Elizabeth A. Rodgers, PC
Elizabeth Rodgers was reelected President of National Employment Lawyers Association, Massachusetts Chapter, 2007-2008. MELA is an organization of over 100 lawyers who represent plaintiffs in over 50% of their employment law practice. MELA holds nine programs a year for the benefit of employment lawyers, and a Regional Conference bi–annually. She has been selected for the National NELA planning committee for its 2008 National Convention. Elizabeth Rodgers is a Partner in Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz, LLP. She was admitted to the Massachusetts and Federal Court bar in 1977. For 25 years she has been litigating employment issues in a practice, which includes numerous jury trials, many confidential settlements and increasingly successful mediation of disputes. Before founding Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz in 2000, to specialize in employment law, she had 23 years of experience as principal counsel in personal injury, toxic tort, malpractice and employment litigation, with successful six figure outcomes in each area. She has the intellectual underpinnings of having been an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern School of Law from 1978-1986, having received her J.D. there in 1976. She has a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors (Economics) from Wellesley College. In 2000, she co-founded Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz LLP, with three other partners who enjoy first class reputations in securing justice and verdicts for victims of discrimination, civil rights violations, wrongful discharge, whistle-blowing, and retaliation for opposing illegal conduct. The firm now has eight lawyers and is located in Boston, MA.
Offering the full range of attorney representation, Rodgers has a reputation as both a vigorous trial litigator, and for obtaining expeditious resolution of matters when the client seeks to obtain a prompt and fair resolution and move on. She has obtained jury verdicts and settlements in excess of $500,000 after zealous litigation for many years, as well as negotiated countless severance agreements, non-competition issues and exit strategies. She has enjoyed representing clients in financial, retail, academic and legal communities, as well as a broad range of employees in every walk and station of life. Since 2002 she has represented numerous CEO's, Medical Device Engineers, Recruiters, Law Partners, Branch Managers of large security firms, and many other senior executives in information technology, environmental, financial publishing and insurance firms. She also has numerous clients in the academic setting, including the Dean of an Ivy League school, obtaining reappointment for junior faculty and tenure for mid-career faculty, as well as exit strategies and sexual harassment abatement advice. She has taken on the heads of state agencies, heads of non-profits, prestigious law firms and even the judiciary. She has enjoyed representing the pioneers in traditionally male or all white workplaces, such as brokerage, auto, or printing industries who experienced denial of hire or transfer, wage inequality or sexual harassment.
A lawyer's lawyer, 90% of her business is from other legal referrals or former clients. For 2007-2009, she is on the planning committee for the National Employment Lawyers’ Association National Conference, in addition to the Local NELA Chapter President Role. She has been a frequent contributor as a seminar presenter on employment law issues for the Massachusetts Bar Association, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and NELA for over 20 years. Her materials have been selected for republication in the Section Review of the Massachusetts Bar Association. A comprehensive list is available at www.theemploymentlawyers.com., the website of Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz LLP . (See same list, below)
She is the lead author of the chapter on the Massachusetts Wage and Hour Law Timely Payment of Wages Act for the MCLE treatise on employment law with Attorney Linda Evans of Rodgers, Powers, & Schwartz, LLP and Philip Gordon of the Gordon Law Group. 2002, 2005, 2007 forthcoming. She has also presented nationally for the ABA Labor and Employment Section in Florida and has been the plaintiff spokesperson at training for employers by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. Rodgers will be on the faculty of the NELA Regional Convention in 2008. She is certified as a mediator and has extensive experience in resolving disputes through mediations, counseling, and negotiation, as well as litigation, such as:Recently resolved litigation includes a case against a serial predator who harassed four women; litigating the denial of stock options for a whistleblower; litigating the replacement of a high achieving female by a less qualified male who was failing in his own job; representing a building inspector fired for adhering to safety codes, and a number of other cases involving workers related to pregnancy, cancer or whistle-blowing.
- Representing a major broadcast star in highly visible, a wrongful termination
Negotiating reappointment or reversal of unfair decisions involving discrimination or reasonable accommodation- Resolving an exit for a highly honored executive who had become enmeshed in personality conflicts within eight weeks.
- Before initiating suit, obtaining short term disability leave, retraining, relocation, continued employment and a substantial sum for a utility worker who had been subjected to terrifying harassment.
- Negotiating complex friction issues within an academic department permitting her client to remain.
She has obtained procedural victories in:Background
- Defeating summary judgment in three cases where defendants' claimed there were no facts in dispute
- Obtaining a court ordering the defendants' expert to permit videotaping of a hostile psychological exam
- Obtaining a court order prohibiting the defendants' seeking unrelated agency records
- Using Freedom of Information Act or external investigation to prove dishonesty and obtain confidential settlements
- Obtaining the right to video tape employment settings revealing unexpected evidence in sex discrimination cases
Elizabeth A. Rodgers was born in White Plains, NY, October 31, 1947, admitted to bar, 1977; Massachusetts.
Education: Wellesley College (B.A. Economics 1969); Northeastern School of Law (J.D. 1976). Adjunct and Visiting Professor of Law, Northeastern School of Law, 1978-1986. London School of Economics (M.Sc., Soc. Admin. 1971)
Formerly Partner, Kehoe, Doyle, Playter & Novick, 1980-98; Rodgers and Associates, 1999-2000.
Current member: Massachusetts (Labor and Employment Section), Boston Bar Association, National Employment Lawyers Association;
Former positions: Massachusetts Bar Association, Labor Section Council, 1988-1998; member Northeastern School of Law Alumni Association, Board of Directors, 1978-1988, President of Alumni Association, 1988-1989. Ms. Rodgers was a former Vice President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, MA chapter. Languages: Spanish, French.Practice areas: Employment law, Whistle-blower, harassment, age discrimination, counseling, investigations, mediation and litigation.Attorney Rodgers has been "AV" rated since 1986, (the highest rating of a commercial service listing attorneys nationwide), and she has had numerous jury trials, including three trials exceeding 40 days, representing thousands of individuals. In 2005, Rodgers obtained the first Superior Court decision acknowledging the protection of employees associated with pregnant wives from discrimination, defeating summary judgment in Curley v. Sentry Insurance, (Middlesex, 2005) and obtained a decision upholding the right of a building inspector to a trial against the Town and Town Manager and a Selectman where he has been fired, under a Whistle blowing statute and freedom of speech and tort claims. Gauthier v. Town of Dracut. (Middlesex, 2005). (defeating summary judgment). She defeated summary judgment in a case of a female highly paid merchandizer replaced by a failing male vice president. Anderson v. SmartBargains, (Suffolk, 2006). She co-counseled Moskowitz v. Lotus Development Corp. in 1994 obtaining a $500,000 verdict, in an age and sex case, after a 40 day trial, and was lead counsel in obtaining a $600,000 jury verdict Hezekiah v. Rowe Brothers (Essex Co), in 1989. She co-counseled at the trial of Brown v. Freedman Bakery, 810 F.2d 6, 11 (1st Cir. 1987) obtaining a verdict of $198,000 in 1987 with 69,000 in fees and costs.Sara Smolik is an associate at Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz; she joined the firm in 2004. Attorney Smolik graduated cum laude from Boston College Law School and holds a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. She is a 1998 graduate of Wellesley College. Drawing on her Divinity School background, Attorney Smolik counsels her clients through difficult, life-changing experiences, from unjustified or illegal termination through the both exhausting and empowering process seeking redress for violations of employment and civil rights statutes. At RPS, Attorney Smolik represents employees discriminated against on the basis of race, age, gender, national origin, religion, disability and pregnancy, as well as employees terminated as a result of retaliation or other protected conduct. She is actively involved in all facets of litigation, including initial client consultations, drafting demand letters and motions, taking depositions, preparing discovery and summary judgment materials and participating in mediations.
While at Boston College Law School, Attorney Smolik was a founding member of the Coalition for Equality (CFE), a student group formed to protest the presence of discriminatory employers, namely, the U.S. Military, on campus in violation of the Law School's non-discrimination policy. In 2003, the CFE became a named plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the Solomon Amendment, a law that authorizes the federal government to suspend funding to colleges and universities who protest the Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which bars gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender soldiers and military personnel from serving openly by preventing recruiters from using campus facilities. The case, FAIR v. Rumsfeld, is scheduled to be argued before the Supreme Court in November 2005.
An active participant in the Massachusetts chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Attorney Smolik recently gave a presentation on strategies for avoiding removal to federal court in multi-party employment discrimination litigation.
To learn more about the Solomon Amendment, visit:
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/solomon/For information about the FAIR v. Rumsfeld litigation, visit:
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/solomon/faircase.htmlTo read Attorney Smolik's declaration, as cited in the federal District Court's ruling in Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, Inc. v. Rumsfeld, 291 F. Supp. 2d 269, 282, 294 (D.N.J. 2003), visit:
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/solomon/documents/Smolik.pdfMs. Smolik is a member of the Massachusetts and National Employment Lawyers Associations and the American Constitution Society. She lives in Cambridge with her family.
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