S. government’s motion for a protective order which, if granted, would have placed significant limits on our client’s access to discovery in his case.

Ruth O’Meara-Costello successfully helped her client defeat sexual assault charges in school disciplinary proceedings. Her client was a male college student who faced the possibility of expulsion and a tarnished academic profile. He was ultimately found not responsible for all charges presented to the disciplinary board and will not be sanctioned or have any disciplinary record related to the charges.

Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP is proud to announce that Inga S. Bernstein has been selected as Best Lawyers’ 2015 Boston Employment Law – Individuals “Lawyer of the Year.” Only a single lawyer in each practice area in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, rates attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. In addition to this year’s recognition, Ms. Bernstein has been listed in Best Lawyers in America every year since 2007 for both criminal defense and employment law. ZDB Attorneys Norman Zalkind and David Duncan are also listed in Best Lawyers. Ms. Bernstein, a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School, has been with the firm since 1995 and has been a partner since 2001. She concentrates her practice in the areas of criminal defense, plaintiff-side employment law, and civil litigation.

Ruth O’Meara-Costello represented a client in an unemployment case who was originally denied benefits upon leaving her position. The Department of Unemployment Assistance denied her these benefits on grounds that she was not available for work and on the grounds that she voluntarily quit. Ruth advocated for her client’s eligibility for benefits in two separate hearings appealing the denial and successfully reversed the original decision, winning both hearings and getting her client her deserved benefits.