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<strong>The</strong> Big Chill<br />

Corporate<br />

war chest<br />

puts the freeze<br />

on sex<br />

discrim<strong>in</strong>ation<br />

awards.<br />

Legal secretary Rena Weeks was astonished when a jury awarded her $7.1 million dollars<br />

for be<strong>in</strong>g forced to endure the grop<strong>in</strong>gs of Mart<strong>in</strong> Greenste<strong>in</strong>, a partner at the<br />

world's largest law firm, Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie. Weeks and her lawyer had<br />

sought only $3.5 million. But several jurors, assess<strong>in</strong>g the firm's net profit of $65 million,<br />

felt that ten percent of the company's capital was a fitt<strong>in</strong>g penalty.<br />

<strong>The</strong> high jury award made national headl<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong> September 1994. But there's likely<br />

to be much less publicity later on when the appeals judge, <strong>in</strong>evitably, cuts the award<br />

down to someth<strong>in</strong>g that won't make much of a difference to the company's bottom l<strong>in</strong>e<br />

and leaves Weeks feel<strong>in</strong>g cheated.<br />

In 1991, for example, Texaco got a wake-up call about sex discrim<strong>in</strong>ation from a<br />

jury that awarded Janella Mart<strong>in</strong>, a credit supervisor, $5.3 million <strong>in</strong> lost wages and $15<br />

BY MARLENE C. PITURRO<br />

ON THE ISSUES WINTER 1995<br />

21

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