In 2021, employment law attorney Taylor Dewberry was named Smith Anderson’s first chief diversity officer. Her practice focuses on employment-related counseling and defending employers against claims involving discrimination, wrongful discharge, retaliation, harassment, and civil rights claims.   After graduating with honors ...

Tagged with: Diversity

By Nick Hurston BTM Wire Services  The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has applied the private sector “materially adverse” standard for retaliatory conduct to reverse the dismissal of a federal employee’s race-based retaliation and harassment claims under Title VII.   ...

Tagged with: Diversity Harassment

  Statistics show that North Carolina’s courts are not as diverse as the populations they serve. Several studies conducted in the last 20 years have suggested that beyond increasing public trust in the judiciary, creating a more proportionally diverse judicial ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Judges’ chambers across the Carolinas these days are home to a more diverse crowd than before, varying, of course, from one jurisdiction to the next. But a group of jurists who spoke with Lawyers Weekly echoed a very similar sentiment: ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Medport, Inc. v. E.V. Williams, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 003-022-16, 24 pp.) (William Osteen Jr., J.) 1:16-cv-00601; M.D.N.C. Holding: Plaintiff is trying to enforce a subcontractor’s assignment of its right to payment from the defendant-contractor, but the contract between defendant ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Last month, Sharita Whitaker, an attorney with Smith Anderson in Raleigh, traveled to the Yale Club of New York City for the Chambers and Partners’ inaugural Chambers Diversity Awards. She walked away as the winner in the Future Leader — ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Burkeen v. Advantage RN (Lawyers Weekly No. 003-008-16, 17 pp.) (William Osteen, J.) 1:15-cv-00420; M.D.N.C. Holding: Plaintiff now agrees that this is a simple breach of employment contract case and that her claims for punitive and treble damages should be ...

Tagged with: Diversity

A May 2015 bulletin from the National Association for Law Placement notes that women and minorities have made “small gains” in representation among law firm partners in recent years. However, among all legal employers listed in NALP’s 2014-2015 directory, only ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Justice Sonia Sotomayor says the Supreme Court has too many law professors, too many Ivy Leaguers, too many East Coasters and a lack of diverse life experience. “It’s a real problem,” Sotomayor said last week at Davidson College. The outcome of ...

Tagged with: Diversity

Three of the firms on this year’s top 25 largest list are not only the biggest in the state but are also considered among the Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality in the nation. K & L Gates, Alston ...

Tagged with: Diversity McGuireWoods