News

When Zelda Perkins signed a non-disclosure agreement with Miramax in 1998, she was sworn to secrecy about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged harassment of herself and a colleague. For 20 years Perkins stuck by the undertaking, which banned any publicizing of Weinstein’s unwanted advances. But at the end of 2017, she publicly broke that contract, jeopardizing her future and her bank account.

As the dust of #MeToo settles, society everywhere is being forced to confront a problem that appears to be universal. Since the unmasking of Hollywood producer Weinstein in late 2017, it has become clear...

The Time’s Up campaign got as good a launch as could be hoped for on Sunday, with a heavy promotion at the Golden Globes. By midweek, the campaign had raised more than$16 millionfor its legal defense fund, including numerous donations of $25 or $50 apiece from the general public.

But the administration of the fund, and the criteria by which cases will be parceled out to lawyers and supported through donations, remains very much a work in progress. The fund will be based at the National Women’s Law Center, which launched a network of cooperating attorneys to take on sexual harassment...

The sexual harassment and sexual-assault stories currently roiling the entertainment industry have stars and fans in a fighting mood. So it was no surprise when Gal Gadot’s contract negotiations made headlines. Gadot, whose Wonder Woman is the lone real breakout superhero of the DC movie franchise, reportedly declared that she wouldn’t sign for future installments unless the movies were no longer financed by RatPac-Dune Entertainment. RatPac is co-founded by director and producer Brett Ratner, who has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by a number of women. Ratner’s...

Gretchen Carlson, O&G partner Kathleen Peratis discuss Non-Disclosure Agreements and arbitration.

The sexual harassment and assault revelations just keep coming.  Bill O’Reilly and his stunning $32 million harassment settlement of complaints brought by a colleague at Fox News.  Harvey Weinstein, and former employees begging to be allowed to speak.  One breaking her nondisclosure agreement to tell all.  Those agreements have kept women silent for years.  Gretchen Carlson signed one with Fox.  She’s with us. This hour, On Point:  Nondisclosure agreements, and breaking the...

Denying allegations that he stole a lucrative whistleblower client on his way out of Grant & Eisenhofer, former director Reuben Guttman on Tuesday accused the plaintiffs firm of rehashing old claims and using a recent breach-of-contract lawsuit to sully his reputation.

Represented by employment law boutique Outten & Golden, Guttman and his current firm, Washington, D.C.-based whistleblower boutique Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, filed several motions in response to a contract lawsuit Grant & Eisenhofer brought in August in D.C. federal court. The lawsuit seeks $7...

A former Grant & Eisenhofer lawyer has asked a federal judge in Washington D.C. to toss out the firm’s “recklessly false” claims that he unlawfully poached a client in a whistleblower case against Celgene Corp that recently settled for $280 million.

Reuben Guttman said he brought the whistleblower, Beverly Brown, to the firm and that she followed him when he left Grant & Eisenhofer in 2015. Guttman, who is now a name partner at plaintiffs’ firm Guttman Buschner & Brooks, is represented by Outten & Golden.

To read the full story on WestlawNext Practitioner...

A D.C.-based boutique law firm and a former Grant & Eisenhofer PA director urged a federal judge Tuesday to toss G&E’s suit claiming they stole its client and owe $7 million in fees plus a cut of a $280 million settlement reached in a False Claims Act suit against Celgene Corp.

Ex-G&E Director Reuben A. Guttman and his current firm, Guttman Buschner & Brooks PLLC, argued that G&E refused an offer to continue to litigate as co-counsel for whistleblower Beverly Brown in an underlying FCA action against Celgene over the off-label promotion of two cancer drugs. G...

Kathleen Peratis is a partner at the New York law firm Outten & Golden LLP, where she chairs the firm’s sexual harassment practice group. She was formerly the director of the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU.

Gretchen Carlson got something out of her settlement with Roger Ailes that most women who make such a claim against a powerful man don’t obtain. Not the money — although the $20 million to be paid to the former Fox News Channel host is indeed eye-popping. Most women who bring successful sexual harassment claims do...