After a long and distinguished career in the federal government with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Ms. Wheeler joined Katz Banks Kumin LLP as Of Counsel in August 2015.
As an appellate lawyer with the EEOC, Ms. Wheeler was in the forefront of developing cutting edge legal arguments and theories to prove discrimination and harassment under Title VII, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Equal Pay Act. Ms. Wheeler was an Assistant General Counsel in EEOC’s Office of General Counsel, Appellate Services Division, for 25 years, and for 12 years served intermittently as the Acting Associate General Counsel, with responsibility for managing the entire office and staff.
As an Assistant General Counsel, she supervised six attorneys who prepared briefs and argued appeals in EEOC cases in all the federal courts of appeals, as well as the Supreme Court, and who filed briefs as amicus curiae in cases raising important legal issues under EEOC’s statutes. For example, in past years she worked on the landmark decision holding that fetal protection policies that bar fertile women from particular jobs violate Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, UAW v. Johnson Controls; the trilogy of disability cases that spurred the amendments to the ADA, Sutton v. United Airlines, Murphy v. UPS, and Albertson’s v. Kirkingburg, as well as the disability case that led Congress to reexamine the meaning of “substantially limited,” Toyota v. Williams; the cases that led to the creation of an affirmative defense for supervisory sexual harassment, Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Ellerth v. Burlington Industries; the sexual harassment case recognizing that same-sex harassment is actionable, Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, and the sexual harassment case recognizing that harassment victims do not need to prove they were emotionally devastated to the point of being unable to work to establish actionable harassment, Harris v. Forklift Systems.
More Legal and Business Bylines From Carolyn Wheeler
- Do Federal Civil Rights Laws Prohibit Discrimination Based on Sex and Age? - (Posted On Tuesday, October 24, 2023)
- Courts Expand the Scope of Actionable Discrimination in Title VII Cases - (Posted On Friday, September 15, 2023)
- E. Jean Carroll’s Victory: Using Lookback Windows for Sexual Abuse Claims - (Posted On Saturday, August 26, 2023)
- Supreme Court Fortifies the False Claims Act as the Law Continues to Reward Whistleblowers - (Posted On Saturday, August 26, 2023)
- The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act Add Overdue Protections for Pregnant and Nursing Employees - (Posted On Tuesday, April 11, 2023)
- DC Circuit Lowers the Bar for Establishing Prohibited Discrimination under Title VII - (Posted On Monday, June 06, 2022)
- Texas Catches Up to the #MeToo Movement with New Legislation - (Posted On Tuesday, December 14, 2021)
- Seventh Circuit Bars Minister’s Claims of Sex- and Disability-Based Harassment - (Posted On Tuesday, August 03, 2021)
- As Vaccine Rollout Continues, What Whistleblower Protections Exist in Big Pharma? - (Posted On Wednesday, April 14, 2021)
- When Is Opposition to Discrimination Not Protected Conduct? - (Posted On Wednesday, April 07, 2021)
Katz Banks Kumin LLP Employment Law Practice Group is recognized by the National Law Review as a Go-To Thought Leader for their contributions focusing on litigation and legislation that protects employees from workplace discrimination. Katz Banks Kumin LLP Employment Law Practice Group covers topics ranging from religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws to potential conflicts between union protection and anti-discrimination laws provide employees not only current news on employment-related lawsuits and regulations but actionable analysis helpful to individuals assessing their own employment situation. Katz Banks Kumin LLP Employment Law Practice Group’s most frequent thought leadership contributors to the NLR include Joseph E. Abboud, Kathryn Evans, Jolena Jeffrey, Marilyn Gabriela Robb, Jessica L. Westerman and Carolyn Wheeler.