Frank the gargoyle vs karen1/5/2024 We see cases resolving more quickly and for higher dollar amounts than before,” says Katz. “There is less of an effort by employers to conduct smear campaigns about the victim and a greater receptivity to change. In that vein, Katz filed a high-profile lawsuit against DC celebrity chef Mike Isabella, which was recently settled. And while the celebrity cases dominate the news, Katz is seeing an overall shift in which women are coming forward because they feel they are more likely to be believed. That phenomenon-where one person shares their story, emboldening more to follow suit-has played out time and again in this #MeToo moment. When a story like this becomes public, it in turn empowers other people to come forward and shatters the type of silence that has allowed workers to be harassed and abused with impunity.” Believing women “In those cases, we may help them to be empowered to share their story. “Sometimes people come to us and because of the time that has passed, there isn’t a legal claim, but they have an important story to share,” says Katz. On the other hand, the firm will also take on clients even if there isn’t a legal claim, if they believe their cause can With a reputation for securing wins for clients, the firm is in high demand, which unfortunately means they have to turn down many meritorious cases. Her firm, Katz, Marshall & Banks, focuses on discrimination and whistleblower law. “That really launched my career as a women’s rights advocate.” We won the landmark decision 9–0 establishing that sexual harassment was a form of unlawful sex discrimination,” says Katz. I got to work with the greatest women’s rights lawyers of the time, including Judith Lichtman ’65, the executive director of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. The court, for the first time, made sexual harassment an illegal form of discrimination. Vinson, a landmark case before the US Supreme Court that recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It provided a place where students from different backgrounds were able to participate and focus on issues of discrimination, including race and gender.”Īfter law school, she received a fellowship at Georgetown to work on women’s law and public policy, where she was assigned to work at a nonprofit in the DC area that focused on women’s rights issues. “After arguing unsuccessfully for the need to revamp selection criteria to be more inclusive, I resigned and co-founded the Women’s Law Journal. Students of color were excluded from participating,” says Katz. There was lip service given to valuing diversity, but in practice, As a member of the Wisconsin Law Review, she was deeply concerned that there wasn’t a single African American member. Mentored by Professors Frank Tuerkheimer, CarinĬlauss, Susan Steingass, and Ben Kempinen, Katz says her legal education equipped her to become a powerful advocate and activist-and her advocacy started while she was still a student at UW Law. Going into law school, she knew she wanted to be a civil rights lawyer and focus on women’s rights issues. Whether penning an op-ed arguing for victim rights, attending a protest, or making legal services more accessible, Katz is determined to do all in her power to make a difference for victims of harassment and discrimination. Regularly featured in The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post, Katz feels that part of her role as a civil rights lawyer is to advocate for all victims of harassment, in part by taking a public stand. Just as important to Katz: speaking up, especially on behalf of those who might not have a voice in the conversation. As she works to leverage this moment of societal change into systemic improvements, her goals remain the same: to truly improve workplaces for the better, to improve conditions so all employees have the power to come forward, and to encourage companies to take better measures to protect employees. While this movement has amplified her career- long efforts, Katz has been steadily working Included in her high-profile caseload are clients who faced harassment at NPR and who reported sexual abuse at Harvey Weinstein’s company, as well as Michelle Manning Barish, one of four women who have accused Eric Schneiderman, the newly resigned New York attorney general, of physical abuse. Katz is at the forefront of sexual harassment litigation. Long before the #MeToo hashtag was trending, alumna Debra Katz ’84 began fighting for justice for victims of harassment. Considered a watershed national reckoning, the movement exposed just how prevalent sexual harassment is in the workplace. In the weeks following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the hashtag #MeToo exploded on social media channels, as millions of women used it to share their stories of sexual harassment.
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