Cyrus Mehri is a founding partner of the law firm Mehri & Skalet, PLLC.
The business press has long followed Mr. Mehri's work. The New York Times stated, "Mr. Mehri's vision for corporate America involves sweeping change, not the piece meal kind." Fast Company says "He is something of a one-man army in the battle against business as usual . . . [H]is impact - both in terms of penalties and remedies - is undeniable. "In 2001, he was named by Regardie's Power magazine as one of "Washington's Ten Most Feared Lawyers" and in 2003, by Workforce magazine as "Corporate America's Scariest Opponent."
Mr. Mehri served as Class Counsel in the two largest race discrimination class actions in history: Roberts v. Texaco Inc. which settled in 1997 for $176 million and Ingram v. The Coca-Cola Company, which settled in 2001 for $192.5 million. Both settlements include historic programmatic relief, featuring independent Task Forces with sweeping powers to reform key human resources practices such as pay, promotions and evaluations.
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice named Mr. Mehri a finalist for "Trial Lawyer of the Year" in 1997 and 2001 for his work on the Texaco and Coca-Cola matters respectively.
In September of 2008, Mr. Mehri testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Supreme Court litigant Lilly Ledbetter. Mr. Mehri's testimony called for diversifying the pool of potential judicial nominations not just in terms of race and gender but also in terms of life and work experience. Click here for the Senate Testimony and the Questions from Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter.
On April 6, 2004, Mr. Mehri, along with Martha Burk and the National Council of Women’s Organizations announced a project called “Women on Wall Street.” The project focuses on ending gender discrimination in financial institutions.
In 2007, Mehri & Skalet announced a $46 million settlement with Morgan Stanley on behalf of female financial consultants. In 2008, the firm announced a comparable $33 million settlement with Smith Barney. Both are settlements that have sweeping reforms that will fundamentally change the allocation of business opportunities at these brokerage houses.
Mr. Mehri serves as lead counsel in Robinson v. Ford Motor Company. The settlement created a record 279 highly-coveted apprenticeship positions for African American employees as well as payment of $10 million. In a May 2007 EEOC Commissioners meeting, Mr. Mehri and others testified about this settlement’s significance on testing procedures in the workplace.
On September 30, 2002, Mr. Mehri and Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. released the report, Black Coaches in the National Football League: Superior Performance, Inferior Opportunities. The report became the catalyst for the NFL’s creation of a Workplace Diversity Committee and the adoption of a comprehensive diversity program. The NFL now has a record number of African American head coaches. Mr. Mehri serves as counsel for the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an affinity group for minority coaches, front office and scouting personnel in the NFL.
Mr. Mehri represents institutional investors concerned about securities fraud and corporate governance. Mr. Mehri has a long history of representing defrauded investors, pensioners and consumers, as well as small businesses subjected to price-fixing, in other class actions. For example, in 1993 Florin v. Nations Bank restored $16 million to a pension plan that was bilked by company insiders at Simmons Mattress Company. In 1991, In re Bolar Pharmaceutical Co. returned over $25 million to defrauded shareholders. Mr. Mehri serves as co-lead counsel in numerous consumer class actions. Mr. Mehri helped to prosecute one of the largest securities cases in history, a $2.5 billion settlement with AOL Time Warner.
Mr. Mehri co-authored a series of articles on securities enforcement and corporate governance including Labor & Corporate Governance articles entitled “Stock Option Equity: Building Democracy While Building Wealth” (November 2002) and “The Latest Retreat By the SEC” (February 2003). Mr. Mehri also co-authored an article in The Journal of Investment Compliance (Winter 2002/2003) entitled “Slipping Back to Business As Usual, Six Months After the Passage of Sarbanes-Oxley.”
He is also the co-author of the article: “One Nation, Indivisible: The Use of Diversity Report Cards To Promote Transparency, Accountability, and Workplace Fairness”; Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, 9, 99-152 (with Andrea Giampetro-Meyer & Michael B. Runnels).
For the 2008 National Employment Law Association Convention, Mr.. Mehri co-authored a paper, "A 'Toolbox' for Innovative Title VII Settlement Agreements."
Mr. Mehri graduated from Cornell Law School in 1988, where he served as Articles Editor for the Cornell International Law Journal. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable John T. Nixon, U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Mehri has received the Outstanding Youth Alumnus Award from Hartwick College and the Alumni Award from Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut “for becoming a beacon of good, positively affecting the lives of many.” Most recently, Mr. Mehri was asked to give the 2009 Commencement Speech at Hartwick College and the Founder's Day Speech at Wooster School.
The Pigskin Club of Washington, DC granted Mr. Mehri, the prestigious “Award of Excellence.”
In March 2003, the Detroit City Council passed a testimonial resolution honoring Mr. Mehri and wishing him “continued success in changing the fabric of America.”
In 2007, Mr. Mehri was given the “Distinguished Visitor” Award by the Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners at the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s Second Annual Salute to Excellence Program.
Mr. Mehri is a frequent guest on radio and TV and is guest columnist for Diversity, Inc.
