28 Facts About Shannon Liss-Riordan

Shannon Liss-Riordan is an American labor attorney.

Shannon Liss-Riordan is best known for her class-action cases against companies such as Uber, FedEx, and Starbucks.

Shannon Liss-Riordan unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts attorney general in the 2022 Massachusetts Attorney General election.

Shannon Liss-Riordan graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1990, after which she went to work for women's movement leader, Bella Abzug.

Shannon Liss-Riordan wrote a column in the law school newspaper.

Early in her career, Shannon Liss-Riordan won two disability discrimination trials in federal court, in 2002 against the Boston Police Department on behalf of a hearing-impaired police recruit, and later that year for a deaf airline mechanic who had been denied a job from United Airlines.

Shannon Liss-Riordan then sued establishments in other states and won victories and settlements in New York, Florida, Hawaii, and California.

In 2006, Shannon Liss-Riordan won a class action discrimination lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts, where the court ruled that a civil service cognitive ability test discriminated against minority applicants.

In 2008, Shannon Liss-Riordan brought a series of cases for skycaps against American Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways claiming they had retained a $2 baggage fee that passengers believed was a tip for the workers.

In 2005, Shannon Liss-Riordan began suing many companies for misclassifying their workers as independent contractors.

Shannon Liss-Riordan sued FedEx, ultimately winning for drivers in Massachusetts and obtaining multimillion dollar settlements.

Shannon Liss-Riordan challenged the cleaning industry for misclassifying mostly immigrant workers as franchisees, winning victories against companies including Coverall and Jani-King.

Shannon Liss-Riordan continued to challenge them in other states, including California, where she won rulings that Jan-Pro misclassified franchisees and had to reimburse them for expenses.

Shannon Liss-Riordan sued many strip clubs for misclassifying dancers and taking part of their tips.

Shannon Liss-Riordan headed more than a dozen class action lawsuits, which led to litigation that swept the country.

Shannon Liss-Riordan then purchased the Harvard Square location of Upper Crust at the bankruptcy auction with her husband.

In 2016, Shannon Liss-Riordan advocated for a controversial settlement against Uber estimated at totaling up to $100 million.

Shannon Liss-Riordan requested to reduce her firm's fee by $10 million in a bid to save the settlement.

The court nevertheless rejected the settlement and, several months later, as Shannon Liss-Riordan had warned, the appeals court reversed her victory.

Shannon Liss-Riordan defended her choice to settle the case in order to get money back for drivers, after some drivers were dissatisfied with still being classified as independent contractors.

In 2022, Shannon Liss-Riordan was part of the effort that succeeded at the Supreme Judicial Court in blocking the measure from appearing on the Massachusetts ballot.

In 2018, Shannon Liss-Riordan brought an age discrimination class action against IBM, alleging that the company was working to "build a younger workforce" by laying off thousands of older workers.

In 2022, Shannon Liss-Riordan started representing former Twitter employees in a class action lawsuit against Twitter for violation of the Federal and California Warn Act.

On May 20,2019, Shannon Liss-Riordan announced that she was running for the United States Senate for Massachusetts as a Democrat in the 2020 election.

Shannon Liss-Riordan told journalist Jim Braude that she was inspired by Representative Ayanna Pressley's win against an incumbent congressman.

Shannon Liss-Riordan reported raising $1.1 million by the Federal Election Commission deadline on June 30,2019, which included a $1 million personal loan from Shannon Liss-Riordan and $145,481 in individual contributions.

In 2021, it was reported that Shannon Liss-Riordan was considering a candidacy for Massachusetts Attorney General.

Shannon Liss-Riordan was endorsed by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, in addition to more than 50 other unions, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts.