Gay Grunfeld participated in California Lawyer’s Labor & Employment Roundtable which was published in May 2016.
A full roundtable transcript is available here.
Gay opened the discussion by commenting on a recent case:
“MODERATOR: Farmers Insurance recently settled a pay bias suit brought by 300 of its former and current female attorneys for $4 million. What are the takeaways from this settlement?
GAY GRUNFELD: It’s interesting to me that the complaint was amended after the California Fair Pay Act came into effect. Just inferring from the timing, it looks like perhaps that law could have helped lead to a settlement.
I also want to point out the settlement is more than the $4 million reported amount because that doesn’t include the costs of a consultant to help Farmers Insurance address these issues. There is significant injunctive relief in this settlement as well as the attorneys’ fees that are on the top of the $4 million that will go to the claimants. It’s an exciting, promising development in terms of finally starting to address this long-held pay equity gap we’ve had both nationally and in the state of California.”