The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found “Female employees were subjected to disparate treatment in compensation, terms, conditions and privileges of employment,” said Spencer Lewis Jr., New York district director of the EEOC, in an opinion dated Thursday and made public Monday.
Lewis also found that Boies, Schiller & Flexner maintained a two-tier system of compensation — one for lawyers on the partnership track, one for the others — “which is not applied uniformly, resulting in discrimination against a class of female associate attorneys.”
Boies was Al Gore’s chief lawyer in the presidential election recount battle. He also led the government’s antitrust case against Microsoft.
The EEOC decision is final, Lewis said. Under the commission’s procedures, the law firm has been invited to confer with the EEOC to remedy the violations. If the EEOC is not satisfied by such conciliation, it can file a lawsuit.
Katherine Eskovitz, a senior associate, said the law firm was “looking forward to having the opportunity to present the whole picture to them concerning our employment policies and practices.”
