After almost five years of intense, closely-watched litigation, defense lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings may finally be close to knocking out a proposed gender discrimination class action against Goldman Sachs & Co.
The lawsuit was brought by former Goldman vice president Cristina Chen-Oster and former associate Shanna Orlich, who sought to represent a class of nearly 1,800 women who worked at the bank from 2002 to the present. The women, represented by Outten & Golden and Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, allege that Goldman’s pay and promotion practices systematically favored men and that the bank maintained a “boy’s club” work atmosphere.
