Anne B. Shaver

Shaver handles gender-based class action lawsuits that challenge business practices and work cultures at some of the world's largest and most powerful companies, including Alphabet Inc.-owned Google, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, and Duke University.

She and co-counsel have been working on a longstanding discrimination suit against Goldman Sachs. Chen-Oster v. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, 10-6950 (S.D.N.Y.. filed Sept. 15, 2010). The complaint, first filed in 2010, alleges Goldman Sachs paid its female professionals less than men for the same or similar work, disproportionately promoted men over equally or more qualified women, and offered better opportunities to its male professionals.

Shortly before plaintiffs filed for class certification in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the rules for class actions with its decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. It ruled the gender-based pay discrimination case against Walmart could not proceed as a class action because the plaintiffs did not have enough in common to constitute a class.

"That changed the landscape of class action litigation, specifically with regards to Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] cases. This is one of the bellwether cases that's winding its way through the courts in the wake of Dukes," Shaver said. "We successfully obtained class [certification] in 2018, which was a major step forward in the case, but we are still actively fighting our way through merits, discovery, and on to summary judgment and on to trial. At every step, we're litigating the issues raised in Dukes."

Goldman Sachs is attempting to remove many women from the class by citing arbitration agreements the women signed. In April, it asked a federal judge to require more than 1,000 women, nearly 40 percent of class members, to arbitrate their claims.

Plaintiffs say the arbitration agreements signed after the lawsuit was filed in 2010 are invalid because the financial services firm never informed class members of the existence of the pending litigation, and the women were unaware their rights were at stake in the agreements. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to invalidate the agreements.

"Goldman Sachs is definitely a company with a lot of resources. It is illustrative to me of why very few law firms in the country are bringing these types of big cases anymore, because they take a long time to litigate, they're expensive to litigate and very few plaintiffs' firms out there have the resources to do it," she said. "I feel incredibly privileged to work for a firm that can say, 'This is a righteous cause and we're going to see it through.'"

-- Jennifer Chung Klam