Judith Vladeck - 1923 - 2007
Recently Judith Vladeck passed away. For those of you who don't know her, for decades she served on the plaintiff's side of the bar and was well known as one who would make a defense attorney shudder at the thought of her being on the other side. After Title VII was enacted in 1964, she served in a long career advocating for the rights of those discriminated against in the workplace. She is known as the one who established the legal precedent for "front pay," took on the world's largest and most powerful corporations and took on a major corporation in one of the first class action lawsuits under the Equal Pay Act.
When one of the old guard passes, it's important to recognize how far employment litigation has come for good or for bad. Ms. Vladeck was one of the original plaintiff's side attorneys who was in it because of her passion for advocating for the rights of those she believed were discriminated against. In the early days, this was a time when there were no compensatory and punitive damages like there are today. Sadly, unlike Ms. Vladeck some of the plaintiff's lawyers today joined the frey because of the availability of compenstory and punitive damages available after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, not because they are passionate about employee rights.