August 4, 2021

Alex Berke Quoted in Law 360 Piece on the Cuomo Sexual Misconduct Fallout

In the fallout of the New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ report on her office’s investigation into sexual harassment claims brought against Governor Cuomo, many New Yorkers and Americans are asking, “What’s next?” While the path ahead is still unclear, the report itself provides a cogent roadmap for any potential lawsuits that might come as a result of Cuomo’s actions.

Senior Associate Alex Berke was quoted in Frank Runyeon’s analysis for Law 360, which details the investigation’s potential role to play in future litigation:

A key question for Cuomo and his allies is what will follow the AG's incendiary report, Berke said.

"Even though there's this kind of bombshell report of with so many details of actions of the governor took," Berke said, barring a criminal indictment or impeachment, "all that can come next is whether or not individuals choose to bring a claim against him." If they do, she said, the report certainly provides plenty of behind-the-scenes insight that would greatly improve the specificity of a plaintiff's claims, help craft deposition questions and target discovery requests.

Potential plaintiffs "now have a lot more information about what happened than the usual employee" bringing an employment claim, Berke said. Without ever conducting discovery or deposing a witness, they can benefit from the trove of details in the report, she added.

Click to read the rest of Cuomo Sexual Misconduct Report A Road Map For Lawsuits.

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The Rhetoric of Choice Obscures Our Social Obligations to Parents

January 30, 2020
Paid Family Leave
FMLA
Pregnancy Discrimination
Leave
Who should foot the bill or take responsibility for social reproduction as more women were pressed into the workforce, government or the individual? In the US, the answer was resounding: the individual. And this has had significant consequences for working parents since. By placing the responsibility on the individual, almost always the mother, parents have been in a bind for decades and any "choices" available reside in an astonishingly thin sliver of options constrained by structural inequalities

Female Flight Attendants and Pilots File Discrimination Suit Against Frontier Airlines, Alleging Discrimination against Pregnant and Nursing Mothers

January 13, 2020
Gender Discrimination
Pregnancy Discrimination
Two lawsuits were filed against Frontier airlines alleging that the Company required pregnant employees to suspend work duties months before they were scheduled to give birth, forcing employees to use their vacation days in lieu of paid time off, take unpaid maternity leave without Frontier providing alternatives for work, and refuse to accommodate breastfeeding and pregnant workers.

New Report from Uber Highlights the Risks of Driving in the Gig Economy

January 6, 2020
Sexual Harassment
Among the most significant risks to Uber drivers were those in the form of sexual and physical assault on the job, with 42% of assault cases being reported by drivers. The most common assault reported by drivers and riders was "non-consensual touching of a sexual body part," with 1,560 cases reported in 2018 alone.

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