Finally, some good news in the fight against sexual harassment and assault.
The Senate (and previously, the House) have passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act with bipartisan votes. The bill was introduced in the Senate 5 years ago by Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand and Sen. Lindsey Graham and will move on to President Biden who has indicated that he will sign it.
No longer will victims be forced to bring their grievances to arbitration, freeing them to go to court if they choose. We also owe a tremendous debt to Gretchen Carlson for this legislation.
We note, however, that forced Non-Disclosure Agreements are not addressed in this legislation.
We also note that Women Lawyers On Guard’s nationwide survey of sexual harassment in the legal profession, Still Broken, determined that 86% of sexual harassment incidents are not even reported.
Read more in these articles: NPR or Washington Post.
