When dealing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is critical for corporations to assert their due process rights, says Gerald Maatman Jr., the Seyfarth Shaw lawyer who in March defeated the EEOC in a major gender discrimination case on behalf of Sterling Jewelers Inc. [see above].
“The takeaway is that if you are the general counsel or the employer, you want to make sure you have a very clear picture of what the EEOC has done—who they interviewed and what data they have,” Maatman says. In Sterling, the scope of the case far exceeded the scope of the agency’s investigation. “We learned that they actually investigated only one store in New York and two in Tampa.”But the hard lessons probably belong to the lawyers on the other side. Akron-based Sterling is the parent company of Kay Jewelers, Jared and other retail jewelry chains. The EEOC sued on behalf of 44,000 women employees, making it the largest such EEOC suit in the country, Maatman notes. It accused Sterling of a nationwide pattern of discrimination; the evidence was pay and promotions. It was filed by Ronald Cooper, then–general counsel of the EEOC, and signed by senior trial attorney Margaret Malloy of the New York district office.
