Employment Law Results

Ed Buckley, Michael Kramer, and Anita Bala represent Hall County employees in a class action lawsuit which details how in 1998, Hall County completely changed its employees’ pension plan without fully disclosing the financial impact of the change to its employees or following an appropriate process to enact those changes.

On Wednesday, Buckley Beal participated in a hearing in Hall county Superior Court regarding the estimated $75 million class action lawsuit and the summary judgment motions pending before the Court.

As Michael Kramer told the Gainesville Times: “We think that the court should grant our motion for summary judgment, that the freeze was clearly unlawfully adopted and that any freeze is null and void as matter of law…”

Partners Brian Sutherland and Thomas Mew are headed to the Supreme Court of the United States!

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Buckley Beal LLP's case. Buckley Beal represents a social worker who worked for Clayton County and who was fired because of his sexual orientation. The lawsuit was dismissed because the court held that “discharge for homosexuality is not prohibited by Title VII.” In this landmark case, the Supreme Court will decide whether LGBTQ workers are protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. We are confident that Brian and Tom will help create favorable law that will protect all LGBTQ employees across the county.

Read more here.

Rachel Berlin Benjamin and Anita Bala filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of a former Food Depot employee who was sexually harassed and assaulted by her supervisor. As the lawsuit alleges, Food Depot failed to take action to address the harasser’s misconduct and instead allowed it to continue. Not surprisingly, the supervisor went on to sexually harass another employee after Buckley Beal’s client was forced to resign from her job.

In the summer of 2008, we obtained more than $65,000 for a client in a sexual discrimination case against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of the award was for the client's emotional distress arising out of the defendant's failure to promote our client to a position for which she was more qualified than the male that was selected.

Read the Order Entering Judgment

In late 2006, the firm won a jury verdict of $2.25 million in a sexual harassment case against an Atlanta-based chain of sports bars and its principal shareholder. Our client was the company's highest-placed female officer. The firm's trial team was led by Ed Buckley and included Dena George.

Read the Press Coverage

In 2004, Ed Buckley won a $1,060,000.00 verdict against Kennesaw State University in a sex discrimination and retaliation case. Our client was a professor of music. The jury found the university guilty of sex discrimination and retaliation when it promoted a far less qualified male to the position of Chair of the Music Department.

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Two years after Fulton County lost a reverse discrimination case in federal court, the county has paid three white former employees $3.5 million in damages.

Atlanta attorney Edward D. Buckley III, a partner at Buckley Beal, said the county paid the judgment on June 30, less than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court denied, without comment, Fulton's petition for a writ of certiorari. Fulton County v. Lambert, No. 01-1568 (U.S June 10, 2002).

Read the Press Coverage

In early 2007, the firm recovered just over $280,000.00 in back pay, benefits, and attorney's fees in an age discrimination case. The employer also unconditionally offered to reinstate our client to his job as Vice President of Marketing and Sales.

In 2003, the firm won a major victory on behalf of employees subject to unfair "non-compete" agreements. Georgia law requires strict scrutiny of these agreements and Georgia courts often bar employers from trying to enforce them. In Hostetler v. AnswerThink, the Georgia court of appeals held that Georgia courts have the power to prohibit former employers from trying to enforce invalid agreements throughout the United States, not just in Georgia. The Hostetler decison gives Georgia employees vital protection from "end run" efforts to enforce invalid non-compete agreements by filing lawsuits in other states.

In early 2005, Buckley Beal won a total of $1,045,000.00 in an arbitration brought on behalf of a stockbroker against the Smith Barney Brokerage firm. The case was originally part of the "Boom Boom Room" class action litigation, in which Smith Barney was accused of a nationwide pattern of sex discrimination and harassment. Buckley Beal represented three former Smith Barney female stockbrokers in separate arbitrations arising from the class action.