Mehri & Skalet

Civil Rights

Mehri & Skalet litigates anti-discrimination cases in both federal and state courts, advocating for civil rights protections in the work place, housing and consumer financing. Our civil rights practice is broad-based, ranging from entry level hiring practices to negotiating exit packages for senior executives who faced discrimination at the top levels in their industries.

Racial Equality

Cyrus Mehri has led two of the five largest race based employment discrimination cases in history. Aided by his unique expertise Mehri & Skalet continues the fight to advance racial justice from insurance markets and corporate board rooms to the ad industry and NFL sidelines.

Gender Equality

Mehri & Skalet is dedicated to assuring equality for female employees and has taken on some of the last bastions of male preeminence to see this achieved. Through the Women on Wall Street Project M&S has been able to hear from women inside the financial services industry and has successfully litigated cases against industry leaders winning over $100 million for female employees and forcing drastic improvements to industry practices.

Senior Executive Exit Packages

Mehri & Skalet represents senior management, high-level financial advisors and media talent who have faced race or sex discrimination in the workplace and seek appropriate economic and noneconomic terms in their exit packages.

Consumer Protection

Mehri & Skalet works on behalf of our clients and the public to ensure a safe and honest market place, defending consumers against defective products and deceptive marketing and billing techniques. Our cases have ranged from high tech consumer goods and telecommunication billing practices to fraud in auto financing and overcharging for medical treatment.

Fair Housing, Lending and Credit

Guided by Steve Skalet who has over 30 years of litigation and transactional expertise in real estate and financial fraud and Janell Byrd who has extensive civil rights experience, Mehri & Skalet represents clients in cases involving real estate, lending and debt collection practices.

Workers’ Rights

Mehri & Skalet uses the law to defend the rights of workers against employers who seek to shortchange them. Protecting salary and overtime payments through wage & hour claims and protecting employees’ retirement benefits by pursuing people mismanage these accounts.

Wage & Hour Claims/FLSA

The Fair Labor Standards Act which governs wage and hour claims safeguards workers’ proper compensation. Mehri & Skalet actively pursues employers who violate labor standards including, those who underpay overtime hours or who misclassify employees as overtime exempt.

Employee Benefits/ERISA

The Employment Retirement Income Security Act, which governs most employee benefit plans, obligates employers to provide prudent management of plan assets for the benefit of their employees. Employers who mismanage funds or engage in self-interested deal-making can be penalized for their actions and the lost funds reclaimed for the employees.

Whistleblower/False Claims

Mehri & Skalet has a long history of working with whistleblowers who have knowledge of fraud committed against the federal government. Through Qui Tam cases our attorneys have been able to recover improperly spent tax payer money and obtain rewards for our clients who brought these fraudulent claims to light. We co-founded the Voices for Corporate Responsibility for executives who seek to fulfill their fiduciary duties inside and outside of court.

Corporate Oversight

Mehri & Skalet is determined to provide a check on corporations that skirt regulations looking to make easy profits. From collusion and antitrust violations to corruption in insurance markets or defrauding investors, without diligent oversight and the balancing effect of class action lawsuits the opportunity for corporate malfeasance is almost limitless.

Insurance Law

Mehri & Skalet works to protect people who have been taken advantage of by the unlawful practices of insurance companies in the areas of auto, homeowners, health, life, workers compensation, medical malpractice, and general liability insurance.

Antitrust

Anti-trust laws protect economic freedom and opportunity by ensuring free market competition. Through antitrust litigation Mehri & Skalet protects the economic opportunities of all people by challenging corporate monopolies and the collusion between industry leaders which harms regular citizens.

Investor Protection

Mehri & Skalet provides monitoring services and, when necessary, legal representation for institutional investors concerned about the potential for securities fraud and bad corporate governance that would undermine their investments