Prosecuting Majority-Group Discrimination Claims: Statute Selection, Damages, and the Closing Filing Window

This session equips plaintiff-side employment attorneys with a practical framework for selecting the optimal federal and state statute when representing majority-group discrimination plaintiffs after the Supreme Court’s unanimous 2025 decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. Attorneys will learn how to maximize damages exposure by layering Title VII, Section 1981, Section 1983, and state law claims—and how to avoid the procedural and pleading errors that cap recovery or forfeit claims entirely. By the end of the session, attendees will understand the post-Ames pleading standard, the statute-selection matrix by claim type, and the strategic filing decisions that determine whether a client’s recovery is capped at $300,000 or unlimited.

This session covers the litigation mechanics a plaintiff’s attorney must master after Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services (2025): how to survive dismissal, navigate the McDonnell Douglas battleground at summary judgment, and construct a pattern record using DEI-related discovery. Attorneys will learn how to identify comparator evidence by circuit, deploy Muldrow’s lowered harm threshold for non-termination adverse actions, and use EEOC guidance and government litigation as a discovery roadmap. Attendees will leave with a working understanding of the specific evidentiary architecture needed to move a majority-group discrimination claim from complaint through summary judgment.