Kate S. Gold

To defeat a federal class claim by aerospace engineers alleging age discrimination, Gold employed a strategy she hadn’t used in her almost three-decade career.

Gold was able to persuade Central District Judge R. Gary Klausner that the employees hadn’t exhausted the exact claims they were bringing at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

While they had filed claims with the federal employment agency, the employees failed to file their class claims and didn’t allege a disparate impact theory of recovery. The employees claimed it wasn’t intentional age discrimination, but rather a symptom of the way a large reduction of force was carried out.

Instead, they initially alleged a disparate treatment theory, meaning they had been intentionally discriminated against for their age. The difference was significant because the reduction in force — which was the result of slashed federal funding — affected over 300 highly educated and highly compensated engineers.

“The damages could have been very grave for that class of employees,” Gold said.

The plaintiffs went back to state court and amended their complaint to include class claims, but Gold and her team managed to defeat the claims at the trial level. Foroudi v. The Aerospace Corp., BC555258 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 2, 2015).

Gold then set about strategically presenting the remaining single-plaintiff cases, paying particular attention to which she presented first, “so that the judge could be educated and could understand how the client had undertaken this reduction in force, which was very carefully executed,” she said.

Ultimately, she obtained summary judgment in six of the individual cases and resolved the others for nominal amounts.

Working with engineers, many with Ph.D.s “elevated the whole dialogue,” Gold said, an aspect she enjoyed.

Gold said the aftermath of the #MeToo movement has sent a wave of single-plaintiff cases her way, centering on allegations of sexual harassment.

“It’s an extraordinary number of very high-level executives across all industries that are being accused of things,” said Gold.

While the law isn’t new, the climate is, and Gold said she’s been working with employers and companies on how to best address allegations as they arise.

The best method? The tried-and-true investigation, she said.

— Lila Seidman