Civil Rights
We often think of civil rights in the contexts of employment and sexual harassment claims. However, almost any circumstance can have civil-rights implications: deciding whether to rent to a prospective tenant; a bank refusing to give a loan; denying a permit for a demonstration or march in a public park; refusing to serve a customer based on religious belief; setting dress, hair style and restroom-usage rules in the workplace. Whether any of these result in a violation often turns on motivation. Why did a person behave in a particular way towards another individual? Was the person’s behavior motivated by their dislike of one of an individual’s legally-protected characteristics, such as race, gender, age, sexual preference, veteran status, gender identity, etc.? Our attorneys understand the complex public and private system of civil-rights safeguards, the characteristics we all possess which are protected by those safeguards and how they must be analyzed and applied when defending municipalities, businesses, individuals, owners, businesses and non-profits against civil-rights claims.
Litigation Practice Group
- Insurance Defense
- Commercial Litigation
- Administrative Proceedings
- Civil Rights
- Trusts and Estates Litigation
- Appellate Work