The New York Division of Human Rights has dismissed a woman’s complaint alleging that race, age, and other forms of discrimination were behind her firing by the hotel where she worked part-time as a housekeeper for four months in 2017.

The January 18, 2019, ruling, by the New York State Division of Human Rights, brought to a close Goldberg Segalla partner Kristin Klein Wheaton’s successful defense of the hotel, whose former employee claimed her August 2017 firing was discriminatory and sought $20,000-$40,000 in back wages and front pay.

Kristin, a member of Goldberg Segalla’s Employment and Labor practice group who defends the interests of clients facing employment and labor issues such as civil-rights and discrimination claims, won the case despite challenges with the woman’s personnel file. To prove the complainant lacked evidence of race discrimination, the defense team used an affidavit from a hotel manager who also was of the same race as complainant. Kristin successfully argued that hotel management had legitimate reasons for firing her.

Attorneys on Goldberg Segalla’s Employment and Labor team view our representation of employers as a strategic partnership aimed at protecting the enterprise and its leaders while helping the organization advance its management philosophy and maintain its company culture. We understand the risks employers face, along with the pressures placed on management, because attorneys on this team have experienced them firsthand as in-house counsel and human resources officers at various companies in multiple industries.