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Unit 3: The Employment Relationship – Shewin Memorandum

Your Course Project: Read About the Shewin Memorandum

Throughout the course, you will work on the Shewin Memorandum. Your first step is

to become acquainted with Ms. Shewin and the fact pattern.

Ima Shewin is a 45-year-old African-American woman with advanced degrees in

English and journalism from the University of Chicago. She has been employed by

The Blabber, a newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, for 10 years. She started as an entrylevel

researcher. Two years later, she was promoted to a junior-level reporter

position, and two years after that, to a senior-level reporter position. She has now

been a senior-level reporter for the last six years.

During the first eight years of her employment, Shewin reported to George Doright.

Two years ago, The Blabber reorganized, and Doright was moved to another division

in the company. Since then, Shewin has reported to Arthur King, The Blabber’s

senior editor. Following the reorganization, two editors have retired. Although

Shewin applied for these positions, they were not offered to her. In fact, she was

only invited to interview for one of the positions, although she believes she met the

qualifications for both.

Last month, she applied for a junior-editor position she has been after for several

years now. Based upon the qualifications that were identified in the job’s classified

ad, she felt she was a shoo-in. She applied and was interviewed. The interview with

Mr. King did not go as well as she had hoped. The interview took place over lunch in

a restaurant. King started out the conversation by engaging in seemingly harmless

social banter, but Shewin was uncomfortable with his personal questions about her

relationship with her boyfriend. A few weeks after the interview, the company

announced that it was hiring Gene Whiz, someone from outside the company. Whiz

is 26 years old and recently earned a master’s degree in journalism from the

University of Chicago. He has worked as a reporter for a small local newspaper.

Shewin believes a number of factors may have been held against her. For example,

only three women are in the upper levels of management, and all were promoted

prior to the reorganization. King was not involved in the promotion decisions for any

of the three women.

King has a reputation for making sexist comments, which several women in the

company find offensive, as do a number of men. For example, he described one

pregnant reporter as “barefoot and pregnant.” He has also asked Shewin out to

“discuss business,” invitations that she has declined. She feels that rejecting him

may have something to do with her not getting the job.

Another possible factor is that there are only five African-American senior managers

in the company. Shewin has heard through the rumor mill that Whiz is part AfricanAmerican.

Also, prior to Mr. Doright’s transfer, Shewin filed a complaint against some of her

male colleagues. Apparently the men whose cubicles were surrounding Shewin’s area

had a habit of discussing their weekend dates in graphic detail on Monday mornings.

Although they did not make these comments directly to Shewin, the conversations PA402: Employment Law

Unit 3: The Employment Relationship – Shewin Memorandum

were quite loud and she overheard them regularly. After several months of hoping

they would stop, Shewin brought this matter to Mr. Doright, who sternly told the

employees to stop such behavior. However, since Arthur King became the senior

manager, her coworkers have reverted to their old behavior, and King has taken no

action against them, despite Shewin’s repeated complaints to him. In fact, Shewin

has observed King laughing at the conversations as he walked by. He did not,

however, participate in the conversations.

Finally, Shewin is more than 40 years old and has concerns that she may be getting

passed over because of her age. A friend of hers overheard King talking to another

senior manager, speculating as to when Shewin would finally retire. )to review the case details.

Your third memorandum on Ms. Shewin’s case is due this week. In Unit 1, you summarized the facts and prepared draft follow-up questions for lead counsel to use in a future client interview.

This week you will write a 1000-1250 word memorandum,addressed to the client, not to lead counsel.

Using your earlier work and any additional research you consider needed, please create a draft memo to the client that includes the following items: