Goldman Sachs Group faces a June 5 trial in a long-simmering gender-bias class action alleging the bank discriminated against thousands of women in pay and promotion.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan set the 2023 date in an order Monday. If the trial goes ahead as scheduled, it would be 13 years after the closely watched suit was filed and 18 years after the lead plaintiff first complained about discrimination at the bank to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But the judge in her order Monday narrowed the class in the case, agreeing with Goldman Sachs that women who were not employed at the bank long enough to be subject to certain review processes at issue in the case shouldn't be included. She also said certain wealth managers not subject to those reviews and women who had been ranked in the top quintile weren't damaged by alleged bias and should be excluded.
Torres denied Goldman Sachs's request to appeal an earlier ruling on which women could sue. Torres said she can "easily redefine the class" to take into account any remaining issues about who has legal standing to make claims in the case.
"We are pleased with the decision and look forward to the trial," said Adam Klein, a lawyer for the women.
"Goldman Sachs is proud of its long record of promoting and supporting women, and we look forward to vigorously defending ourself against these baseless claims," a spokeswoman said in an email.
Lead plaintiff Cristina Chen-Oster, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, first complained about her treatment at Goldman to the EEOC in 2005, then sued five years later. The suit claims Goldman permitted its managers to make biased pay and promotion decisions, systematically denying women opportunities they deserved.
The case is Chen-Oster v Goldman Sachs Group Inc., 10-cv-6950, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
