Retained by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Defense counsel retained Cornerstone Research to support the late Edward Lazear of Stanford University and Justin McCrary of Columbia Law School in two class action labor discrimination cases brought against Walmart.
In both matters, a class of female employees alleged that Walmart systematically discriminated against female employees nationwide with respect to pay and promotion, in violation of Title VII.
Class certification was ultimately denied in both cases.
Dukes et al. v Walmart Stores Inc.
Plaintiffs sought to certify a nationwide class of over 1.5 million female employees of Walmart. Professor Lazear provided expert analysis on the question of whether the class should be certified, including an analysis of common impact of the allegations across class members.
In 2004, the federal district court certified the class. Walmart appealed the decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case, resulting in a 2011 landmark ruling reversing class certification. The Supreme Court held that, for the purposes of a nationwide class, plaintiffs failed to demonstrate the commonality requirement for certification.
Phipps et al. v Walmart Stores Inc.
Plaintiffs sought to certify a class of current and former employees who worked in a specific geographic region within Walmart’s nationwide network. This was a geographic subclass of the Dukes et al. v. Walmart putative class.
Professor McCrary provided expert analysis on the question of whether the class should be certified. He analyzed Walmart’s internal wage and promotion data in order to assess the differences in wages, job titles, and career progression across individual employees and across store locations. Professor McCrary’s statistical analysis established that there were large and significant differences in wages and promotion outcomes across individual employees and, on average, across different store locations.
The judge denied certification of the plaintiffs’ proposed class.