SAN FRANCISCO Dolby Laboratories Inc. was hit with a sex discrimination lawsuit Thursday by the company's former director of global compliance for intellectual property protection.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by lawyers at Greenspan Marder, plaintiff Sushama Gokhale claims she was fired in April in retaliation for her "many" complaints to the company's human resources department about discriminatory behavior by her supervisors, including the company's vice president of IP protection, Jeffrey Fehervari, and senior director of IP protection, Conroy Shum, who are named as codefendants.
Gokhale, who worked at Dolby for more than a decade, claims that she was repeatedly passed over for promotions and given only cursory raises despite positive work reviews.
"Dolby's fraternal culture is one in which women (including plaintiff) are systematically subjected to disparate treatment based on their gender, and in which one supervisor in particular, Fehervari, targeted female employees with repeated harassment and intimidation," Gokhale's lawyer wrote. The suit claims that Fehervari was openly critical of female employees' skills and was "loud, hostile, dismissive, and verbally and physically intimidating towards plaintiff and her female counterparts." As an example, the complaint says that Fehervari publicly cursed Gokhale's name in March 2017 by shouting "fucking Sushama" towards a female colleague within earshot of several other employees. Gokhale maintains that she reported the incident to HR and that it was still under investigation when she was let go on April 3. Gokhale's suit claims she was "summarily fired without warning or reliance on any company policy or protocol" and the company's explanation for her dismissal that she wasn't cooperating in a reorganization of her department is bogus.
Neither Fehervari nor Dolby spokesman Tony Carter responded to email messages seeking comment Friday.
Gokhale's lawsuit brings claims under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as common law claims of wrongful termination. She's seeking an undisclosed amount in damages, including past and future lost wages and general damages for emotional distress.
Greenspan Marder's Anton Handel, Gokhale's lead lawyer, was in depositions on a separate case and unavailable for comment Friday.
Ross Todd is bureau chief of The Recorder in San Francisco. He writes about litigation in the Bay Area and around California. Contact Ross at rtodd@alm.com. On Twitter: @Ross_Todd.