Covington & Burling Gets Partial Win in Ex-Employee’s Disability Bias Case
A former employee of Covington & Burling has lost most points in an appeal of her disability bias lawsuit against the law firm.
Kathleen Barrett, a former programmer and analyst for the law firm, had claimed Covington discriminated against her because of a series of illnesses and surgery, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals opinion (PDF posted by the BLT) held that most of Barrett’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations. The appeals court also agreed with the trial judge that Barrett failed to prove that she was fired or forced to work in a hostile work environment.
The court, however, allowed trial on Barrett’s claim that the law firm failed to provide reasonable accommodation. The court limited the determination to a two-month time period that was not time barred.
Barrett’s lawyer, Heather White, told the BLT that her client would be pleased to proceed to trial. “We’ll take what we can get,” she said.
She told the blog that the appeals court addressed an interesting issue about statutes of limitation and requests for accommodation. The appeals court held that each denial of a request for accommodation is subject to a new one-year limitation for filing suit, she said.
