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I am sorry you're having to deal with this. Have you tried bringing it up internally, with HR? If your goals are for the issue to be immediately addressed, HR may be your best bet, as filing a complaint with a state or federal agency which may take 6 months or more. Are you concerned about ethics because filing the complaint would require to disclose work product? If so, could you draft it in such a way that doesnt include work product or other information that may be subject to any NDA you may be working under?
I'm sure you know this, but if you submit a complaint to HR, or with you state agency, or the EEOC, you are protected against retaliation. Not to say you won't be retaliated against, but if that happens you may win a discrimination claim, which includes an award of attorneys fees.
Pro
Thanks for the analysis and kind words 🙌🏽. It’s a discrimination in hiring practice that is going on - and also discrimination in other areas against a targeted protected class. I almost feel like it’s karma coming back at me for being mgmt side counsel for so many years… but I’ve always been open minded and empathetic, and treated everyone with courtesy, and tried to encourage clients to do the right thing.
I guess my objective is to raise awareness and call them out on it. We do have a “policy” to only give neutral references - and I give talkings-to when managers do otherwise … so I guess for me to forego any cause of action, I would want a divergence from this policy. We are also an organization that has a “high risk tolerance” approach to complaints … and that is another part of the problem with me being apprehensive to even trying to discuss this internally.
Why would it violate ethics rules? If you’ve been discriminated against you can file. Have you also reported to HR or your company’s ethics hotline?
The company is your client not the people. As long as you don’t divulge any privileged work product you are fine