Jeanne Christensen

Jeanne M. Christensen is a Partner at Wigdor LLP. Ms. Christensen is one of the most prominent female attorneys within the field of employment litigation, having represented thousands of plaintiffs in federal and state workplace disputes including, but not limited to, sexual harassment, discrimination on the basis of gender, race, age, pregnancy, disability, LGBT+ status and/or religion, whistleblower retaliation, defamation and wage and hour violations.  Ms. Christensen concentrates her practice in class and collective actions on behalf of plaintiffs in employment and consumer cases.  She has successfully arbitrated numerous matters on behalf of securities industry professionals and defrauded consumers before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).  Ms. Christensen represents clients from a wide variety of professions including, but not limited to, the financial services industry, the media and entertainment industry, the restaurant and hospitality industry, and corporate entities.

Ms. Christensen is known for being a fervent supporter of women’s rights in the workplace.  Her reputation includes representing female plaintiffs in some of the most widely-publicized cases involving sexual harassment, unequal pay, and gender and pregnancy discrimination in recent years.  She is also an active member of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund’s attorney network, the National Association of Consumer Advocates and Public Justice.  Ms. Christensen’s tenacious pursuit of justice on behalf of victims of workplace misconduct has earned plaudits from former clients and opposing counsel alike, who often recommended her to victims seeking highly skilled legal counsel.

Publicity

Ms. Christensen’s handling of numerous high-profile employment cases has resulted in frequent media appearances including CNN, Good Morning America, Megyn Kelly Today, Access Hollywood, the BBC, NPR, NBC, ABC, CBS and more.  She is regularly quoted as a legal expert in leading national print and digital media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, New York Law Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, TIME Magazine, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Barron’s, Law360, The Guardian, The Chicago Tribune, Adweek, CNET, Recode and many more.  Due to her work handling prominent sexual harassment and gender discrimination cases, Ms. Christensen has appeared in a feature profile about her career in The American Lawyer.

Ms. Christensen is also an author and lecturer on various employment-related subjects.  Because of her extensive litigation experience, she is a highly sought-after speaker, having appeared as a distinguished panelist at numerous national legal seminars and conferences, including events hosted by the American Bar Association (ABA), the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and the American Conference Institute (ACI).

Below is a sample of Ms. Christensen’s recent publicity:

• 3/7/19 – ABC News – Proposed class-action lawsuit filed against Nellie’s eggs over ‘free range’ label
• 3/7/19 – The Guardian – Free-range eggs producer accused of deceiving US consumers
• 3/7/19 – New York Business Journal – Nellie’s hens are mistreated and eggs aren’t free-range, lawsuit says
• 3/5/19 – Quartz – AI will reproduce and enshrine age-old biases—if we let it
• 3/1/19 – Law360 – Backlash Has Some Employers Rethinking Forced Arbitration
• 2/28/19 – Law360 – Dems Launch Legislative Broadside At Mandatory Arbitration
• 1/18/19 – Dealbreaker – Morgan Stanley Forex Guys Have Bad Opinions On Pumping Breast Milk At The Office, And That’s Bad For All Of Wall Street
• 1/17/19 – New York Business Journal – Morgan Stanley banker fired after maternity leave files complaint
• 1/16/19 – Bloomberg – Morgan Stanley Banker Fired After Maternity Leave Writes CEO
• 12/20/18 – The New York Times – Planned Parenthood Is Accused of Mistreating Pregnant Employees
• 12/10/18 – Yahoo News – Judge Rejects ESPN’s Motion to Toss Portion of Adrienne Lawrence Sex Harass Lawsuit
• 12/6/18 – Crain’s New York Business – Ex-VP at ProHealth alleges discrimination
• 12/4/18 – Law360 – ProHealth Exec Says Gender Bias Led To Firing
• 12/3/18 – Fierce Healthcare – Fired female executive accuses Optum of gender discrimination, ignoring abusive treatment
• 11/13/18 – Bloomberg – More Silicon Valley Harassment Cases ‘Definitely’ on the Way, Wigdor Partner Says
• 11/13/18 – Adweek – Class-Action Lawsuit Alleges Avon Discriminated Against Pregnant Women
• 11/13/18 – New York Law Journal – Class Suit Claims Avon Leadership Discriminated Against Expecting, Nw and Nursing Moms
• 11/13/18 – The Daily Beast – Breast-Pumping Mom Hits Avon with Class-Action Suit
• 11/9/18 – Bloomberg – Where Google’s Reforms Fell Short
• 11/6/18 – Film Threat – The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret
• 10/4/18 – Yahoo News – Avon is ‘a company run by men’: Former exec files lawsuit, claims she was fired after revealing high-risk pregnancy
• 10/3/18 – Jezebel – Lawsuit Claims Avon Discriminated Against a Pregnant Employee, Is ‘A Company Run by Men’
• 10/3/18 – Law360 – Avon United Fired Pregnant Exec During Health Scare, Suit Says
• 8/27/18 – Connecticut Law Tribune – Wigdor Takes Over Adrienne Lawrence’s Sex Harassment Suit Against ESPN
• 8/13/18 – The Daily Beast – Uber Driver Was Accused of Sexual Assault, But Not Fired. Then It Happened Again, Lawsuit Says
• 7/2/18 – New York Law Journal – Harvey Weinstein Faces Maximum Penalty of Life Sentence from New Charges
• 6/11/18 – CNBC – The woman suing Point72 and Steve Cohen speaks out about alleged gender and pay discrimination
• 5/25/18 – CBS This Morning – Harvey Weinstein has turned himself in. What’s next?
• 5/21/18 – San Francisco Chronicle – Supreme Court arbitration ruling could slow #MeToo movement
• 5/21/18 – Gizmodo – Lawmakers Want To Know How Ridesharing Companies Are Dealing With Sexual Assault and Harassment
• 5/15/18 – NPR – Under Pressure, Uber Drops Arbitration Requirement For Sexual Assault Victims
• 5/15/18 – CNN with Wolf Blitzer – Uber Ends Mandatory Arbitration for Individual Claims of Sexual Assault
• 5/15/18 – Vanity Fair – Is Uber’s Woke Makeover For Real?
• 5/15/18 – Business Insider – Fox News settles a slew of discrimination lawsuits for around $10 million
• 5/12/18 – Huffington Post – How Uber Silences Women After Sexual Assaults
• 5/7/18 – The American Lawyer – Can Wigdor’s Jeanne Christensen Make Uber Pay?
• 5/2/18 – CNET  – Senator to Uber: Stop silencing reported victims of sexual assault
• 5/1/18 – Megyn Kelly TODAY – Women who claim sexual misconduct by Uber drivers join Megyn Kelly TODAY
• 4/30/18 – CNN – CNN investigation: 103 Uber drivers accused of sexual assault or abuse
• 4/26/18 – Bloomberg – Uber Rape Accusers to Firm’s Board: Free Us From Arbitration
• 4/24/18 – Law360  – The Barriers Keeping #MeToo From Reaching Its Full Potential
• 4/15/18 – NBC Nightly News – Uber Announces New Safety Features Amid Sexual Assault Class Action
• 4/8/18 – Adweek – When #MeToo Came to Madison Avenue
• 3/17/18 – The New York Times – President of Steven Cohen’s Investment Firm Quits Amid Gender Bias Lawsuit
• 3/15/18 – The Daily Beast – Seven More Women Join Uber Sexual-Assault Lawsuit
• 2/16/18 – The New Yorker – With Lawsuit Against Steven Cohen’s Firm, #MeToo Comes to Wall Street
• 2/15/18 – Reuters – Cohen’s Point72 wants lawsuit over hostility to women sent to arbitration
• 2/12/18 – The New York Times – Steven Cohen’s Investment Firm Accused of Hostility to Women

Notable Cases

Ms. Christensen has been involved in the litigation of many large, complex and high-profile matters.  Currently, she represents the plaintiffs a proposed class action against Avon, which is the first lawsuit of its kind to be filed on behalf of a proposed class of female employees that have needed to pump breast milk during work hours (the “Breast Pumping Class”).  Ms. Christensen also represents the plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging systemic gender discrimination and unequal pay at Point72 Asset Management, which was lauded by The New York Times as “among the most prominent to accuse a major Wall Street firm of workplace misconduct amid a national reckoning on sexual harassment.”

Ms. Christensen’s recent representative cases include:

• Reached settlement agreement on behalf of multiple plaintiffs in a race discrimination and retaliation action against an international beverage company;
• Numerous settlement agreements on behalf of more than one thousand current and former service employees in wage and hour class actions against popular New York City restaurants;
• Multiple settlement agreements in individual and class-action racial profiling lawsuits against some of the largest department and retail stores in the United States;
• Successful representation of female executive assistants in a sexual harassment matter against a large, multinational financial services firm;
• Successful representation of an executive assistant in a race discrimination and retaliation action against a management consulting firm;
• Successful representation of administrator in a sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation action against a private New York primary school;
• Successful representation of a nurse in connection with claims of race discrimination and retaliation against a New York hospital;
• Successful representation of a loan officer who alleged race, age discrimination and retaliation against a national mortgage lender;
• Successful representation of executive assistant in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and failure to pay overtime against one of the largest real estate firms in New York City;
• Successful representation of individual plaintiff in connection with claims of gender discrimination and unequal pay against a large insurance company;
• Successful representation of a radio correspondent in a sexual harassment action against a New York radio station;
• Successful representation of a former fitness instructor in an age discrimination matter against a boutique fitness studio;
• Successful representation of a former Vice President of Sales in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against an international design company;
• Successful representation of an executive in a sexual harassment matter against a large advertising company;
• Reached settlement agreement in an individual disability discrimination action against an international law firm;
• Lead counsel in class action representing thousands of residential tenants against international real estate developer;
• Lead counsel in three class actions against national parking garage companies on behalf of individuals whose vehicles were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy;
• Represented consumers in breach of contract claims against major financial institution; and
• Representation of numerous female employees with pregnancy discrimination claims against major companies and institutions.

Education

Ms. Christensen received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School Of Law.  She attended Smith College and graduated with a B.A. in History and Economics, cum laude, from the University of Vermont.

Admitted to Practice

• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Eastern District of New York
• Member of the bar, New York and Maryland