1. Douglas Holden Wigdor was born on September 26,1968 and is a founding partner of the law firm Wigdor LLP, and works as a litigator in New York City, specializing in anti-discrimination law.
26 Facts About Douglas Wigdor
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Douglas Wigdor received his JD degree from Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and is a member of the International Tennis Club of the United States.
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Douglas Wigdor received a master's degree at St Cross College, Oxford University and was named the 2007 and 2014 Alumnus of the Year.
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Douglas Wigdor has lectured on university campuses as a guest lecturer and speaker.
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Douglas Wigdor worked as an attorney in the Suffolk County district attorney's office.
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Dissatisfied with his work defending management accused of wrongdoing, Wigdor founded his own plaintiff-side law firm in 2003 with fellow Morgan Lewis attorney Kenneth P Thompson, who would later become the Brooklyn District Attorney.
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Later that year, Douglas Wigdor received a $7.5 million jury award against Wal-Mart, which was one of the largest yet under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
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Early in his career, Douglas Wigdor coined the phrase "recessionary discrimination" to describe the use of the economy as a pretext for discrimination.
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In 2011, Douglas Wigdor represented Nafissatou Diallo, a housekeeper attacked in the Sofitel Hotel by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund.
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On July 14,2020, one day after Wigdor filed a 36-page brief arguing that the proposed settlement was unfair to Weinstein's victims and should have been dismissed, US District Judge Alvin K Hellerstein held a 20-minute hearing in which he swiftly rejected preliminary approval of the settlement and denounced some of its terms as "obnoxious".
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Douglas Wigdor continued to represent clients in suits against Weinstein and other parties, including model Sara Ziff and Julia Ormond, both in 2023.
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Douglas Wigdor's filing first introduced the term "freak off", which became the subject of a wider criminal investigation into Diddy's behavior and properties.
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On February 1,2022, Douglas Wigdor filed a race discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, and Denver Broncos on behalf of former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, in addition to Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.
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Douglas Wigdor pressed the Secretary of the United States Senate to authorize a similar search for documents related to the complaint.
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Two years later, Douglas Wigdor sued Uber on behalf of the victim, accusing the company's top executives of unlawfully obtaining and sharing her private medical records.
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On January 21,2020, five days before the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, Douglas Wigdor filed a complaint with the EEOC on behalf of Deborah Dugan alleging that she was unlawfully stripped of her role as President and CEO of The Recording Academy in retaliation for her complaints of gender discrimination, voting irregularities, financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at the Academy.
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Hours before the ceremony, Douglas Wigdor publicly called on the Recording Academy to immediately reinstate Dugan as CEO.
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Douglas Wigdor represented five longtime female news anchors at NY1 in an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications, the station's parent company.
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On December 31,2020, The New York Times reported that Douglas Wigdor reached a settlement with Charter that included the women leaving the station.
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On March 1,2021, Douglas Wigdor filed a lawsuit on behalf of Amazon Web Services manager Charlotte Newman revealing allegations that Amazon routinely underpaid and under-promoted Black employees in its corporate offices.
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Douglas Wigdor represented the former Chief of Staff to Adam Neumann in a pregnancy discrimination complaint against WeWork.
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Douglas Wigdor has worked on a discrimination complaint against Intel.
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In 2020, Douglas Wigdor received the New York Law Journal's Distinguished Leader award and landed on The Hollywood Reporter's Top 100 Power Lawyers list, a list he returned to in 2024.
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Douglas Wigdor was named to Billboard's Top Music Lawyers list in 2020,2021, and 2023.
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In 2021, Douglas Wigdor LLP received a Band 1 ranking from Chambers and Partners and was selected to the shortlist for Labor and Employment Law Firm of the Year by Chambers USA and has been ranked by the publication for six years.
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Douglas Wigdor was named to the Forbes Top 200 Lawyers list, and LawDragon's "500 Leading Lawyers in America" list in 2024.