Legal Advocacy

Joseph v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia et al.

MaChelle Joseph is the former Head Coach of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s women’s basketball team, which she successfully led for 16 years. The university’s athletic department, however, afforded Coach Joseph and her team significantly fewer benefits and resources than it provided to the men’s basketball team. Soon after Coach Joseph filed a complaint about this discriminatory treatment, the university suspended and ultimately terminated her employment.

Miller v. Sam Houston State University/Texas State University System

Dr. Audrey K. Miller, an expert in gender violence, trauma, and forensic psychology, was a tenure-track Assistant Professor of psychology at Sam Houston State University. Despite her excellent performance reviews and nominations for university awards, Dr. Miller was denied promotion and tenure after she expressed concern to administrators about discriminatory treatment that she and other women in her department had experienced.

Paige v. USAID

Adopted August 2020

Three women, each of whom worked for USAID for more than 27 years in overseas posts, achieved the highest rank in the Senior Foreign Service (Career Minister). But in 2016, each discovered that, despite their greater seniority and higher rank, they were paid considerably less than dozens of lower ranking and less experienced male Senior Foreign Service officers.

Glasson v. Google

Adopted August 2020

Chelsey Glasson had a long history of exceptional performance at the tech companies she worked for — until she began to speak out against the pregnancy discrimination she witnessed and then began to experience herself as a Google employee.

Freyd v. University of Oregon

Adopted September 2019

Professor Jennifer J. Freyd, a respected senior faculty member in the University of Oregon’s Psychology Department, is paid significantly less than many of her male colleagues of equal rank as a result of “retention raises,” or salary increases given in the face of a competing offer. In this case, Professor Freyd has taken action against the University, contending that the University’s practice of granting such raises without equalizing salaries of other faculty of comparable merit has a disparate impact on women and violates the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, Title IX and Oregon’s sex discrimination law