Kaye Scholer Obtains Victory for Spanish Broadcasting System in Employment Discrimination Case

On June 3, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, chaired by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, unanimously affirmed U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan’s grant of summary judgment dismissing all thirteen causes of action, including claims for age, national origin and race discrimination brought by a former senior account executive, against our client, Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (“SBS”). Plaintiff claimed in a complaint first filed in 2004, that he was terminated in furtherance of an alleged scheme by SBS to “Anglicize” its workforce in the aftermath of 9/11 and in an effort to persuade mainstream marketers to advertise on Hispanic radio. The Circuit also affirmed the district court’s denial of plaintiff’s motion to supplement the record with allegedly incriminating business records he first found in his house after SBS had made its summary judgment motion. This was the first employment discrimination case litigated to judgment and defended successfully on appeal for SBS since Kaye Scholer began representing this client 25 years ago.

William C. Zifchak orally argued the appeal at the Second Circuit, and authored the successful opposition brief on appeal. The Second Circuit’s decision is available at 2011 WL 2162968; the District Court’s decision is available at 2010 WL 2813632 (S.D.N.Y. July 12, 2010).