Robert Gordon

An African American attorney now at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker who claimed he suffered racial discrimination in his previous job at the New York City Law Department has settled with the city for $600,000.

Robert Gordon had alleged that his Law Department supervisors gave him overly harsh and unsubstantiated evaluations in his 12 years working in the Tort Division, and retaliated against him for suggesting improvements and for making complaints under federal civil rights law. He resigned in 2016 and took an of-counsel role at Wilson Elser.

On Tuesday, which had previously been set for the first day of trial in his case, Bruce Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the city and Gordon's supervisors, and Sam Maduegbuna of Maduegbuna Cooper, who represented Gordon, outlined the basic terms of the $600,000 settlement as it was placed in the court record before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York. The deal includes legal fees and costs and a broad general release of any other claims Gordon might have against the city and its employees who were defendants.

"It's been seven years and I think the city put me through the ringer," Gordon said outside the courtroom. He briefly took the stand to confirm that he understood the settlement.

"It's affected my health, my mind, my sanity," he said, citing the risk that a trial verdict would be appealed and drag the process out even longer. "I just felt I needed to put an end to it."

According to a summary judgment decision entered in September 2018, Gordon began working for the Law Department's Manhattan trial unit in August 2004. He told a supervisor some 11 months after he started that he was "drowning in motions" and later suggested ways that the office's procedures could be improved. He contended that he received nearly the lowest possible score on his next performance evaluation, and was put on a sort of probation called an "action plan" in retaliation for his criticisms.

Gordon submitted an internal Equal Employment Opportunity complaint in January 2006 and moved from the Manhattan trial unit to the Tort Division's Queens office in April. He was relieved of close supervision, his performance reviews improved, and after putting himself up for consideration, he was transferred in August 2007 to the Tort Division's centralized Special Litigation Unit, which handles complex and high-exposure claims against the city.

As he was preparing to go on a year's leave to teach law in South Korea in mid-2011, Gordon said he was given a harsh and inaccurate performance review for the year. He disputed it and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in early 2012. On his return, he was cut from the SLU and sent back to doing simpler tort cases in the Queens office. Before and after his return, Gordon said white Law Department attorneys were given promotions and placements that he was denied.

Gordon was promoted to senior counsel—too late, he said—and received strong performance evaluations in 2014 and 2015. He initially sued the city in 2014, while still working in the Bronx office. In 2016, he suffered a panic attack at work, punched a cabinet and sought leave; he subsequently amended his suit to include allegations under the Family and Medical Leave Act in 2016, saying that the city had interfered with his rights under the law and terminated his health coverage in retaliation for his complaints.

Certain claims were trimmed from the suit at the dismissal and summary-judgment stages, but several others—for disparate treatment under federal, state and city civil rights laws, and for interference with his FMLA rights—were headed for trial before a notice of settlement was filed late last week.

Maduegbuna said outside the courtroom that he believed the suit had led to changes within the SLU, which had historically had few black attorneys and virtually no black supervisors. Now, he said, the unit's chief is a member of a racial minority, and several African American attorneys have been promoted, he said.

"A settlement of this magnitude is significant," Maduegbuna added. "The Law Department doesn't pay this kind of money … unless they believe they have very significant exposure going forward."

The Law Department said settlement "was in the best interests of all parties" and said it had a strong track record on diversity.

"The Law Department has long been one of the most diverse law offices in the nation," said Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the department. "We're committed to merit and fairness as the basis of all our personnel decisions."

Other lawyers appearing for the parties Tuesday included Dominique Saint-Fort for the city and William Cowles, of Maduegbuna's firm, for Gordon.