News Article

Private Sector: Cyrus Mehri: Making Another Case for Equality

The New York Times

Published: July 16, 2000

NEW YORK - For Cyrus Mehri, challenging the status quo is second nature. His Iranian mother was punished in her youth for criticizing the shah. He cut his political teeth with Ralph Nader, organizing communities to rise up around issues.

So when he filed a federal lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Company in April 1999, representing four black employees who said they had been denied raises, promotions and other advancement because of their race, it was a fairly typical move for Mr. Mehri.

"Cyrus is an excellent lawyer in the sense that he has a very good big-picture feel for the dynamics of the process," said Hunter Hughes, the federal mediator who oversaw the settlement talks.

The case against Coke was the first for his law firm, Mehri, Malkin & Ross, which he opened in September 1998. But he was confident that his case was solid.

About six months earlier, he received a telephone call from Linda Ingram at Coke, who felt that the company had treated her unfairly. Ms. Ingram had obtained his phone number from Bari-Ellen Roberts, a former financial analyst at Texaco whom Mr. Mehri represented when she sued the company in 1994, contending racial discrimination. The two sides reached a $176 million settlement that year.

Mr. Mehri's vision for corporate America involves sweeping change, not the piecemeal kind. He would like every company to file detailed pay-equity studies by race and gender and what he calls a "glass ceiling report card" that would cover promotions.