Posted October 27th, 2020 in Top Stories
NJL’s U.S. Bank Team Obtains Two Major Victories in Age Bias Cases in October
Congratulations to Nilan Johnson Lewis’ team of Dave Schooler, Ellen Brinkman, Erin Conlin, and Dan Supalla for garnishing two favorable results on behalf of U.S. Bank in the month of October. Both cases involved age bias claims.
On October 7th, in one of the first in-person civil jury trials in Hennepin County, Minnesota since March, the NJL team of Schooler, Brinkman, and Conlin received a complete defense verdict in Mary Jo Farrell v. U.S. Bank National Association (Court File No. 27-CV-17-16114). The NJL team successfully defended age discrimination and retaliation claims by a 56-year-old executive with 33 years of experience with the bank. A jury of 6 women and 1 man unanimously rejected Plaintiff’s claims and request for $12.4 million dollars and issued a straight defense verdict.
On October 23, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of Plaintiff’s claims in Julie McKey v. U.S. Bank National Association (Appellate Court File No. 19-2638; District Court File No. 0:17-cv-05058-NEB-DTS). Schooler, Brinkman, and Supalla obtained the favorable opinion, in which the Eighth Circuit concluded that no reasonable jury could find that Plaintiff was discriminated against on the basis of age and that Plaintiff’s claim of retaliation failed to demonstrate causation.
