Class Action Against 3M in Age Discrimination Case to Proceed

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (APRIL 15, 2008) Lawfuel — The Chief Judge of Ramsey County, Minnesota has ruled that an age discrimination suit filed by five 3M employees may proceed as a class action on behalf of about 6,000 Minnesota-based current and former 3M salaried employees over the age of 45.

The suit alleges that when James McNerney, currently CEO of Boeing, became CEO of 3M in 2001, he made clear his intent to favor young employees. Plaintiffs claim that Minnesota’s largest private sector employer has adhered to this policy and violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) in performance appraisal, training, promotion, pay and termination decisions that have systematically harmed older employees.
The suit’s focus on those types of decisions makes this case unusual, according to Susan Coler, a partner at Sprenger + Lang and one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “Almost all age discrimination class and collective actions have alleged discrimination in termination decisions, and the remainder of the cases have alleged discrimination in hiring,” she said. “3M’s overt statements about its preference for younger employees in decisions such as selections for leadership training and promotions led us to make challenges beyond discriminatory terminations.”
In addition to a court order requiring 3M to change business practices, the suit seeks millions of dollars in damages to compensate class members for the pay and benefits they should have received. The suit also seeks up to three times the economic losses suffered by class members, punitive damages to deter 3M from engaging in similar conduct in the future, and to send the message to other employers that age discrimination will not be tolerated.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers also are actively exploring a parallel suit on behalf of non-Minnesota employees. “3M’s practices and attitudes that we allege resulted in systemic discrimination in Minnesota applied across the country. We are developing a nationwide case to allow non-Minnesota salaried employees to recover as well,” said Thomas J. Henderson, another Sprenger + Lang partner and attorney for the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs and the class are represented by the law firms of Sprenger & Lang, PLLC and by AARP Foundation Litigation. 3M workers who believe that they have been harmed by age discrimination or who have questions should contact contact@sprengerlang.com or (612) 486-1815.

ABOUT SPRENGER + LANG PLLC

Sprenger + Lang PLLC, with offices in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., has obtained some of the country’s largest gender, age, and race discrimination judgments on behalf of tens of thousands of discrimination victims. Sprenger & Lang has successfully represented classes of plaintiffs against companies such as Morgan Stanley, CBS, C.H. Robinson, New York Life, Northwest Airlines, First Union, Amtrak and Ceridian Corporation. The firm is featured in the book Class Action, which discusses a gender discrimination class action lawsuit that the firm successfully prosecuted for over ten years and inspired the recent feature film North Country. More information is available on the firm’s website, www.sprengerlang.com.


To redress what it terms a “persistent lack of diversity” in the legal profession, one of the nation’s largest corporate law firms will commit $9.6 million over the next decade toward a program designed to encourage minority students to become attorneys.

Skadden

To redress what it terms a “persistent lack of diversity” in the legal profession, one of the nation’s largest corporate law firms will commit $9.6 million over the next decade toward an honors program designed to encourage and support minority students at the City College of New York to become attorneys.

The Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Honors Program in Legal Studies is set to begin on the 14,000-student Harlem campus this fall. Freshman and sophomores will be recruited for what will eventually involve 100 juniors and seniors in a two-year curriculum of course work and seminars to complement the school’s range of undergraduate academic majors.

Senior partner Joseph H. Flom said the firm decided “to go big time” when six months ago a committee of Skadden partners was formed to contemplate a public interest initiative in observance of the firm’s 60th anniversary.

Through his family’s private foundation, Mr. Flom has long been involved with programs at City College, among the nation’s most racially and ethnically diverse campuses.

“The main thing is to create a pipeline for minorities available for law firms to hire,” said Mr. Flom, who called the initiative “ground-breaking.”

Supporting one or two minority students at a time means “they don’t have a peer study group to reinforce each other. That’s why we decided to go big” by preparing 100 minority students each year to enter the nation’s law schools.

Gregory H. Williams, president of City College, said Skadden’s program is a natural addition to the school’s 160-year tradition of educating poor and working-class students and “not only giving them access to the American dream, but also bringing their talents to every area of American society.”

In financial terms, Skadden’s new honors program at City College surpasses even the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, established in 1988 to commemorate the firm’s 40th anniversary. To date under the fellowship program, one-year public service salaries have been underwritten by the firm for 503 law school graduates.

In addition to curricular work, the City College honors program includes financial assistance based on need and merit, LSAT preparation, counseling during transition from City College to law school, mentoring by Skadden lawyers and others, and paid summer internships at major law firms, corporations and public interest organizations nationwide.

The honors program also will include dormitory rooms for out-of-town applicants, an endowed professorship to oversee the program and campus space to house the Skadden Arps Legal Honors Center, where students may gather informally, for study, or to meet with advisors and adjunct instructors from Skadden and other firms, as well as in-house corporate counsel.

“It’s all a work in progress. We’re going to do whatever it takes,” said Mr. Flom. As for the professorship, he said, “They can name it after me or whoever they want.”

Among the first to sign on as an advisory board member for the project was Dean Elena Kagan of Harvard Law School, Mr. Flom’s alma mater. Another early signatory was Dean Richard L. Revesz of New York University School of Law, who has frequently complained of the legal world’s historically low ratio of minority attorneys.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics over the past several years, only 11 percent of the nation’s approximately 1 million lawyers come from the minority population, compared with 25 percent of physicians and surgeons, 21 percent of accountants and auditors, and 18 percent of college and university teachers.

Feeder institutions for the nation’s law schools tend to graduate students considerably more affluent than those at City College, founded in 1847 as The Free Academy. City College has served many generations of poor and immigrant students, along with those who faced religious and ethnic discrimination. It was tuition-free until 1975.

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