At Novartis Sex Discrimination Class Action Trial, Will Emotional Witness Testimony Overwhelm Points of Law?
By Alison Frankel April 29, 2010 Post a Comment getNumberDigest(‘1202457106085’) On Monday, the same day that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld certification of the biggest employment discrimination class in history in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, a Novartis sales representative named Marjorie Salame took the witness stand in the courtroom of Manhattan federal district court judge Colleen McMahon. Salame, according to a transcript of the day’s proceedings, told a very distressing story. In May 2002, she testified, her Novartis career was thriving. She was exceeding sales targets, organizing lecture series, and beginning to take on management responsibilities. Then, at a late-night Novartis-sponsored event with physicians the company was courting, she misplaced her keys. She was cornered by one of the doctors at the event, Salame testified. And before she was able to get away, she told jurors, the doctor raped her. She immediately reported the assault to her manager and to th
