In recent years, many companies in the pharmaceutical, financial services and retail industries, to name a few, have been tagged with the same type of wage-hour and discrimination class actions and governmental investigations.

Financial services industry: For years, the financial services industry in general and brokerage companies in particular have struggled with discrimination and harassment claims by women and other minorities asserting that these companies operated with an “old boys” network and tolerated “fraternity house” behavior by its white male employees.

Earlier this year, another financial services industry attack may have been born. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act expanded whistleblower protections to a wide range of financial services industry employees for the first time. It also allowed employees of privately held companies that were not previously covered by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to bring whistleblower claims to federal court and bypass the administrative process and most companies' internal complaint resolution procedures.