On the eve of trial, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. has settled with a former partner who accused the consulting firm of gender discrimination.
The trial was scheduled to start today in District of Columbia Superior Court. On Oct. 23, Booz Allen and plaintiff Molly Finn told the judge they had reached a settlement. The terms of the agreement are confidential, according to a Booz Allen spokesman.
Booz Allen is facing two other gender discrimination lawsuits still pending in Superior Court. Both cases mirror Finn's claims that the company pushed out women before they reached top leadership positions, an allegation Booz Allen has denied.
Richard Salzman and Stephen Chertkoff of Heller, Huron, Chertkoff & Salzman represented Finn. Neither could immediately be reached for comment this morning.
Booz Allen spokesman James Fisher declined to comment beyond confirming the case settled. McGuireWoods and Littler Mendelson represented the consulting firm. Lead counsel Stephen Robinson, a labor and employment partner in McGuireWoods' Tysons Corner, Va., office, said he had been handling employment matters for Booz Allen for at least 15 years.
Finn was the consulting firm's highest-ranking female partner before she was fired in September 2010, according to her complaint. She claimed the firm consistently forced out high-ranking women partners, paid women less and offered women fewer advancement opportunities. She filed suit in July 2011.
In August 2011, another former partner, Margo Fitzpatrick, filed a separate gender discrimination lawsuit against the company. Two years later, in May 2013, a former longtime attorney for the consulting firm, Carla Calobrisi, also filed gender discrimination claims. Both cases are still pending in D.C. Superior Court.
Fitzpatrick said she was fired as part of the firm's efforts to keep women out of upper management and in retaliation for reporting allegedly discriminatory behavior. Calobrisi said she was excluded from training and other advancement opportunities and was demoted before being forced to resign because of her age and gender.
Booz Allen denied any wrongdoing, saying previously that the personnel decisions at issue in Fitzpatrick and Calobrisi's cases were made for reasons other than their gender.
Finn's case was before Superior Court Judge Anita Josey-Herring.
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