Heather M Fuller PA402: Employment Law Assignment: Shewin Memorandum #1 April 27, 2015

Anti-discrimination laws cover categories that include race, gender, religion, age national origin, and others. Ms. Shewin’s case has several factors that could be split into the discrimination categories. The first factor that can be considered is that Ms. Shewin is an African American. In the fact pattern is states that there are only five African-American senior managers in the company. This would fit into the race discrimination category because the number of African-American individuals that are in senior management positions could be subject to the EEOA depending on the records kept by the company. The gender category is also a factor because she is a women and as far as Ms. Shewin knows, King was not involved in the promotion of any of the three woman that currently hold upper management positions. This is a clear violation of discrimination if he does not promote her because she is a woman. The other discriminatory factor that could be at play here in this case is that Ms. Shewin is a 45 year old individual. This could be a violation because an employer may not discourage potential candidates who belong to a particular protected class as defined by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
When the lead lawyer meets with Ms. Shewin, he will need to make sure that there are not any gaps or hesitations in her case. In order to get a better understanding of her case, a few follow-up questions have been prepared to ask at our next meeting. 1. What was the date or dates of incident(s)?
This is a good question to ask because having specific dates and times when presenting a case makes the facts more believable and reliable. It also helps to establish a timeline that will show all the events and actions that Mr. King was involved in against the Ms. Shewin.

2. Were there any witnesses?
This element will help the attorney take control of an important liability factor. If there are witnesses to the incident, they should be approached as soon as possible. This also helps to establish credibility because there were other people that saw and/or hear the same comments or actions that you are trying to prove happened. It is always better to make sure that you can either get something in writing or better yet have them testify in court about what they saw and heard.

3. The type of compensation, or "damages" you can hope to recover?
I thought this would be a good question to ask because in the end, anyone who files a lawsuit is looking to get something out of it. By the attorney asking what the clients expected outcome should be, this allows the attorney to prepare the case in the correct manner. It also gives the attorney the opportunity to talk with the client about what the realistic outcomes could be and how the process will work.

4. Did you speak with Human Resources regarding the interview process?
This is a good question to ask the Ms. Shewin because if she went to the HR department or an upper management person to talk to them about the inappropriate interview circumstances, then it give the case more leverage that these alleged allegations did in fact take place and when they took place. This also gives the attorney additional people to talk with to get a better understanding of what they thought happened and if they tried to handle the situation.

5. Why do you feel that you did not get the job?
I would have the attorney ask this question because not only does this give Ms. Shewin the chance to express her feelings toward the case, but it also give more detail about her qualifications versus what the qualifications were for the job. It would also give the attorney a chance to get a better grasp on how this has impacted the Ms. Shewin.