Legal News

The Name on the Bayer Suit: The Increasingly Visible Sanford Wittels

By Ashby Jones

A twenty-plus-lawyer law firm known as Sanford Wittels & Heisler has made a bit of a name for itself in recent months, mainly by hitting some huge companies with eye-popping gender discrimination suits.

The latest: Monday morning the firm filed a suit against Bayer AG’s U.S. health-care arm, claiming the unit discriminates against its female employees in terms of pay, promotion, and pregnancy leave.

The request: $100 million. Click here for Chad Bray’s story in the WSJ; here for the complaint, filed in federal court in Newark.

“Bayer denies the allegations of gender discrimination and will vigorously defend itself against these charges,” a company spokeswoman said. “Bayer will not comment further on pending litigation, other than to note that it is committed strongly to a policy of non-discrimination and equal treatment for all employees.”

Katherine Kimpel, a lawyer for the women bringing suit, said, “Bayer engages in systemic discrimination against its female employees- particularly those with family responsibilities-by paying them less than their counterparts, denying them promotions into better and higher paying positions, limiting their employment opportunities to lower and less desirable job classifications, and exposing them to different treatment and a hostile work environment.”

Indeed, the suit is the latest in a spate of sex-discrimination suits filed by the firm. Last month, the firm sued Toshiba Corp.’s U.S. business and French advertising company Publicis Group SA on behalf of female employees in the U.S.

In July, Novartis AG’s U.S. unit agreed to pay $175 million to settle a long-running discrimination brought by Sanford Wittels. The settlement followed a $253 million jury verdict against the company.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 21, 2011 (boomark / email).