Goldman Sachs Group Inc. won an appeal in a sex discrimination case, forcing a former managing director to arbitrate her claim rather than sue.
The federal appeals court in New York today ruled against Lisa Parisi, one of three women who sued in 2010 claiming they faced discrimination in pay and promotion at Goldman Sachs.
Parisi argued that she has a right to present her claim that the firm had a pattern and practice of discrimination against women managing directors, vice presidents and associates that can be litigated only as a class-action suit in federal court. Parisi’s employment contract contained an arbitration clause, the court said.
Goldman Sachs “‘contends that there is no substantive statutory right to pursue a pattern-or-practice claim,” Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote in an opinion. “We agree with Goldman Sachs.”
The court reversed a decision by a lower-court judge who denied Goldman Sachs’s request that it order Parisi’s case to arbitration. The appeals court said Parisi may present to the arbitrators any evidence of discriminatory practices or policies at Goldman Sachs that affected her employment.
The case is Parisi v. Goldman Sachs & Co., U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).