Rutherford & Christie attorneys Lewis Silverman and Caroline Lineen recently tried an employment discrimination case to a defense verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiff, a teacher in the South Orangetown school district, claimed that the school district discriminated against her because she is of East Asian Indian descent and Muslim. She argued that the District paid her at a lower rate than other teachers, refused to transfer her from a third grade position to a sixth grade position, did not provide her with reasonable health care accommodations, and did not support her against parental complaints because of her race and religion.

During the trial, which lasted four days, R&C attorneys presented evidence to the jury to explain the District's rationale for all of its decisions. The defense emphasized that the plaintiff's complaints were normal workplace grievances having nothing to do with discrimination. The jury agreed and, after almost five hours of deliberations over two days, returned a verdict in favor of the defendants.