Meet Stephanie

Executive Severance

Stephanie was the controller of a global trucking company. Her company was in the process of being bought out by an overseas competitor and she knew that because so many people were leaving, she had an opportunity to provide her institutional knowledge to the new company. Stephanie knew that she would be taking on a lot of risk by staying with the new company so she wanted to keep all her options open, especially with a non-compete restriction in her contract. That’s when she called Cramer Law. We took her through the steps of negotiating a new contract with the successor company that would allow her to hedge her risk should things not work out with the new leadership. She is making significantly more compensation and she is protected financially should she choose to leave the new company.

Meet Heather

HR Compliance Needs

Heather is the HR Director for a technology company. Her Director of Sales told her that he had a problem employee, Jim. Jim would initiate sales outside his assigned territory, stretch the truth about his productivity, and even started withholding leads when his supervisor asked for them point blank. Her partners and Jim’s boss had worked with him for months to try to get his behavior to change, but nothing seemed to be working. That’s when she called Cramer Law Group. We took Heather and her leadership through the process of terminating Jim in a lawful and risk averse manner. Heather’s company now has a permanent relationship with Cramer Law and we assist them with all their HR compliance needs.

Meet Robert

Retaliation

Robert was the general manager of a car dealership that opposed sexual harassment and then was terminated. When one of Robert’s male employees told a female receptionist, “Hey, I asked Dave who’s pussy he’d like to lick. I told him I want yours,” Robert terminated him on the spot. From that time forward, upper management cooled toward Robert, with one senior leader telling him, “you’ve fired one too many people…” Robert needed to take time off under the Family Medical Leave Act to care for his elderly parents who had COVID-19, and he was terminated within a day of making this request. Despite his exemplary sales, and having saved the dealership from the brink of unprofitability, he was told that his April numbers “didn’t look too good” and that he was terminated immediately. That’s when he called Cramer Law. We took Robert through the steps to prepare for a lawsuit and are currently in the process of arbitration.

Meet Kiara

Race Discrimination 

Kiara was a black female Cook County Sheriff’s Officer. When she posed for a picture with her Cook County Sheriff’s Officer sweatpants on and it was posted to Facebook, she was suspended without pay for nearly a year. Kiara was able to show that her white male counterparts had posted all kinds of pictures of themselves on social media wearing items from their Cook County Sheriff’s Officer uniform. And yet, they were not disciplined at all. In fact, some were even given performance awards. That’s when Kiara contacted Cramer Law. We helped Kiara through the process of getting back to work and collecting all the unpaid wages (and more) that she had been deprived of due to her wrongful suspension.

Meet Jennifer

Discrimination

Jennifer was a Territory Manager for a global medical device company. Jennifer let her male boss know that she was pregnant. Unfortunately, Jennifer had a very complicated pregnancy which required her to monitor her blood sugar, blood pressure, and stay off her feet. Despite her exemplary performance, Jennifer’s male supervisor asked her if she wanted to take a demotion following her return to work because, “it would be better for being a mom.” When she said, “no,” he backtracked and told her that she needed to be demoted based on sub-par performance (despite having the highest sales numbers of her all-male team).

During an observation, he criticized her for taking a seat during a surgery due to her back injury and pregnancy. He told her that by sitting, it showed she lacked confidence and he didn’t believe she had the respect of anyone in the room. When they returned to the operating room, she stood for over 6 hours without being able to take a break or even sit down because she feared she would lose her job. Jennifer began to experience severe abdominal pain and other symptoms, including premature contractions related to excessive stress directly following her observation with her supervisor.  That’s when she called Cramer Law Group.

From there, we took a very aggressive approach to Jennifer’s case. After all, Jennifer’s health and the health of her unborn child were at the forefront of our minds. Once we were assured that Jennifer’s health was stabilized, we sought recompense from her employer. There was no way that Jennifer could ever go back to that environment. Despite the egregious set of facts that led to Jennifer calling us, the company did not want to settle. So, we took them to court. Not long after taking them to court did the company realize they had made an error in judgment. The company quickly settled and Jennifer had enough money from her settlement to allow her to take her time finding the next opportunity and stay at home with her healthy newborn baby.

Jennifer is now happily the mother of three and lives in Dallas, Texas with her family.

Meet the Jane Does

Sexual Harassment

Five female CFD paramedics decided they simply could not take it anymore. The pervasive sex discrimination in the CFD was not only emotionally devastating but created an intimidating and hostile work environment. When one Jane Doe complained that her former boyfriend, a CFD firefighter, was stalking her, she was accused of lying and received punishment in her file. One Jane Doe’s male supervisors walked into a small room where she was sleeping following his sexual advances and he placed her in imminent fear of being sexually assaulted. One Jane Doe was pinned up against a wall by a superior and forced to put her hand on his penis, while he pushed against her. Two others were kissed and groped against their will. When the women complained to the CFD, they did nothing. That’s when Cramer Law got involved. Throughout this case, we were honored to represent these powerful life-saving women. Each Jane Doe suffered from post-traumatic stress or symptoms of the same because of the traumas they experienced at the hands of their male supervisors and co-workers. When it became clear that the City would not settle early in litigation despite the media splash that the lawsuit made, we became relentless. The City filed a Motion to Dismiss, we beat that motion. The City played games with discovery, we sought sanctions against them. When the City moved for summary judgment, nearly all of the claims survived and would go to trial. Finally, after 3 years, and an imminent trial was at hand, the City decided it wanted to negotiate. The Jane Does ended up with a 1.825 million dollar settlement. Read more about that case here

The names and pictures of these featured clients have been changed to maintain confidentiality.