Goldman Sachs to pay $215M to settle gender pay, discrimination case

The bank and four female plaintiffs reached settlement, although the agreement still must be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the plaintiffs’ counsel at law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein announced in a press release Tuesday. A jury trial had been scheduled to begin June 7.

As part of the settlement, Goldman Sachs agreed to hire an independent expert to assess its performance evaluation process and gender pay equity.

Four former Goldman Sachs employees—Cristina Chen-Oster, Shanna Orlich, Allison Gamba, and Mary De Luis—sued Goldman Sachs in 2010, alleging the bank paid its female professionals less than their male counterparts and disproportionately promoted men over equally or more qualified women, according to a case blog published by the plaintiffs’ counsel.

The class-action lawsuit covered approximately 2,800 current and former Goldman Sachs associates and vice presidents employed in the investment banking, investment management, or securities divisions from July 2002 to March 2023 in New York and elsewhere in the United States from September 2004 to March 2023.

“As one of the original plaintiffs, I have been proud to support this case without hesitation over the last nearly 13 years and believe this settlement will help the women I had in mind when I filed the case,” said Orlich in the press release.

Goldman Sachs’s global head of human capital management, Jacqueline Arthur, said in the release the bank is “proud of its long record of promoting and advancing women and remains committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace for all our people. After more than a decade of vigorous litigation, both parties have agreed to resolve this matter.”