Written and reviewed by William K. Phillips, Founder and Managing Partner of Phillips & Associates. Published August 2, 2026.
Quick Answer
Most people who call this firm are not sure whether what happened to them counts. It usually does not look like the version in a training video. It looks like a senior partner who groomed someone over two years, or a C-suite executive who only ever made comments, or a bonus that quietly disappeared after a relationship ended.
Below are six real matters this firm handled, with the conduct described and the outcome stated. They are here because recognizing something close to your own situation makes it easier to ask a question.
Key Takeaways
- Harassment does not require physical contact to be unlawful.
- Consent is not permanent and can be withdrawn at any time.
- Retaliation for reporting or rejecting advances is a separate claim.
- Under New York's 2019 amendments, having an anti-harassment policy is not a defense to harassment by a supervisor.
- Emails, texts, call logs, and a written timeline are what carry these cases.
Late-night texts from a manager. Repeated comments about your body. Someone touching you and calling it friendly. Fewer shifts after you turned down an invitation.
These cases usually turn on workplace power dynamics, particularly when the person responsible controls promotions, compensation, assignments, scheduling, evaluations, or continued employment. That is the thread running through everything below.
What Counts As Workplace Sexual Harassment?
Unwelcome sexual or sex-based conduct connected to your job. That is the whole test, and it covers more than most people expect. The conduct may be verbal, physical, digital, or a job action taken against you.
The law does not require the behavior to be violent or repeated. It also does not matter whether the harasser is a supervisor, coworker, manager, business owner, client, customer, or vendor.
Harassment rarely happens in the open. It happens quietly, in person, by text, on social media, after hours, during travel, at work events, or after a workplace relationship ends.
Common Examples of Workplace Sexual Harassment
- Repeated sexual comments
- Unwanted touching
- Sexual jokes
- Pressure to date
- Sexual text messages
- Explicit photographs
- Comments about your appearance
- Requests for sexual favors
- Retaliation after rejecting advances
- Retaliation after ending a workplace relationship
Six Cases and What They Looked Like
These are matters Phillips & Associates handled. Clients are not named, employers are not named, and settlement amounts are gross recoveries before attorney's fees and costs. Every case is decided on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
$5 Million for an Equity Partner at an International Law Firm
Phillips & Associates represented an equity partner whose senior partner controlled her assignments, her compensation, and her path at the firm. He groomed and manipulated her into a romantic relationship, then threatened to ruin her career when she tried to end it. She was denied bonuses and equity points given to male counterparts and was forced out after the firm failed to act on documented misconduct. The matter resolved before a lawsuit was filed.
Seniority does not insulate anyone from this. Partners, executives, and physicians call this firm for the same reason everyone else does.
$2.375 Million for a Vice President at a Healthcare Company
Phillips & Associates represented a VP-level executive who, after a prior consensual relationship ended, faced a sustained campaign of unwanted advances, solicitation of sex, unwanted touching, and sexually charged comments from a senior executive, then retaliation when she refused. The matter resolved at mediation before suit was filed.
Earlier consent is not a defense to what came afterward.
$1.15 Million for an Executive Assistant at a Financial Services Company
Phillips & Associates represented an executive assistant whose C-suite supervisor, with authority over her schedule, assignments, and job, made repeated comments about her appearance and asked intrusive questions about her personal life. The conduct described was verbal. The matter resolved at pre-suit mediation.
Comments alone can support a claim, particularly when they are persistent and come from someone who controls your work. There was no single dramatic incident in this case.
$900,000 for an Administrative Assistant at an Auto Dealership
Phillips & Associates represented an administrative assistant whose general manager subjected her to sexual comments and gestures that created a hostile work environment. The matter resolved by settlement.
Harassment claims are not confined to corporate offices or high-salary roles. What matters is the conduct, the authority the harasser held, and how the employer responded.
$750,000 for an Employee in the Banking Industry
Phillips & Associates represented an employee who, after ending a relationship with a senior banking executive, was denied a bonus and given a negative performance review. The harasser was terminated, and the firm negotiated her separation. The matter resolved through private mediation.
Retaliation after a breakup often looks exactly like this. It shows up in money and paperwork rather than in anything openly hostile.
$500,000 for an Executive Assistant at a Cryptocurrency Company
Phillips & Associates represented an executive assistant subjected by the company's founder and chief strategy officer to a pattern of sexually explicit conduct that included nude photographs, descriptions of his sexual encounters, and requests that she help facilitate his affairs. When she did not respond to his advances, she was forced out. The matter resolved before a lawsuit was filed.
Being pushed out after ignoring a superior's advances can support a harassment claim and a retaliation claim at once.
See the firm's full record at Case Results and Precedents and Decisions.
The Two Categories These Cases Fall Into
Nearly every matter above involves one or both.
A hostile work environment means your workplace has become intimidating, humiliating, abusive, or unfair because of sexual or gender-based conduct. Repeated comments, touching, explicit content, gossip, or isolation.
Quid pro quo means this for that. Dates, sex, or continued contact in exchange for raises, promotions, assignments, or job security. It can begin as early as the interview, when a decision-maker links a job offer to accepting sexual advances.
When a Relationship Turns Into a Claim
A workplace relationship that began consensually can become harassment. That happens when one person wants to stop and the other continues, pressures, threatens, or retaliates.
Consent is not a permanent condition. You can change your mind, set new boundaries, or withdraw entirely, and once the conduct is unwelcome, earlier welcome is not a defense.
Supervisors manage your reviews, assignments, recommendations, and promotions. That control makes it harder to freely consent and harder to resist. If you reject a supervisor and the conduct continues, or your treatment changes afterward, it can become supervisor sexual harassment and retaliation at the same time.
If The Harasser Is in Authority
The employer's exposure is broader when the harasser is a supervisor. If the harassment led to a firing, a demotion, a pay cut, or a similar job consequence, the employer can be liable whether or not anyone in management knew. When a coworker is the harasser, the question is usually whether the employer knew or should have known and failed to act.
One point employers do not volunteer. Under New York's 2019 amendments, having an anti-harassment policy is not a defense to harassment by a supervisor. A company cannot point to its handbook, its annual training, or its complaint hotline and stop there. Under federal law that showing can support a defense. Under New York law it does not.
Workplace power dynamics run through the entire case. They affect employer liability, how retaliation is assessed, whether an employee realistically could report, how courts treat workplace relationships, and how damages are calculated.
They also explain the delay employers point to. Many employees wait precisely because the person responsible controls their career progression, their references, and their income. A delay does not end a claim.
How the Three Laws Compare
Three laws may apply at once, and New York's are substantially better for employees than the federal one.
- Coverage: Title VII applies to employers with 15 or more employees. The New York State Human Rights Law applies to employers of every size, including those with one employee. The New York City Human Rights Law generally requires four or more, but that threshold does not apply at all to gender-based harassment.
- Standard: federal law requires conduct that is severe or pervasive. New York State law does not, asking instead whether you faced inferior terms or conditions because of sex or gender. New York City law asks whether you were treated less well than others because of gender.
- Deadline: an EEOC charge in New York is generally due within 300 days, which is the shortest window and the one that runs first. State and City claims generally carry three years.
- Damages: federal law caps compensatory and punitive damages by employer size. The State and City laws do not.
Deadlines shift depending on when the conduct happened and whether it continued over time, so do not assume yours has passed. For the full breakdown of each statute, see sexual harassment law in New York City.
What to Do if HR Does Not Help
Keep documenting, do not sign anything, and get independent advice.
HR is not your lawyer. Its primary purpose is managing employer risk, investigations may be limited, and confidentiality is not guaranteed. Common failures include delays, minimizing the conduct, warning the harasser privately, moving you instead of the harasser, or closing the file with a finding of no evidence. Internal complaints still matter as evidence, so keep every record. See what to do when HR dismisses a complaint.
Negative consequences after you report, including firing, schedule changes, bad reviews, transfers, or threats, may form a separate claim. Under the New York City Human Rights Law, the question is whether the employer's response was reasonably likely to deter a reasonable person from complaining, which reaches conduct that stops well short of firing.
Evidence That Supports a Claim
Records win these cases, and most of the useful ones are things you already have.
- Texts, emails, call logs, voicemails, and complete message threads
- Witness names, statements, and observations
- Internal complaints, HR memos, and intake forms
- Work schedules, assignment sheets, reviews, and calendars
- A timeline documenting what happened and any resulting job changes
Back up digital records outside work devices. Do not delete messages, secretly record conversations without advice, access confidential company files without permission, or take documents without specific legal direction.
Other employees may have seen more than you realize, and when a pattern emerges across more than one person, that shared evidence is powerful. It is often reachable in discovery even when you do not personally hold it.
Record every change that follows the harassment or your complaint: terminations, demotions, reduced hours, lost accounts, negative reviews, pay cuts. If the company calls it performance, restructuring, or not a good fit, document that exact wording alongside the timing.
Your Rights After Reporting
You are protected the moment you report harassment, decline advances, participate in an investigation, or oppose discrimination. Any negative action taken in response may be unlawful retaliation, and that claim can succeed even when the underlying harassment is disputed.
You do not need precise legal language. A reasonable, good-faith belief that your experience may violate the law is enough.
Retaliation also does not require that the harasser be the person who fired you. Phillips & Associates represented the plaintiff in Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, where the Second Circuit adopted the cat's paw theory and extended it to a nonsupervisory employee, holding that an employer can be liable when its own negligence lets a biased coworker drive the decision.
Why Employees Choose Phillips & Associates
Substantial Resources With Boutique-Style Representation
Workplace sexual harassment cases often run against executives, business owners, physicians, law firm partners, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, and other powerful workplace decision-makers. These matters require extensive factual investigation, digital evidence review, witness development, damages analysis, and sophisticated litigation strategy.
Phillips & Associates combines the resources of a substantial plaintiff-side employment firm with boutique-style representation. Every accepted client receives a dedicated legal team led or supervised by a partner or senior litigator. Each client works with the same legal team throughout the case, from investigation through resolution. Cases are not handed off after intake.
Longstanding Employment-Law Experience
The firm's attorneys bring more than 200 years of combined employment-law experience, and many of its partners have worked together representing employees in sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, and workplace power-dynamics cases for nearly a decade. Phillips & Associates has litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases and recovered more than $360 million for employees.
William K. Phillips has spent decades representing employees in workplace sexual harassment, retaliation, discrimination, and workplace power-dynamics matters involving executives, owners, physicians, law firm partners, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, and other powerful workplace decision-makers.
Trial Readiness Creates Leverage
Most workplace sexual harassment matters resolve before trial. That does not make trial capability irrelevant. Employers and defense counsel evaluate whether opposing counsel can actually litigate, and they price cases accordingly.
Phillips & Associates has obtained federal jury verdicts, published employment decisions, and Second Circuit precedent. Readiness to try a case often creates the leverage that produces a confidential resolution before one becomes necessary. More about the firm.
When To Consult A Sexual Harassment Lawyer In NYC
Call when a supervisor is involved, when there are threats, touching, or retaliation, when HR has failed you, or when you are holding a severance document you do not fully understand.
Do not sign settlement agreements, confidentiality terms, severance agreements, or resignation letters without independent legal review, because you may waive valuable claims. Seek advice before you resign if you can, since timing affects claims for being forced out, gathering evidence, and protecting compensation. If you were already fired or disciplined after rejecting advances or reporting harassment, act early and preserve your communications.
Phillips & Associates limits its practice to employees and does not represent employers. The firm serves New York City, Long Island, and surrounding areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Harassment Have to Be Repeated?
Not always. A single significant incident may support a claim. Repeated, less severe conduct can also qualify, especially under New York State and City law.
Can You File If You Did Not Report to HR?
Yes. Reporting is a helpful step, but many people avoid it over retaliation concerns. A lawyer can evaluate whether the employer knew or should have known regardless of whether a formal complaint exists.
Does My Employer's Anti-Harassment Policy Protect It?
Not in New York, at least not for supervisor harassment. Since the 2019 amendments, an employer cannot defeat a claim by pointing to its policy, its training, or its complaint procedure.
Can Same-Sex Harassment Qualify?
Yes. Your gender and the harasser's gender do not limit your rights under New York law.
Do Offsite Events Count?
Yes. Conduct at business-related social events, conferences, business trips, and work gatherings can be covered. See sexual harassment outside the office.
What If The Employer Finds No Evidence?
An internal finding does not eliminate your legal rights. If the investigation was incomplete, delayed, or followed by retaliation, you may challenge the employer's conclusion.
If Any of This Sounds Familiar
You do not need to diagnose your experience to ask a question. Every one of the six cases above started with someone who was not sure it counted.
Preserve messages and records, write down a clear account of what happened, and get confidential legal advice before making significant decisions. Phillips & Associates offers free, confidential consultations for employees in New York City and Long Island, with extended intake hours.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Every claim is fact-specific. Nothing in this article is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.