Goldman Sachs Gender Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit

Chen-Oster v. Goldman Sachs, Inc., Case No. 10-6950 (S.D.N.Y.).

Lieff Cabraser and Outten & Golden serve as Co-Lead Counsel for plaintiffs in a gender discrimination class action lawsuit against Goldman Sachs. In March 2018, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, thereby certifying a class of current and former female Associates and Vice Presidents employed by Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking, Investment Management, and Securities divisions in the United States from September 20, 2004 through the resolution of the action, and in New York City from July 7, 2002 through the resolution of the action.

The case challenges Goldman Sachs’ alleged systemic and pervasive discrimination in pay, promotions, and performance violations in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York City Human Rights Law under both disparate impact and disparate treatment theories.

November 2023 Case Update

The court approved the settlement on November 7, 2023. You may read the order here. Should there be no appeals, we expect the settlement administrator will issue checks to class members by December 22nd. Class members may confirm their addresses by contacting the settlement administrator at 866.459.3650 or info@goldmangendersettlement.com.

May 2023 Case Update

We are proud to announce that, on May 15, 2023, the court granted preliminary approval of a proposed $215 million class settlement. You may read a copy of the Court’s order here. This is an historic settlement for many reasons. It is one of the largest discrimination settlements in U.S. history. It is also the single largest gender bias settlement that has occurred in advance of employees winning their case at trial, and is the third-largest gender bias settlement of any kind on record (the only larger ones coming years after the employees won at trial). It is nearly five times larger than the next-largest gender bias class action settlement involving a Wall Street firm.

Moreover, this settlement represents approximately 78% of potential damages in this case arising from the challenged performance evaluation and promotion processes, and 50% of all potential class damages here. Given the class here would still need to win at trial to be awarded these potential damages otherwise, we believe this is an especially strong result considering the risks, uncertainty, and delay associated with a trial and potential appeals. We are unaware of another gender class settlement before trial that had a higher recovery of potential exposure.

You may read our press release here.

August 2022 Case Update

On August 22, 2022, the court denied Goldman Sachs’s motion to reconsider the court’s March 2022 order denying its motion to decertify the class. The court also set a trial date of June 5, 2023. You can read a copy of the order here.

March 17, 2022 Case Update

Today, the court denied Goldman Sachs’s motion to decertify the class and substantially denied its summary judgment motion to end the case without a trial. The court also addressed expert evidence. You can read a copy of the order here. There are now no major obstacles to a trial proceeding.

More details and analysis are available here.

Previous March 2022 Case Update

On September 15, 2021, the District Court affirmed the Magistrate Judge’s March 26, 2020, arbitration order. This means the following:

• Those individuals who received Equity Awards in 2016 or 2017 containing an arbitration term have the opportunity to make an arbitration selection: reject arbitration (and remain a class member) or accept arbitration (and be removed from the case).
• Those individuals (i) who are Private Wealth Advisors or (ii) who were promoted to Managing Director or received a severance agreement before 2018 are no longer class members and will be required to proceed in arbitration should they wish to pursue claims. These former class members should have received a notice stating as much in the last month. Class Counsel no longer represents these individuals.
• All other class members (approximately 1,500) are unaffected.

Pre-trial motions are fully briefed, and the parties are awaiting orders from the court. We expect that, once the court rules on these motions, the court may set a trial date—potentially during the second half of 2022.

January 2021 Case Update

The case is currently proceeding toward a trial on whether Goldman Sachs violated federal and New York law by alleged gender discrimination against the Class.  Merits discovery completed in November 2020, and included depositions of key corporate decisionmakers such as former President Gary Cohn and former CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

The parties are currently engaged in expert discovery, and are scheduled to brief pre-trial motions between July 2021 and November 2021.  Trial is expected in early 2022.

The District Court is still considering Goldman Sachs’s attempt, described below in the April 2020 case update, to remove more than half of the class members through arbitration.

April 2020 Case Update

The case is currently proceeding toward a trial on whether Goldman Sachs violated federal and New York law by alleged gender discrimination against the Class. Merits discovery is scheduled to conclude in August 2020, after Plaintiffs complete depositions of key witnesses, including corporate decisionmakers. Trial is expected in 2021.

Since the class was certified in March 2018, and notice to class members was completed in January 2019, Goldman Sachs has attempted to remove over half of the more than 3220 class members through motions to arbitrate based on four types of agreements.  Plaintiffs have objected to Goldman’s arbitration gambit and also filed a motion for certain sanctions against Goldman for disseminating misleading class waivers and arbitration clauses that violated Federal Rule 23(d).

On March 26, 2020, the Magistrate Judge assigned to the case issued a recommendation to the District Court in which he agreed with Plaintiffs that Goldman Sachs disseminated misleading communications in violation of Rule 23(d) as to 694 class members who were purportedly subject to arbitration by reason of Equity Award Agreements, and he ordered that those class members be permitted to opt out of arbitration with no impact on the equity award they received.  He declined to strike the arbitration clauses across the board based on Plaintiffs’ argument that Goldman waited too long (and thereby waived its right) to compel arbitration.  Regardless of the outcome of appeal, this arbitration ruling has no effect on the nearly 1400 class members for whom no motion to arbitrate was filed.

On April 16, 2020, both sides appealed the Magistrate Judge’s ruling to the District Court.  Plaintiffs argued that (1) the Magistrate failed to properly apply the law of waiver to the belatedly initiated arbitration requests, (2) Goldman’s communications misconduct extended to all of the clauses disseminated after this case was filed, and (3) the Court’s “remedy” for the misconduct, permitting class members to opt out of arbitration, is wholly insufficient to deter the misconduct and needlessly imposes another burden on the class.  Briefing on the appeal will be complete in April 2020, with a decision expected in late Spring or Summer of 2020.

March 2018 Case Update

On March 30, 2018, District Court Judge Analisa Torres issued an order certifying the plaintiffs’ damages class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 23(b)(3). Judge Torres certified plaintiffs’ claims for both disparate impact and disparate treatment discrimination, relying on statistical evidence of discrimination in pay, promotions, and performance evaluations, as well as anecdotal evidence of Goldman’s hostile work environment. In so ruling, the court also granted plaintiffs’ motion to exclude portions of Goldman’s expert evidence as unreliable, and denied all of Goldman’s motions to exclude plaintiffs’ expert evidence. The Court appointed Cristina Chen-Oster, Shanna Orlich, Allison Gamba, and Mary De Luis as Class Representatives.

The certified Class consists of current and former female Associates and Vice Presidents employed by Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking, Investment Management, and Securities divisions in the United States from September 20, 2004 through the resolution of the action, and in New York City from July 7, 2002 through the resolution of the action.

Court-approved notice will be mailed to the Class as soon as the notice plan is approved by the Court.

Read a copy of Judge Torres’ March 30, 2018 Opinion and Order.

April 2017 Case Update

In April of 2017, District Court Judge Analisa Torres granted plaintiffs’ motion to amend their complaint and add new representative plaintiffs, denied Goldman Sachs’ motions to dismiss the new plaintiffs’ claims, and ordered the parties to submit proposals by April 26, 2017, on a process for addressing Magistrate Judge Francis’ March 2015 Report and Recommendation on class certification.

Lieff Cabraser partner Kelly M. Dermody, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, commented on Judge Torres’ Opinion and Order: “We are pleased that the Court corrected an error in the earlier standing order and brought this case into the mainstream of District court precedent. We look forward to continuing the fight for gender equity at Goldman.”

Prior Case Updates

On August 3, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint.

On October 15, 2013, the Court ordered Goldman Sachs to turn over internal complaints by female employees relating to gender discrimination, including the names of the complainants. The Court held that plaintiffs are entitled to discover the identities of the complainants because they are potential witnesses with knowledge relevant to the lawsuit.

On September 10, 2012, the Court ordered Goldman Sachs to produce key personnel data and policy documents from 2002 to the present. The Court rejected defendants’ arguments that they should only have to produce a small sample of such data at this stage of the case, finding instead that plaintiffs must be able to test their allegations with respect to the entire proposed class.

On July 17, 2012, the Court issued an order concerning defendants’ motions to strike class allegations and for partial summary judgment. The Court upheld the complaint in substantial part, allowing all claims to go forward.

Factual Allegations

The complaint charges that Goldman Sachs systematically favors male Associates and Vice Presidents at the expense of their female counterparts. The alleged discrimination includes:

1. At nearly all levels of its professional ranks, Goldman Sachs has paid its female professionals less than similarly situated male professionals, even though they hold equivalent positions and perform the same or substantially similar work;
2. Goldman Sachs maintains policies and practices for promoting its vice presidents that result in the disproportionate promotion of men over equally or more qualified women. As a result, female vice presidents have been systematically denied promotion opportunities that are routinely afforded to their male counterparts.
3. Goldman Sachs’ systems for evaluating employees’ performance lack key safeguards to ensure fairness and proper implementation, resulting in the systematic undervaluation of female employees’ performance.