Washington Post, 4/16/01 -- When Mary Elizabeth Bass was passed up for a promotion at Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), she filed a racial bias complaint. When she decided to take the case to federal court, she went looking for a lawyer.
Bass, who is black, asked one lawyer, then another, and then another. After 10 inquiries and 10 rejections, she filed the lawsuit on her own. For one year she battled the FDIC in U.S. District Court alone -- drafting the complaint, serving notice to the government, answering and winning motions designed to slow the case, filing an amended complaint, undergoing a deposition and discovery.
All without a lawyer.
Just three months before trial, Bass, 40, of Alexandria, finally persuaded David Shapiro, a seasoned civil rights and employment-discrimination lawyer at Swick & Shapiro, to represent her. But by the time Shapiro joined the case, Bass already had passed key legal milestones that often waylay even the most skilled of lawyers. Shapiro was shocked.
"How did you make it this far?" Shapiro asked. "It was by God's grace," Bass said, recounting the exchange.
And, by the grace of a seven-person jury, Bass won her case. On March 30, after a five-day trial, the jury declared that Bass should be awarded $1.5 million because the FDIC discriminated against her because of her race. Bass hugged her husband and began to cry.
A magistrate judge reduced the amount to $300,000, the cap set under federal law for large employers in race bias cases. (Juries are not informed of the ceiling and are told to set the damages at the amount they deem appropriate.)
FDIC spokesman Phillip Battey said an appeal "is possible" after a final judgment is entered.
The verdict and Bass's lone crusade has become instant legend at the FDIC, an agency wracked by racial-discrimination allegations for several years. Late last year, the FDIC tentatively settled a class action case filed by black employees for $14 million, and a hearing is set in U.S. District Court for April 23.
But a group of black workers is challenging the deal in federal court. They say the award amounts to a few thousand dollars per worker and falls far short of reforms needed to end discriminatory conduct in promotions and hiring. They also are questioning a $2 million fee to be paid to Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll and the Washington Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The class's attorney, Joe Sellers, said the reforms are "significant," the legal fees "fair" and the monetary settlement the largest ever in a race bias case against a federal employer.
Bass's case began in 1997 when she was excluded from a group of employees who were asked to apply for a supervisory position as chief of the financial review unit in the contracts section. With a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Mississippi, Bass considered herself as qualified as the white woman selected for the job.
But she was never offered a chance to apply. The job was not posted and the mostly white candidates were notified by e-mail.
The case also contains a number of complex elements that likely scared off many lawyers Bass initially contacted. Part of her claim was that white supervisors carefully tailored the job description and the timing of the opening to exclude qualified blacks from the potential pool of applicants. The allegation is a central element in the class action case that the FDIC is attempting to settle.
"Ten attorneys told me I didn't even have a case," Bass said. "They said, 'There's not much here.' I knew in my heart I had to do what I had to do."
Her first major hurdles were motions to consolidate her case with the class action and with another pending bias lawsuit. By cribbing from other cases and studying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the Web, she filed arguments against the FDIC motion -- and won.
"Some nights on weekends I would sit up until 2 and 3 in the morning, researching on the Internet," she said. "You've got to be willing to sacrifice. You really have believe in yourself, put God first and go for it."
Bass then caught another big break when FDIC attorney Susan Cone Kilgore missed her deadline to seek summary judgment on the case. And that was after Bass granted the FDIC a 30-day extension. Three other similar FDIC racial discrimination cases were dismissed on summary judgment in February.
Kilgore did not return phone calls seeking a comment, but FDIC spokesman Battey said, "The deadline for filing these motions was suspended, in our view, while a stay for mediation was in place." The judge disagreed.
"I think because they never saw a physical attorney with me, I don't think they took me seriously," Bass said.
Magistrate judge Deborah A. Robinson appointed Bass a pro bono attorney, but only to try to mediate a settlement before trial. Bass was eager to settle. But the FDIC offered few concessions and no money, Bass said, though she would have settled for a promotion alone. When talks failed, a trial date was set and she knew she needed a full-time lawyer. That's when she found Shapiro.
Shapiro said discrimination cases are hard enough for lawyers who are immersed in the law, let alone a legal novice.
"They are expensive to mount, the facts are complex and very contentious, and the law is constantly changing," Shapiro said. "They are not prepared to handle the legal questions. And the attorneys who are ready to handle the legal questions are not prepared for the grit of trial."
For Bass, all she really wanted was the promotion. She likes working for the FDIC, an institution she respects. Now, she sort of feels sorry for the FDIC.
"This is the FDIC! They have been around since 1933," Bass said. "They insure the banks. They had this whole big diversity program at the FDIC. It is quite embarrassing" for the agency.
But, because the FDIC has given up on her, she says, she's looking for a new career.
Now, she wants to go to law school.
"I want to become a trial attorney," Bass said, "specializing in labor law and employment discrimination."