SARA SMOLIK E-mail: sara@theemploymentlawyers.com 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, negotiating reasonable accommodations, drafting demand letters and motions, taking depositions, preparing discovery and summary judgment materials, negotiating settlement 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, was argued before the Supreme Court in November 2005. An active participant in the Massachusetts chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association (MELA), and is currently serving at the chapter’s Amicus Committee Chair. Attorney Smolik has given MELA presentations on strategies for avoiding removal to federal court in multi-party employment discrimination litigation and pitfalls to avoid when litigating employment law claims. Ms. Smolik has also served as faculty for the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminar on wrongful termination. On behalf of MELA, Attorney Smolik has co-authored amicus curiae briefs in employment cases before the Supreme Judicial Court, including Silvestris v. Tantasqua Reg’l Sch. Dist., 446 Mass. 756 (2006) and St. Fleur v. WPI Cable Sys., Inc., Docket No. SJC-09961. Ms. Smolik is a member of the Massachusetts and National Employment Lawyers Associations, the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Lesbian & Gay Bar Association. She lives in Cambridge with her family. To learn more about the Solomon Amendment, visit: For information about the FAIR v. Rumsfeld litigation, visit: To 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: |