Lorie Almon, head of Seyfarth Shaw’s New York labor and employment practice, must have known she had her work cut out for her last October when she entered state court in Newark on the opening day of trial. Her client, Costco Wholesale Corporation, faced a claim by an African American former employee who alleged that he was unfairly passed over for promotion and demoted because of his race. The venue is generally viewed by corporate defendants as an especially difficult one for such claims.
Almon had already winnowed the case down to a single remaining claim–that Costco had created a hostile work environment–but after a weeklong trial, jurors took only 35 minutes to return a verdict for her client. (The plaintiff has not appealed.) Almon has “the ability to think on her feet,” says David Ross, a former managing partner of the New York office. “She is one of the best trial lawyers I’ve ever seen in 40 years of practice.”
