Monique da Silva's gender discrimination lawsuit against MSL Group and Publicis Groupe is similar in scope to a number of lawsuits that women have filed against large corporations in recent years.
Da Silva's $100 million class action suit, which alleges pay and promotion discrimination at the PR firm, was filed by Sanford Wittels & Heisler – the same law firm that brought gender discrimination lawsuits against Novartis and Toshiba.
Last year, Novartis agreed to settle the class action discrimination lawsuit for $175 million after the pharmaceutical company was accused of discriminating against 5,600 women who worked in sales.
Other companies facing similar lawsuits include Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Walmart, which faces the largest class action lawsuit of its kind in US history.
Yet, industry people tell me that da Silva's lawsuit is unique for this industry – that there haven't been similar class action lawsuits filed against PR firms in the past. So, tell us what you think this means for PR agencies, ranging from client relationships to recruiting practices, benefit packages, and internal training and promotion programs.