4th Circuit revives lawyer's 'glass ceiling' suit against Booz Allen
A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit by a former in-house lawyer at Booz Allen Hamilton who alleged the consulting firm had a pattern of discriminating against older women.
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the suit filed by Carla Calobrisi, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. The unpublished opinion (PDF) allows Calobrisi to seek to prove claims of discrimination and constructive discharge.
A federal judge ruled last year that Calobrisi had failed to show that a restructuring of the law department where she worked was a pretext for age and sex discrimination. Calobrisi was demoted in the January 2011 restructuring. She was 55 at the time. When she left the firm in October 2011, she was replaced by a 31-year-old male.
Calobrisi had claimed a “glass ceiling” at Booz Allen prevented the advancement of female employees, particularly women who were older or who were in higher-ranking positions. She had offered the testimony of seven other middle-aged women who said they were also targeted for adverse employment actions. The district court did not consider the evidence when granting summary judgment to Booz Allen.
The judge should have considered several factors when determining whether the evidence was relevant and admissible, the 4th Circuit said in a per curiam opinion. Instead, the district court conducted “very nearly its entire admissibility analysis” in “a single sentence,” the appeals court said. “From our vantage point, this evidence appears relevant,” but the district court should make the determination, the court said in remanding the case.
The panel judges were Chief Judge Roger Gregory, Diana Motz and Barbara Keenan.
