NJ woman files NY gender bias lawsuit against NBA

[October 24, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A New Jersey woman who worked for the NBA as a senior account executive filed a $3 million gender discrimination lawsuit against the league Tuesday, saying it forced her and two other women with young children out of their jobs.

Lawyers for Brynn Cohn of Hoboken filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeking unspecified damages from the National Basketball Association.

The lawsuit said Cohn and two other women with young children were forced out of their jobs by a hostile environment toward working mothers with child-care responsibilities. Cohn worked at the NBA for the last decade. She was a senior account manager managing print projects until her lawyers say she was forced to resign in January 2011. She has a 2-year-old child.

A spokesman for the National Basketball Association did not immediately return a message for comment.

The lawsuit accused the NBA of changing her department's hours while she was on pregnancy leave, requiring that she and other women with caregiving responsibilities work at the office into the evenings when there was no reason for late hours.

Unable to spend thousands of more dollars for alternative child-care, Cohn was forced out of the company, along with the other women, the lawsuit said.

"This lawsuit lays bare the open hostility to which women with young children are consistently subjected as NBA employees," said David Sanford, lawyer for Cohn. "In Ms. Cohn's case, this hostility took the form of discrimination in compensation and promotion opportunities, as well as the adoption of policies at the NBA designed to push out working mothers."

[Associated Press]

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