ELIZABETH RODGERS E-mail: Erodgers@theemploymentlawyers.com 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 JD 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 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 seven 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. In 2002-2003, she represents numerous CEO's, head of an executive briefing center, several National or Regional Sales Directors, Branch Managers of large security firms, and many senior executives in information technology, environmental and insurance firms. She also resolved disputes for the Dean of an Ivy League school, the second in command of a state agency, partners in prestigious law firms and women or minority candidates seeking tenure or reasonable accommodation. 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, from 1988-2003, she has been invited annually to present seminars and workshops for other lawyers on employment law, at or through Bar Associations, including the Mass Bar Association, (individual seminars as well as at the  Annual Seminar on Labor and Employment Developments), the National Employment Lawyers Association and its Massachusetts Chapter, (where she served as Vice Chair in 1998; in March, 2003, she co-presented on employer tactics to the Massachusetts Chapter of NELA, and on April 5^th, 2003, will co-lead a discussion on sexual harassment trends at the NELA regional conference at the Sheraton Boston Hotel); Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education  (She is the author of a forthcoming chapter on the broad reach of the Massachusetts Wage and Hour Law for a treatise on employment law for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and presented an MCLE seminar on Jury Instructions in December 2002). She has also presented nationally for the ABA Labor and Employment Section in Florida, on Discovery tactics, and in June,2003, will be presenting, with Mark Burak of Nixon Peabody, a talk on trends in employment law from both employer and employee perspective to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. Her materials have been selected for republication in the Section Review of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Elizabeth Rodgers and Linda Evans are co-authors of a treatise chapter for “Massachusetts Employment Law”, Vol 1, by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, on the Payment of Wages Statute, in 2002 and 2005, and Philip Gordon, a prominent Wage and Hour attorney, has joined as a co-author for  the revamped soon to be released 2007 edition.

Mediation Experience: In addition to teaching at Northeastern University from 1978-1986, Attorney Rodgers completed a Mediation Training Program in 2001, and has successfully brought over 20 employment cases to resolution through confidential mediation. Attorney Rodgers also served as a Neutral, for a full year, overseeing the 1991 Elections for the Teamsters for the Northeast Region, reporting to an Election Officer appointed by the U.S. District Court in Southern District of NY. She has participated both as a participant in mediation, has negotiated directly with opposing counsel to successfully resolve complex matters, and has resolved disputes from accidents to complex medical malpractice matters as a mediator for Middlesex Superior Court, and has brought multiparty employment matters to successful and confidential resolution in high profile matters.
 
Case results:  
2007: As a result of a 2003 retaliation claim for a senior executive seeking unpaid commissions of less than thirty thousand dollars, the client received several hundred thousand shares of a start up company which recently went public. This year the company went public, and the terminated employee realized over $500,000 in value.
 
2007: Representing a tenured faculty member who was assaulted by a fellow tenured professor, Attorney Rodgers achieved success in obtaining a plea to sufficient facts in criminal court by the professor, a finding of sexual harassment at the internal College level and a highly successful mediation of a grievance.  The College initially described the offender as harmless, but diligent advocacy, uncovering of prior incidents, and strong support from the campus police forced the offender off the campus into retirement, but the College president had resolved the sexual harassment grievance by finding sexual harassment had occurred but giving the plaintiff nothing; By filing at the criminal court, the MCAD and with the Union as well, the matter was resolved within 7 months of the incident with a confidential settlement. The client remains in her tenured position, has produced and directed a play and is finishing a book chapter.
 
2007:  Representing an illustrious scientist shunted aside after a bout of cancer, Rodgers confidentially assisted the scientist in negotiating an excellent return to premier status with sufficient financial support to enable breakthrough research to continue, in less than two months.
 
2007: Representing several managers in biotech/pharmaceutical companies who had recently brought products to market and/or successfully met all stated targets, Rodgers assisted each in reaching mutually satisfactory, confidential settlements where there was compelling evidence of either age, disability or national origin discrimination.

Rodgers obtained thirty hours of mediation training, and has found a new impetus and skills resulting in some remarkable negotiated successes, such as

·        reversing a termination for performance reasons from a high visibility position,  and obtaining a year’s paid transitional employment with no loss of seniority for a person whose disability had in fact impaired performance but where, over the course of the year, the client had a rich potential of finding other employment within the institution, all within six weeks. 

·        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;

On-going cases in 2003 include zealously litigating

·        a case of a veteran who was fired immediately upon disclosing the circumstances surrounding the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which disclosure was perceived as a threat of violence; and

·        the termination of several workers related to pregnancy, cancer or whistle-blowing.

She has obtained procedural victories in

·        a court ordering the defendants’ expert to permit videotaping of a hostile psychological exam,

·        a court prohibiting the defendants’ seeking unrelated agency records, 

·        has obtained confidential investigation records under the Freedom of Information Act producing settlements in whistle blowing matters, before discovery through litigation.

·        an order permitting access to the employer’s workplace to permit videotaping and or inspection of equipment and sexually segregated workplaces.

Background --

Elizabeth A. Rodgers was born in White Plains, NY, October 31, 1947, admitted to bar, 1977; Massachusetts.
Education: Wellesley College (B.A. 1969); Northeastern School of Law (J.D. 1976). Adjunct and Visiting Professor of Law, Northeastern School of Law, 1978-1986.

Formerly Partner, Kehoe, Doyle, Playter & Novick, 1980-98; Rodgers and Associates, 1999-2000;

Current member: Massachusetts (Labor and Employment Section), and American Bar Association; Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys; National Lawyers Guild; 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.

Languages: Spanish, French.

Practice areas: Employment law, Whistle-blower, harassment, age discrimination, counseling, investigations, mediation and litigation.