December 29, 2020
No items found.

Motivational Speaker Tony Robbins Sued over Covid-related Discrimination

A new lawsuit, filed by an employee of the motivational speaker Tony Robbins, alleges that Robbins’s company, Robbins Research International, along with Robbins and his wife Bonnie, discriminated against the employee who requested reasonable accommodations be met for her recovery from coronavirus. 

The suit, filed in New York federal court, claims the Robbinses violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) among other federal laws when they denied her petition to slowly return to work after suffering from a severe bout of coronavirus which left her in a medically induced coma in April. In addition to being denied working-hours-related accommodation, the plaintiff alleges her work email and other access have been restricted since July, making it impossible for her to work.

Complicating matters, Robbins allegedly intervened in the employee’s medical provision while she was in a coma, an action Mr. Robbins discussed during a podcast in which the plaintiff was able to be identified by listeners. He has also been an outspoken critic of medical responses to Covid-19 and has downplayed the issue, requiring people to continue to come to work and attend in-person events as the virus first raged across the US in the early spring, something the plaintiff complained about.


Contact us with your questions about reasonable accommodations

white line

Associate Alex Berke quoted in Mother Jones on Defamation and Sexual Harassment

February 18, 2020
Sexual Harassment
Alex Berke, an employment lawyer in New York, says she asks men what their goal is when they come to her after being accused of sexual harassment. Will a lawsuit really stop people from talking about them?

NYC Commission on Human Rights Clarifies Work Protections for Independent Contractors and Freelancers

January 30, 2020
No items found.
New York City's Commission On Human Rights has published new information for freelancers and contractors working in the city.

The Rhetoric of Choice Obscures Our Social Obligations to Parents

January 30, 2020
Paid Family Leave
FMLA
Pregnancy Discrimination
Leave
Who should foot the bill or take responsibility for social reproduction as more women were pressed into the workforce, government or the individual? In the US, the answer was resounding: the individual. And this has had significant consequences for working parents since. By placing the responsibility on the individual, almost always the mother, parents have been in a bind for decades and any "choices" available reside in an astonishingly thin sliver of options constrained by structural inequalities

Get In Touch

Knowing where to turn in legal matters can make a big difference. Contact our employment lawyers to determine if we can help you.