Cases

Tata Consultancy Services, a global IT company headquartered in India, went to trial in 2018 against a class of plaintiffs claiming discriminatory termination. The plaintiffs said the company had a “pattern or practice” of intentionally discriminating against non-South Asian workers due to their race or national origin. An Oakland, California jury unanimously rejected their claims. TCS was represented by a team from Loeb & Loeb, with GMSR partner Laurie Hepler serving as legal-issues counsel at trial. Plaintiffs then appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where Laurie and Geoff Kehlmann won affirmance of the victory. The court concluded that (1) even if the jury instructions the judge crafted (with no relevant models) were imperfect, “any error” was harmless because it wasn’t likely to have affected the verdict, and (2) any error in the exclusion of certain evidence from trial was also harmless.

Court of Appeals Opinion – View Document