Tag Archives: Discrimination

Defending Discrimination Lawsuits in Silicon Valley Before They Are Filed

 
Emily Taylor
April 6, 2015

Employment policies and procedures are often an afterthought when starting a tech company, but they could mean the difference between success or failure.  Even well-established tech companies are learning their lessons the hard way.

A lawsuit filed in March by a former computer engineer at Twitter serves as a wake-up call for tech companies to have clear, written, nondiscriminatory, employment policies and procedures and to train supervisors on those policies.  These simple steps could prevent costly employment discrimination lawsuits altogether, or at a minimum, enhance the defensibility of such cases.

Implementing equal employment opportunity and anti-discrimination policies early as well as the consistent enforcement of such policies help promote a non-discriminatory culture as a company develops.

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Welcome to the Bar, Mr. Chang

 
John Cu
March 25, 2015

In 1872, Hong Yen Chang came to this country from China as part of an educational program to teach Chinese youth about the West.   Chang graduated from Philips Academy in Andover Massachusetts in 1879, earned his undergraduate degree at Yale, and received his juris doctorate at Columbia Law School in 1886.  He applied for admission to the New York Bar, but despite a “high marking” and unanimous recommendations from bar examiners, his admission was rejected because he was not a U.S. citizen. That same year, a New York judge issued Chang a certificate of naturalization, and ultimately Chang was admitted to the New York Bar in 1888, becoming the first recognized “regularly admitted Chinese lawyer in the country.”

Desiring to serve the large Chinese community of San Francisco, Chang moved to California and applied for admission to the California Bar.  The California Supreme Court rejected Chang’s application, swiftly holding that Chang’s U.S. citizenship was issued without authority, and, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, courts were expressly forbidden to issue citizenships to any native of China.

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