Archives

Zalkind Law has filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief with the Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of Jane Doe Inc., the Victim Rights Law Center, the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers’ Association on the scope of the state anti-sexual harassment law. The case, Sabatini v. Knouse, is a lawsuit brought by former MIT scientist David Sabatini against Kristin Knouse, a former MIT graduate student and employee who made sexual harassment allegations against Sabatini. The question the Supreme Judicial Court will address when it hears the case next month is whether Massachusetts’ statute prohibiting sexual harassment (G.L. c. 214, § 1C), allows Knouse to bring a claim against Sabatini himself, or only allows claims against institutions when the sexual harassment occurs in the educational context.

The brief, authored by Zalkind Law attorneys Naomi R. Shatz and Niamh Gibbons, explains that the law clearly allows suits against the individuals who perpetrate harassment in the education context, just as the courts have already held it allows suits against those individuals who harass others in the employment context. The language of the statute, the requirement that civil rights statutes be read broadly, and the Legislature’s intent to create a comprehensive statutory scheme for addressing sexual harassment at school and at work all support Knouse’s ability to bring this claim.

Read the brief here.