(Bloomberg) -- The lawyer behind the bombshell discrimination lawsuit against the National Football League is no stranger to controversy.
Doug Wigdor filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Fox News over alleged sexual harassment at the conservative network. He's taken on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in gender-bias suits and is currently waging a legal war with billionaire Leon Black on behalf of Russian model Guzel Ganieva, who claims the Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder sexually assaulted her.
Wigdor's penchant for hard-knuckle tactics and aggressive public support of his clients were on full display in media appearances on Wednesday with Brian Flores, the former Miami Dolphins head coach whose lawsuit accuses the NFL of pervasive racial bias in hiring. Flores is “the Rosa Parks of the NFL,” Wigdor said in an interview with ESPN.
But Wigdor's approach has enraged his foes. Fox has accused him of using suits to stir up media attention and pressuring the company to settle, while New York Knicks owner James Dolan is seeking sanctions against Wigdor for “frivolous, vexatious litigation” over a dismissed suit the lawyer brought on behalf of former player Charles Oakley.
Black has taken his feud with Wigdor to another level, suing his New York firm for allegedly conspiring with Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and others to destroy his reputation with Ganieva's claim. The Wigdor firm and Harris have both denied Black's allegations.
Go-To Lawyer
The go-to lawyer in high-profile discrimination cases on Wall Street and in the media was a little-known labor and employment attorney when he launched his current firm, now known as Wigdor LLP, in 2003 with Scott Gilly and the late Kenneth Thompson, who would go on to become Brooklyn's first Black district attorney.
Wigdor burst into the spotlight in 2011 when he and Thompson filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel housekeeper who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her. Strauss-Kahn was cleared of criminal charges by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. due to concerns about Diallo's testimony but later settled her lawsuit on confidential terms.
His legal assault on Fox News brought him even more fame, though he has described himself as a conservative and supporter of former President Donald Trump. He's also represented sexual-assault victims of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein and taken on Silicon Valley with a 2015 suit by a woman who accused Uber Technologies Inc. of negligence after a driver in New Delhi allegedly raped her. Uber contested her claims but eventually settled the case.
On Wall Street, Wigdor recently represented a former in-house lawyer at Goldman who claimed she was fired in retaliation for speaking up about instances of sexual harassment of other women by the legal department's leaders. Goldman, which has said it reviewed the allegations and found them without merit, last year succeeded in getting the case moved to arbitration. Wigdor also previously sued the bank on behalf of a former vice president who claimed she was denied opportunities for advancement and later fired after she became pregnant. That suit was settled.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
