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Last month, the Massachusetts Appeals Court made clear in Doe 99 v. Cheffi, which we wrote about here, that most students who experience sexual harassment in school are not required to file their claims with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination before proceeding to court. Zalkind Law’s Naomi Shatz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the decision, noting that “it’s very clear from the statute under what circumstances you can go to the MCAD and therefore have to go to the MCAD,” but that in most cases students who experience sexual harassment at school can file their claims directly in court. Attorney Shatz noted that the case highlights the poor draftsmanship of Chapter 151C, which only provides protection against discrimination to students in vocational schools or students during the school application process. As Attorney Shatz told Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, “It’s particularly important that this get fixed on the legislative front now that the protection students used to have from federal laws [like Title IX] is evaporating.”

 

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Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education, alleging that the state violates Title IX by allowing transgender students to participate on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Attorney Naomi Shatz spoke with the Bangor Daily News about the lawsuit, noting that the administration’s interpretation of Title IX is contrary to how federal courts have interpreted the law.

Read the story here:

The national stakes of Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Maine

 

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Zalkind Law’s Rachel Stroup and Jennifer Herrmann filed a free speech lawsuit on behalf of Anna Feder against Emerson College. Ms. Feder ran the Bright Lights Cinema Series at Emerson for over a decade, and was terminated after screening the film Israelism, which explores American Jews’ relationship to the state of Israel, and after supporting student activism related to Palestine. Read news coverage of the case below:

In lawsuit, ex-Emerson staffer claims college fired her for pro-Palestinian activism

Staffer sues Emerson, claiming she was terminated for pro-Palestinian activism | WBUR News

CONTINUE READING ›

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On Friday, the federal Department of Education announced an investigation into the Maine Department of Education, alleging that it has violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The Department alleges that Maine schools have improperly withheld information about transgender students from their parents. Attorney David Russcol spoke to the Bangor Daily News about FERPA and what rights it does and does not grant parents. Read more here:

Experts blast federal probe into Maine’s transgender student policies as ‘unprecedented’

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Last month, the First Circuit decided Wadsworth v. Nguyen et. al., a case alleging Title IX and Equal Protection claims against a school district and some of its administrators for sexual harassment by a school principal against a high school student. The First Circuit reversed in part the District Court’s grant of summary judgment to the district and its employees, allowing the plaintiff’s equal protection claim against the principal and Title IX claim against the school could proceed. Attorney Naomi Shatz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the First Circuit’s holding that the principal, who had repeatedly made sexual comments to a vulnerable sixteen year old student, threatened her with assault if she didn’t respond to his texts quickly enough, bought her gifts, and pulled her out of class every day to make her spend time with him, was not entitled to qualified immunity. “The defendant’s argument that a right is not clearly established unless there is an in-circuit appellate case that has already addressed the exact same factual scenario is nonsensical, contrary to 1st Circuit precedent, and I’m surprised the District Court adopted that artificially narrow reading of what ‘clearly established law’ means,” Shatz told the publication. 

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On February 13, 2025, Attorney General Campbell and the attorneys general of fifteen other states released guidance for employers about the state of the law on DEI initiatives in response to the Trump administration’s executive order on DEI. Monica Shah spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the guidance, and how it makes clear that DEI initiatives are and remain legal. According to Shah, “They needed to do this because the executive orders coming from the administration are distorting our laws and making it difficult for employers to feel like they can proceed with what have always been lawful practices.”

Read the full article here: https://masslawyersweekly.com/2025/02/28/campbell-other-ags-issues-guidance-in-response-to-trump-dei-order/

 

 

 

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Attorney Naomi Shatz spoke to the Bangor Daily News about President Trump’s executive order prohibiting transgender women from playing sports in schools and athletic organizations that receive federal funding. Maine’s governor and attorney general have stated they will follow state and federal law – including a Maine law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity – rather than the executive order. Attorney Shatz said she expected courts to have to decide the question of whether an executive order purporting to interpret federal law overrides state laws. “I think the answer has to be no, the president cannot dictate that states violate their laws,” Shatz said.

Read the full article here: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/02/28/politics/washington/untested-legal-theory-donald-trump-title-ix-fight-maine-joam40zk0w/

 

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In response to a Superior Court judge’s recent decision to allow an employer from using an allegedly illegally obtained recording in a civil litigation matter, Zalkind Law partner Monica Shah expressed concerns “about the message that is sent if employers can make use of unauthorized recordings in the workplace” and noted that “If employers are allowed to rely on recordings made in violation of the wiretap law, it incentives further violations to occur,” by encouraging employees to surveil each other, which undermines the purpose of the wiretap statute. Shah noted that the Legislature could make changes to the statute, including “to create an exemption for an employee engaged in protected activity or documenting incidents of discrimination or harassment.”

Click here to read more: https://masslawyersweekly.com/2025/01/25/surreptitious-recording-in-workplace-admissible/

 

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Attorneys Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the amendments to Rule 14 of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure. The revisions dramatically reform Rule 14 in response to the SJC’s decision in Committee for Public Counsel Services v. Attorney General, which ordered the an advisory committee to propose a checklist to clarify the definition of exculpatory evidence under Brady and its progeny in response to Massachusetts’ drug lab scandal. Attorneys Quinn-Judge and Shah had submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the Cato Institute and the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, which advocated for such a checklist to ensure that DA’s offices are held accountable for their broad disclosure obligations. Among other changes, revised Rule 14 includes a detailed non-exhaustive definition of the prosecutorial team, defines exculpatory evidence as any evidence “favorable to the defense,” and requires disclosure of such evidence as early as arraignment and the first pre-trial conference. As the article explains, how the rule is implemented will be closely watched by defense attorneys when it goes into effect in March 2025. Read the full article here: Defense lawyers in ‘wait-and-see’ mode on new criminal rule | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

 

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