Secretarial Supervisor Laid Off After 27 Years at Fried Frank Loses Age Bias and Retaliation Suit
An evening secretarial supervisor who was laid off by Fried Frank after 27 years of employment there has lost her federal age bias suit against the law firm.
Although Roseanne Zito contended that she was fired, at age 57, in 2008, because of her age and in retaliation for taking time off to heal from a foot injury, U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet said she didn’t prove her case, reports Reuters. It was filed in 2009 in federal court in Manhattan.
Two women in her position who weren’t terminated are older than Zito, and her argument that the firm moved male secretaries to new positions to avoid firing them wasn’t sufficient to avoid dismissal, the judge ruled. The firm had said it was forced to lay off secretaries due to the difficult economy.
Another laid-off secretary had her age-bias suit against Fried Frank dismissed in March. Judith Cuttler had contended that the firm discriminated in 2008 layoffs against both older employees and those who had used family or medical leave.
