Being at a work-related event outside the office often presents a unique set of circumstances. You may be surrounded by coworkers and business associates, but be situated someplace very different from the office, like a restaurant, bar, resort, or hotel. Whether a business conference, a company holiday party, or a corporate retreat, these events can be places where people lower the inhibitions that normally regulate their “on-the-clock” behavior, especially when alcohol is added to the mix. Too often, sexual harassment is the outcome. If you faced that type of misconduct at a business event, you should speak to an experienced New York sexual harassment lawyer about your legal options for getting justice.
One such example was this year's “Legalweek” conference. The event is a major legal technology conference sponsored by ALM (formerly American Lawyer Media) that occurs annually at the Hilton Midtown.
Reports of numerous acts of sexual harassment have cast a cloud over the 2024 event. In one particularly extreme instance, a female conference attendee was with friends at a bar where conference vendors and others often hosted “meet and greet” or “happy hour” events. There, an engineer who worked for an ediscovery company allegedly began aggressively harassing the woman and, when one of her friends intervened, the alleged harasser pulled out a knife.
The intervenor later recalled the event on LinkedIn, which spawned a flurry of replies. A VP at a tax and auditing firm asserted that, among 29 women she talked to, more than 2/3 “had personal stories of inappropriate behavior” at a conference. Alcohol often factored in. One attendee described some Legalweek-tied events as “corporate-sponsored booze fests.”
Law Firms, Sexual Harassment, and Off-Site Events
These “horror stories” are not unique to legal tech conferences or the legal tech industry. The practice of law faces similar challenges and, like legal tech, those problems are fueled in part by alcohol. The consumption of alcohol (and sometimes a lot of alcohol) is deeply interwoven in the company culture at many law firms. While some decision-makers in the legal industry view the provision of alcohol as a way to foster teambuilding and enhance networking opportunities, “wet” events also ratchet up the potential for sexual harassment.
If you endure sexual harassment at a business conference, the law may allow you to hold accountable those who failed to meet the duties the law imposes on them. If you were an employee of the entity that put on the event, you could have a strong case. The law says that an employer has an obligation to take appropriate steps to protect its employees from risks of sexual harassment that it knew about or reasonably should have known about.
Encountering harassment by a conference attendee is potentially actionable, but harassment by your supervisor may give you an even stronger case. New York law imposes an even higher form of liability – strict liability – on employers when the harasser is the victim’s boss.
If you are a conference attendee who experienced harassment, you also may be entitled to compensation. The potential for holding your employer liable will rise and fall based on the answers to many questions. These include things like “Was your harasser a coworker?”, “Was the harasser your supervisor?”, and “Did your employer take adequate or inadequate actions after you reported your harassment?”, just to name a few.
In other words, these cases involve countless details and innumerable nuances. To ensure you get justice and receive everything the law says you should, you need a powerful advocate fighting for you. At Phillips & Associates, our zealous New York sexual harassment attorneys have dedicated themselves to diligently representing workers harmed by sexual harassment, discrimination, and other forms of workplace misconduct. To learn more, contact us online or at (866) 229-9441 to set up a free and confidential consultation.