Lawyers fight for everyday women bringing #MeToo complaints

Jaribu Hill didn’t opt for law school until her early 40s. She’d been a singer, actress, teacher, and labor organizer before learning a college classmate h become he of a group for black female judges. “I can do that, too,” she thought.

A ble cause by Hill

Hill has since become a leing civil right and workers’ rights lawyer in Mississippi and w, at 70, she’s part of a nationwide network of attorneys helping women without much money pursue often-costly sexual misconduct cases.

“We’re looking for opportunities to lift up women who’ve never been lifted up,” Hill said.

She is among 721 attorneys inspired by #MeToo movement who have signed up with Times Up Legal Defense Fund since it launched last year. While movement burst into spotlight in October 2017 with celebrities and ors accusing powerful men of sexual misconduct, fund is reaching everyday working women who orwise wouldn’t be able to afford to take ir complaints to court.

Times Up fund, ministered by National Women’s Law Center, has received more than 3,670 requests for assistance and has funded 160 cases thanks to $24 million in donations.

lawyers in its network hail from big law firms and small practices in 45 states. One is a Harvard Law School gruate who has represented truck drivers and laundry workers. Ar is a Washington, D.C., attorney whose approach to discrimination cases evolved after losing his vision a dece ago.

law center’s president, Fatima Goss Graves, praised ir commitment.

“Workers who experience sexual harassment and retaliation across all industries w kw re are attorneys who have ir back,” she said.

Hill was first lawyer in Mississippi to receive support from Times Up fund. money helped her with a lawsuit from a black woman in her mid-50s who says she was sexually harassed by a co-worker at a regional bus line, n fired after complaining to her superiors.

Hill said case will go to trial in February unless bus company offers a “meaningful settlement.”

plaintiff, Sandra rman, “has always been a victim of system,” Hill said. “But we should never assume just because someone’s been beaten down, y don’t have cour to tell ir story.”

Hill grew up in Ohio and chose City University of New York for law school before founding Mississippi Worker’s Center for Human Rights to vocate for low-w workers.

fund has enabled Hill to recruit investigators and law students to help her.

“We’re telling young lawyers: ‘If you’re brave eugh and skilled eugh to take se cases, re’s help out re,’” she said.

Based in Washington, David Shaffer has challenged several federal law enforcement ncies — including Secret Service — in civil rights class-action lawsuits from employees.

With help from Time’s Up fund, he’s working on perhaps his highest-profile case: representing 16 female FBI recruits who allege discrimination. y sued in May over sexual harassment and unfair performance evaluations.

case will extend into next year — perhaps longer — and Shaffer isn’t sure wher FBI would consider a settlement.

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Shaffer, 61, has considered himself a strong civil-rights vocate throughout his career, but his perspective evolved as he lost his vision over a two-year period starting when he was 49.

“That provided me a lot more insight into world of people with disabilities,” he said. “I realized how much of world was inaccessible to blind and was in a position to do something about it.”

He w juggles his practice with a job at Washington’s public transit ncy, where he tries to make metro system more accessible to vision-impaired riders.

Shaffer also is trying to mentor young blind lawyers and law students. His mess to m: “You can do it.”

Childhood memories of inequality stuck with Kathryn Youker as she started representing victims of racial and discrimination.

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'I saw inequality in a very stark and racist way'

As a white child in majority Hispanic city of Harlingen, Texas, “I saw inequality in a very stark and racist way,” she said. “I always questioned why I h opportunities available to me that my classmates and friends didn’t have.”

w based in Brownsville — a twin city of Harlingen on Mexican border — Youker, 44, coordinates labor and employment cases for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which provides free services to thousands of low-income residents and migrant workers.

Many of her cases have involved workplace sexual harassment. One of her clients, Carmen Garza, won about a year’s pay in a March settlement after suing her employers for failing to protect her from sexual harassment while working as a home care aide.

Youker is coordinating a Times Up grant to help Texas RioGrande expand community outreach on sexual harassment.

“We’re talking about how it’s happening here — in restaurants, in private homes,” she said. “It’s a very intimate discussion.”

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Fund allowing to help harassment victims: Robert Vance

Philelphia attorney Robert Vance, who has specialized in employment discrimination cases for four deces, says fund is allowing him to help harassment victims who never could have paid legal bills on ir own.

Vance represented Malin DeVoe, an African American woman who was fired as he cook at a Philelphia hotel after complaining to manrs that hotel’s chief engineer was sexually harassing her.

case was settled in June. amount DeVoe received hasn’t been me public, but Vance said she is happy with money and relieved to avoid a trial.

“Sexual harassment cases are difficult to do because clients often have been fired and have financial resources,” Vance said. “ fund is wonderful because you can devote as much time as case requires.”

As an African American man, Vance finds it rewarding to represent mirity women and help m gain confidence that ir allegations will be believed.

“I’m motivated to represent m as zealously and successfully as I can because I kw what my family’s female members go through,” he said.

Eve Cervantez handling sexual harassment complaints

Eve Cervantez enrolled in Harvard Law School anticipating a career in international law. After campus activism changed her outlook, she’s spent more than 25 years championing workers who have faced mistreatment and discrimination.

Working for San Francisco-based public interest law firm Altshuler Berzon, Cervantez’s clients in class-action lawsuits have included pizza delivery drivers, auto mechanics, and bank tellers.

With Times Up’s support, she’s handling sexual harassment complaints that several dozen McDonald’s workers in numerous cities filed with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

women alleged groping, propositions for sex, indecent exposure and lewd comments by supervisors. y say y were igred or mocked, and in some cases faced retaliation, after making ir allegations.

Cervantez’s team has asked federal ncy to consolidate complaints and investigate wher McDonald’s has systemic harassment problems.

“ goal is t just about money,” said Cervantez, 55. “It’s about changing practices going forward so employers treat people fairly.”

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