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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2024
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Women FBI Agent Trainees Vindicated: $22.6M Gender Discrimination Settlement Reached
U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Inspector General’s 2022 Report Confirmed Claims of Gender Discrimination
Women Who Were Dismissed from Agent Training May Be Eligible to Reenter the Program
WASHINGTON, DC – Representatives of a proposed class of thirty-four women dismissed from the FBI’s agent training program filed a motion for preliminary approval of a $22.6 million settlement with the law enforcement agency in court today.
According to the class action lawsuit, brought by Cohen Milstein, a nationally recognized plaintiffs class action law firm, and David Shaffer Law PLLC, the FBI wrongly dismissed 34 women from the “new agent training” program between April 17, 2015 and August 10, 2024. The women allege they were terminated from the training program due to a systematic practice of intentional gender discrimination and that the dismissal process had a disparate impact on women trainees in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“My dream was to be an FBI agent. I interned with the FBI in college and did everything needed to qualify for a special agent role. I even became a lawyer, which the FBI considers a high value qualification for future agents. It was shattering when the FBI derailed my career trajectory. Seeing the FBI – which is supposed to represent the best of law enforcement – dismiss so many talented women from the agent training was disillusioning,” said Paula Bird, now a practicing lawyer and lead plaintiff in this gender discrimination class action. “I am extremely pleased that this settlement will bring a measure of justice to the women who were unfairly dismissed. Also, I hope that through this settlement the FBI will implement changes that will give women going through agent training in the future a fair shot at their dream career.”
Filed in 2019, thirteen former new agent trainees claimed that after completing months of rigorous training and passing tests of academic knowledge, physical fitness, and firearms skill, they were dismissed based on the FBI’s subjective “suitability” criteria, after often hasty hearings before the agency’s Trainee Review Board. Specifically, the women claimed that instructors cited them for perceived deficiencies more often than men engaged in similar behavior and judged them more harshly than their male peers. For example, Ms. Bird received a “suitability notation” for conduct which her male classmate engaged in without any such discipline. Other former female trainees noted instructors perceived them as being “weak and prone to failure” and, similarly to Ms. Bird, consistently gave them lower performance ratings for mistakes that were ignored when made by their male counterparts.
Upon becoming aware of the lawsuit in 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary asked the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to investigate the claims. On December 6, 2022, the Inspector General issued a report which “found that female NATs received a disproportionate number of Suitability Notations (SN) in several areas and were dismissed at rates higher than their overall representation in the BFTC population.” The report identified particular concerns with the handling of tactical training and the underrepresentation of women in the program’s instructors.
“These plaintiffs are dedicated to the FBI’s mission of law enforcement,” said Christine Webber, co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice and class counsel to the plaintiffs, “But they were also brave enough to call for the FBI to obey the law, including Title VII. Through their determination and leadership, and what we believe is a genuine desire by the FBI to turn the page on the past history of discrimination in new agent training, the parties have reached a settlement agreement that will provide a measure of relief for what these women experienced.”
In addition to monetary relief, the settlement agreement also provides that eligible class members may seek reinstatement to the FBI’s new agent training program. The FBI has also agreed to a fulsome review by two outside experts, who will work with the FBI to ensure that women seeking to become FBI agents face a fair evaluation process. This includes the eligible class members who may seek reinstatement. The settlement agreement will become effective only after approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Unfortunately, some in the settlement class may not seek reinstatement because in the years since their dismissal, they have rebuilt their careers and families elsewhere,” said David J. Shaffer of David Shaffer Law PLLC, who originally filed the suit. “As a result, the FBI has deprived itself of some genuinely exceptional talent. Nevertheless, these women should be incredibly proud of what they have accomplished in holding the FBI accountable.”
Plaintiffs in Bird, et al. v. Garland, Case No. 1:19-cv-01581 (D.D.C.) are represented by Christine E. Webber, Joseph M. Sellers, Rebecca A. Ojserkis, and Dana Busgang of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and David J. Shaffer of David Shaffer Law PLLC. When David Shaffer filed the initial complaint in May 2019, he received support from the Times Up Legal Defense Fund at the National Women’s Law Center. Cohen Milstein joined as lead counsel in June 2019.
Media Request: This case has garnered significant media coverage. While certain plaintiffs are available to talk to the media, we ask that you respect their privacy. All media requests should be directed to our media team: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, champions the causes of real people—workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers—working to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good. We have litigated landmark civil rights and employment disputes before the highest courts in the nation and continue to actively shape civil rights and employment law in the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com.
About David Shaffer Law PLLC
David Shaffer specializes in civil rights cases on behalf of women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities in nation-wide class actions against federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, ATF, and Secret Service, as well as individuals with disabilities in seeking accommodations in the workplace. For more information, please visit: https://davidshafferlaw.com/, email to david.shaffer@davidshafferlaw.com, or call directly at 202-210-7424.
New Lawsuits Show FBI Retaliated Against
Female Employees Who Reported Sexual Assault
WASHINGTON, DC – Two new lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reveal that the FBI retaliated against two female employees who were sexually harassed and assaulted by male supervisors. After they reported the abuse to the FBI, the women faced further harassment and were ultimately forced to leave the FBI, while the perpetrators faced no consequences and were able to retire with full benefits.
“For too long, the FBI has perpetuated a toxic culture where sexual harassment and abuse are not only tolerated, but perpetrators are protected, and survivors are persecuted. This pattern of behavior is disgraceful in any workplace, but particularly so at the nation’s top law enforcement agency,” said attorney for the plaintiffs David Shaffer. “In coming forward, these two brave women are holding the FBI accountable and hope to bring about urgently-needed change within the bureau.”
One complaint details the experience of a female analyst at the Training Academy at Quantico who is a military veteran and was sexually assaulted by an FBI supervisor at an off-site holiday party in 2017. She was then retaliated against for reporting the assault to her FBI superiors and filing a criminal complaint, and was continually harassed and forced to work in a hostile environment – including alongside those who tried to protect her assailant. She ultimately was forced to leave the FBI after six years of service. Meanwhile, her attacker was able to quietly retire with benefits, facing no repercussions for the sexual assault he committed.
The other complaint outlines a chilling pattern of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that a female employee suffered at the hands of her manager, the Special Agent in Charge of the field office where she worked, for nearly a decade, beginning in 2011. Over the course of two years, he subjected her to non-consensual sexual encounters, control, assault, imprisonment, stalking, and harassment that continued in-person until he moved to another state, after which he continued to track, stalk, call, and email incessantly. The Office of Inspector General, instead of taking action against her tormentor, terminated her for allegedly untruthful statements that she made under threats of harm against her and her family.
These suits, filed by civil rights attorneys David Shaffer and Kelley Brooks Simoneaux, come a little over a year after Shaffer filed a class action lawsuit for sixteen women who trained to become FBI agents and analysts accusing the bureau of gender discrimination in how it trains and evaluates female candidates for Special Agent positions. The women are supported by the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal and public relations assistance to survivors.
For the first complaint, see here.
Press Coverage
‘Under the rug:’ Sexual misconduct shakes FBI’s senior ranks
David Shaffer Law Brings Gender Discrimination Class Action Case Against ICE
At David Shaffer Law, we are pursuing a class action against ICE for their lack of gender-normed physical tests and discriminating against our client and other female trainees on the basis of sex. While at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), our client was not only faced with male-tailored physical tests, but also with the male-tailored instructors who singled her out multiple times for minor issues which were overlooked when the male trainees had similar issues. We filed her official, individual and class complaint through the Department of Homeland Security in early January 2021.
As women make up more than half of the U.S. population and account for 47% of all working Americans, they comprise just 13% of law enforcement officers and 15.5% of all sworn federal law enforcement officers (Reaves, 2012). Women in law enforcement have always been underrepresented for various reasons: masculine stigma, recruitment issues, hostile work environment, etc., but one measure that has been repeatedly seen to have a disparate impact on women are the physical examinations.
Within ICE, 71.9% are men and 28.1% are women (Alvarado, 2017). Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), unlike other federal law enforcement agencies like the DEA and the FBI, does not use gender-normed physical examinations. Gender-normed tests set different raw cutoffs for male and female applicants such that each class would be expected to have roughly equal pass rates, making it more equitable for women.
We are hoping to retain more female ICE agents with similar gender discrimination issues to expand our case. Therefore, if you, or anyone you know, have been retaliated against from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, please reach out to us as soon as possible.
Federal law enforcement agencies must create an organizational culture that does not tolerate harassment and discrimination and implement policies that highlight women’s contribution in this male-dominated field. While it’ll take a lot more work to change the masculine identity of law enforcement, we believe that the one step in the direction of full gender equity is the inclusion of gender-normed physical tests.
Sources:
Yu, Helen H. “An Examination of Women in Federal Law Enforcement: An Exploratory Analysis of the Challenges They Face in the Work Environment.” Feminist Criminology 10, no. 3 (July 2015): 259–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085114545824.
Reaves, B. A. (2012). Federal law enforcement officers, 2008 (NCJ 238250). Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, U.S. Department of Justice.
My name is David Shaffer. I specialize in civil rights cases for women, minorities and individuals with disabilities, and have represented hundreds of women and minorities in nation-wide class actions against federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, ATF and Secret Service. I also represent individuals with disabilities in seeking accommodations in the workplace and represent them in employment litigation.
Areas of Expertise
- Civil Rights
- Class Actions
- Labor and Employment Law
- Disability Rights
- ADA Accessibility and Accommodations
- Transportation
- Section 508 Compliance
- Affirmative Action
I have worked extensively in class action litigation, including representing minority law and female enforcement agents in class action discrimination cases against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. I was also the lead attorney in the defense of several major class actions involving public accommodations and employment, the most notable of which have been the Adams Mark Hotel class actions and the Holiday Spas class actions.
In my work with insurance companies, I review and monitor the defense of employment class actions under employment practices liability insurance (EPLI). This helps the insurer determine their liability should a class action develop and the prospects for settlement. This also helps the insurer determine the level of underwriting risk in issuing a policy of EPLI insurance in line with the company's personnel practices.
I've done extensive underwriting (over 300 accounts) to determine the likelihood of exposure and to assist the insurer in determining proper reserves; I've also written a book for AEGIS Loss Control entitled Employment Practice Self-Assessment Guide. This book is used by major insurance companies to determine their internal potential liabilities, and to correct practices that may have a disparate impact upon females or minorities.
I was lead counsel in defending the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in a class action under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. I have also represented the Authority in a pattern and practice suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice challenging religious accommodation.
Corporate clients frequently hire me to develop affirmative action plans and to defend on-site compliance reviews by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
Additionally, I also litigate extensively in the labor and employment law area; on the plaintiff side largely against the federal government, and on the defense side on behalf of corporate interests. I have litigated dozens of employment lawsuits, and have appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Court TV, and CBS, ABC and NBC Evening News. I'm also active in teaching CLE courses on affirmative action, and civil rights law. I advise clients in virtually every area of employment and labor law.
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