$7.1 Million Awarded in Harassment : Courts: World’s largest law firm is ordered to pay former secretary twice as much in punitive damages as she had sought. Company says it will appeal.
A former secretary at the world’s largest law firm was awarded $7.1 million in punitive damages Thursday--nearly twice as much as she had sought--by a jury that found she had been sexually harassed by one of the firm’s veteran partners.
The judgment against Baker & McKenzie and its former lawyer is believed to be the largest ever awarded in a sexual harassment case, according to one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Philip Kay.
The six-woman, six-man jury had awarded former secretary Rena Weeks $50,000 in general damages last week from lawyer Martin Greenstein and the San Francisco-based firm where he worked for 22 years. Greenstein resigned in October, 1993, at the urging of the firm.
The second phase of the trial ended Thursday, when the jury voted 10 to 2 to award the $7.1 million, of which the law firm owes $6.9 million and Greenstein owes $225,000. Weeks had asked for $3.7 million in punitive damages. The two dissenting jurors were women.
Two jurors said the judgment against Baker & McKenzie was calculated at 10% of the capital of the 1,700-lawyer firm.
Referring to the firm’s evidence of recent efforts to educate employees about sexual harassment, juror Bill Carpenter told reporters: “Some people got religion. When you get religion, you should tithe. A tithe is 10%.”
A surprised Weeks said:
“I hope it never happens again but if it does, I’d do the same thing, because I’ve got my rights, my civil rights, like everybody does.”
John McGuigan, chairman of the law firm’s executive committee, said in a statement that the firm is “extremely disappointed by the jury’s award,” which he characterized as “grossly disproportionate” to the $50,000 in compensatory damages. He said the firm will appeal.
The size of the award contrasts to a recent study that found that the sexual harassment cases handled by the Equal Opportunity Commission in 1993 resulted in $25.2 million awarded to 1,546 employees--double the amount of monetary awards from 1992.
Weeks, 40, who worked as a secretary at the law firm for about three months in 1991--spending about a month working for Greenstein--is now a preschool teacher.
She alleged that Greenstein dumped candies into a breast pocket of her blouse, groped her breast, pressed against her from behind and pulled her arms back to “see which (breast) is bigger.”
In the office, she said, he lunged at her breasts. And another time, he grabbed her hips, and at a luncheon, asked her repeatedly: “What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done?” She was transferred to another lawyer after complaining to an office manager about the incidents.
During the trial, more than half a dozen other women testified that Greenstein had grabbed them, propositioned them or made lewd remarks in incidents dating back to 1988. One said he had walked up behind her and poked her in the back with a legal file. When she asked what that was, he replied, “Just happy to see you,” she said.
Greenstein, 49, admitted offensive behavior toward two secretaries, but denied Weeks’ accusations. His lawyer said Weeks made up her complaints to save her job, and that they were “the product of an overactive imagination” and motivated by reading an office handbook on sexual harassment.
Baker & McKenzie acknowledged complaints from other women about Greenstein but said its attempts to investigate were hampered by several women’s insistence on anonymity. The jury found that the firm had violated Weeks’ rights by not taking earlier action against Greenstein.
In Thursday’s statement, McGuigan said the firm “rejects the implication that it tolerates personal or professional misconduct of any type.”
The case, carried nationally on Court TV, was monitored by businesses and lawyers as a test of a company’s responsibility to deal with sexual misconduct complaints.
“This case will be seen as a landmark case (showing that) women have the same status as any other group and should be afforded the same civil rights,” Kay said.
Asked what message Thursday’s verdict was intended to send, juror Ray Williams said: “Hopefully, in the future, companies will regulate their staff more.”
This week, the state Legislature approved a bill to allow the clients of lawyers, bankers, psychiatrists and 17 other classifications of professionals to sue for civil damages on grounds of using a position of trust in a business or professional relationship to harass clients or patients.
