Healthcare

Sexual Harassment by Doctors and Physicians in New York

A doctor does not have to be your formal supervisor to have tremendous influence over your career. A surgeon may influence which nurses work in the operating room. An attending physician may affect your assignments, evaluations, or professional reputation. A medical director may have a say in your advancement or continued employment.

When someone with that authority makes unwanted sexual advances, engages in inappropriate touching, pressures you into a personal relationship, or punishes you for rejecting them, the conduct may violate federal, New York State, or New York City employment discrimination laws.

Nurses, medical assistants, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, residents, technicians, and other healthcare employees do not have to tolerate sexual harassment simply because the person responsible is a respected physician, senior surgeon, or important revenue producer for the hospital.

At Phillips & Associates, we represent employees, and only employees. We look at more than the inappropriate conduct itself. We examine the authority the doctor exercised, what the hospital or medical practice knew, how management responded, and what happened to the employee's career after the conduct was rejected or reported.

Our firm has handled more than 2,000 sexual harassment matters, litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases, and recovered more than $360 million for employees across our employment practice. Every client receives a dedicated legal team consisting of two attorneys and a paralegal, supervised by a partner or senior litigator. Many of the firm’s partners have worked together for more than a decade. This structure combines the resources of a substantial plaintiff-side employment practice with partner-led, boutique-style representation.

If you are experiencing sexual harassment in a hospital, medical practice, or other healthcare setting, you can speak with an employment attorney before deciding whether to report the conduct or pursue legal action.

Free and confidential consultation: (866) 229-9441. No attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you.

What Is Sexual Harassment by a Doctor or Physician?

Sexual harassment by a doctor or physician occurs when unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex, violates applicable workplace discrimination laws. For an overview of the broader laws and available remedies, see our New York sexual harassment lawyer page.

In healthcare workplaces, sexual harassment may involve attending physicians, surgeons, medical directors, department heads, supervising physicians, or senior clinical employees. This page focuses on harassment by doctors and people with medical authority over nurses and other employees. For broader issues, including harassment by patients and visitors, see our guide to sexual harassment of healthcare workers.

Examples include:

A surgeon repeatedly making sexual comments to a nurse during procedures.
A physician touching a nurse's waist, buttocks, breasts, or other body parts without consent.
A department head repeatedly asking an employee for dates after being rejected.
A senior physician sending sexually suggestive text messages or photographs to a subordinate.
A doctor suggesting that favorable assignments, mentorship, references, or professional opportunities depend on sexual attention.
A physician pressuring a nurse, resident, or medical assistant into a sexual relationship.
A doctor treating a nurse or other subordinate employee unfavorably after a romantic or sexual relationship ends, including changing assignments, excluding the employee from procedures, giving negative evaluations, or interfering with career opportunities.
A senior healthcare employee spreading sexual rumors after an employee rejects advances.
A doctor threatening to damage an employee's reputation or career after being reported.

Sexual harassment does not have to involve physical touching. Verbal harassment, unwanted advances, electronic communications, sexual coercion, and mistreatment following the end of a workplace relationship may support legal claims, depending on the circumstances.

Why Sexual Harassment in Hospitals Often Involves an Abuse of Power

Hospitals operate within established professional hierarchies. Physicians, surgeons, department heads, nursing supervisors, and hospital administrators may exercise different forms of authority over other healthcare workers.

A nurse may technically report to a nursing manager while working daily with a surgeon who influences operating room assignments, scheduling, professional evaluations, or recommendations to hospital leadership.

A resident may depend on an attending physician for evaluations, clinical opportunities, recommendations, and advancement.

A medical assistant employed by a private practice may depend on the physician who owns the business for continued employment.

This creates a difficult situation when the person engaging in sexual harassment also has significant influence over the employee's career. A physician may begin with mentorship, special attention, or preferred assignments and then push personal boundaries. Those gestures are not automatically unlawful, but they can become important context when followed by unwanted sexual pressure or punishment after rejection.

Employees may fear that reporting a physician will result in:

Losing preferred shifts or operating room assignments.
Being transferred to a less desirable department.
Receiving negative performance evaluations.
Being excluded from important procedures or training.
Losing advancement or leadership opportunities.
Being accused of poor performance or insubordination.
Having their professional reputation damaged.
Being terminated or pressured to resign.

The fact that a physician is highly respected, generates substantial revenue, or is considered essential to a hospital does not excuse sexual harassment. When job benefits or consequences are tied to sexual attention, our quid pro quo sexual harassment guide explains how those claims are evaluated.

The relevant questions include what happened, whether the conduct was unwelcome, what authority the individual exercised, what the hospital knew, and how the employer responded.

Can a Doctor Sexually Harass a Nurse Even If the Doctor Is Not Her Supervisor?

Yes. A doctor can sexually harass a nurse even when the doctor is not the nurse's formal supervisor.

A physician does not need direct authority to hire or fire an employee for inappropriate sexual conduct to raise legal concerns.

For example, a surgeon who repeatedly makes unwanted sexual advances toward an operating room nurse may create a hostile work environment even if the nurse officially reports to a nursing supervisor.

The physician's influence over assignments, workplace treatment, and professional opportunities may also be relevant.

Whether the hospital is legally responsible depends on factors including the physician's employment relationship, actual authority, the nature of the conduct, and what the employer knew or should have known. A doctor's practical influence over a nurse is important evidence, but it does not automatically make that doctor a legal supervisor under every statute. For general supervisor harassment rules, see our supervisor sexual harassment page.

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Sexual Harassment of Nurses in Operating Rooms, Emergency Departments, and Hospital Units

Sexual harassment can occur in any healthcare setting, but certain environments create particular challenges.

Operating Rooms and Surgical Departments

Operating room nurses, surgical technicians, nurse anesthetists, and other clinical personnel often work closely with surgeons under demanding conditions.

Potential harassment includes inappropriate touching during procedures, sexual remarks in front of coworkers, pressure to socialize outside work, or retaliatory exclusion from surgical assignments after rejecting advances.

Emergency Departments and Hospital Units

Emergency room nurses, technicians, and other hospital employees may work long shifts alongside physicians and senior staff.

Sexual harassment may involve repeated comments, unwanted physical contact, inappropriate late-night messages, or pressure to spend time alone with a physician.

Private Medical Practices

In smaller medical offices, the physician accused of harassment may also own the practice, control payroll, supervise employees, and make hiring and firing decisions.

An employee may have no independent HR department or meaningful internal reporting option. The physician may also be the person making decisions about assignments, pay, and whether the employee remains employed.

Medical Training Programs

Residents, fellows, and other healthcare professionals in training may depend on attending physicians and program leadership for evaluations, clinical experience, recommendations, and future career opportunities.

Unwanted sexual advances or retaliation in these relationships can have consequences extending beyond the employee's current position.

Can a Hospital Be Liable for Sexual Harassment by a Doctor?

Yes. A hospital or healthcare employer may be legally responsible for sexual harassment committed by a physician or another healthcare professional.

Liability depends on the facts, including whether the physician was a supervisor for purposes of the applicable law, whether the hospital knew or should have known about the conduct, whether an employment action resulted, and whether the hospital took appropriate corrective action.

For example, potential employer liability concerns arise when:

Multiple nurses previously complained about the same physician.
Hospital administrators knew about inappropriate touching or sexual comments but failed to act.
The hospital transferred the complaining employee while allowing the alleged harasser to remain in the same position.
A senior physician retaliated after an employee rejected advances.
HR dismissed allegations because the physician was considered indispensable.
The hospital conducted an inadequate investigation or failed to stop continuing misconduct.

The legal analysis is more complicated when a physician is an independent contractor or is employed by a separate medical group. The contractual label alone does not necessarily resolve responsibility. Hospitals, physician groups, faculty practices, and staffing agencies may have different roles in the employee's work and in responding to complaints. Which entity may be liable requires a fact-specific analysis.

What If Other Nurses Previously Complained About the Same Doctor?

Prior complaints can become important evidence in a hospital sexual harassment case.

If other nurses, technicians, medical assistants, or healthcare workers previously reported similar conduct by the same physician, those complaints may help establish that hospital leadership had notice of a recurring problem.

Relevant evidence may include earlier HR complaints, internal investigations, witness statements, disciplinary records, and whether the hospital took meaningful corrective action.

Even when a prior complaint was labeled unsubstantiated, it may still have evidentiary significance.

A hospital's decision to protect a highly productive physician instead of addressing repeated harassment allegations can become a central issue in litigation. Our discussion of prior complaints about workplace harassers explains why earlier reports can matter.

Retaliation Against Nurses and Healthcare Workers Who Report Sexual Harassment

Retaliation does not always begin with termination.

In hospitals, retaliation may appear through decisions that seem administrative or clinical but materially change an employee's working conditions.

What changes after a complaint	Why it may matter
Preferred shifts are removed	May reduce income or make employment less desirable
Operating room assignments disappear	May reflect exclusion from professional opportunities
A nurse is transferred to another unit	May be punitive rather than protective
Performance evaluations suddenly decline	May suggest a retaliatory explanation
Training opportunities are denied	May affect advancement or professional development
A resident receives negative evaluations	May threaten future career opportunities
An employee is isolated or labeled difficult	May support a pattern of retaliatory treatment
The employee is suspended or terminated	May constitute a materially adverse employment action

Not every unfavorable scheduling or staffing decision is retaliation. Hospitals must make legitimate clinical and operational decisions.

The important questions are whether the employee engaged in legally protected activity, whether adverse treatment followed, and whether evidence connects the two. Our New York workplace retaliation resource explains how these claims are evaluated.

What If a Nurse Had a Consensual Relationship With a Doctor?

A consensual workplace relationship does not automatically prevent an employee from pursuing a sexual harassment or retaliation claim. Dating a coworker or physician is not, by itself, illegal, and a relationship that ends badly does not automatically create a legal claim.

A nurse, resident, or medical assistant may initially agree to date a physician or engage in a personal relationship. Problems can arise when the relationship ends or the employee no longer wants to continue.

For example, after the employee ends the relationship, the physician may:

Repeatedly pressure the employee to resume it.
Send unwanted messages or make threats.
Interfere with assignments or scheduling.
Spread intimate information or sexual rumors.
Influence supervisors to discipline the employee.
Threaten professional consequences.

A relationship that began voluntarily can later involve unwelcome conduct, coercion, or unlawful retaliation. The key distinction is between personal conflict after a breakup and conduct or employment consequences that violate the applicable discrimination or retaliation law.

The legal evaluation must consider the entire relationship, the authority involved, and what happened after the employee attempted to end it. For more on this issue, see our workplace relationship harassment guide.

What Should a Nurse or Healthcare Employee Do After Sexual Harassment?

The appropriate response depends on the seriousness of the conduct, whether the employee remains employed, the available evidence, and the risk of retaliation.

Employees should consider documenting the incidents, including dates, locations, witnesses, comments, messages, and changes in workplace treatment. Compare schedules, operating room assignments, overtime, training opportunities, and performance evaluations before and after a rejected advance or complaint.

Relevant evidence may include personal text messages, emails, work schedules, performance reviews, complaints to HR, and communications following the incident. Preserve relevant, lawfully accessible messages, including communications outside hospital systems, without altering or deleting them.

Employees should not improperly access or remove patient records, protected health information, or confidential hospital materials to build an employment claim. HIPAA obligations and workplace confidentiality requirements can create separate legal issues.

Before resigning, signing a severance agreement, or making a formal complaint, speaking with an employment attorney may help the employee understand the legal options and potential consequences.

An employee does not necessarily have to report harassment internally before consulting a lawyer.

What Laws Protect Healthcare Workers From Sexual Harassment in New York?

Healthcare employees in New York may have protection under several overlapping laws.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal law prohibits sex-based workplace discrimination, including unlawful sexual harassment and retaliation. Hostile work environment claims generally require conduct sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter employment conditions.

New York State Human Rights Law

New York State law provides broader protections against workplace harassment. Employees generally do not have to establish that harassment was severe or pervasive, although conduct constituting petty slights or trivial inconveniences may not be actionable.

New York City Human Rights Law

Healthcare workers employed in New York City may receive additional protections under the NYCHRL, which must be interpreted independently and liberally.

These protections may apply to nurses, physicians, medical assistants, technicians, administrative staff, and other covered healthcare workers.

The applicable law, filing deadlines, and potential defendants depend on the employment relationship and the circumstances of the claim.

What Compensation Can Healthcare Employees Recover?

Depending on the applicable law and facts, employees who establish sexual harassment or retaliation claims may be eligible for compensation involving:

Lost wages, overtime, benefits, and other employment-related earnings.
Future economic losses resulting from termination or career disruption.
Emotional distress and psychological harm.
Punitive damages where legally available.
Attorneys' fees and costs where authorized.
Other equitable relief, potentially including reinstatement.

The value of a case depends on liability, the evidence, severity and duration of the misconduct, employer knowledge, retaliation, economic loss, emotional harm, and available legal remedies.

No attorney can responsibly determine the value of a sexual harassment case based solely on the accused physician's title or the hospital's financial resources.

Who Phillips & Associates represents in healthcare

Phillips & Associates represents clinical and professional staff in sexual harassment, retaliation, and discrimination claims, including:

Nurses and nurse practitioners, including a head nurse demoted after refusing the practice owner’s advances and a surgical nurse whose contract ended the day after she ended a relationship with a surgeon
Resident and fellowship physicians, including a resident harassed and assaulted by her program director at a Brooklyn hospital
Attending physicians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists, including an anesthesiologist passed over for partnership by physician partners
Medical assistants, technicians, and medical office staff, including an emergency room technician at a Staten Island hospital
Practice administrators and healthcare executives, including a medical practice administrator subjected to unwanted contact by the senior physician who ran the practice

Who Phillips & Associates takes on

Phillips & Associates brings claims against:

New York hospital systems and academic medical centers
Teaching hospitals and residency and fellowship programs
Private medical practices and physician groups
Surgical facilities and specialty practices
University-affiliated medical practices
Adult homes and senior living operators
The individual physicians who control the work: surgeons, residency program directors, department chiefs, and practice owners

Phillips & Associates has also litigated employment claims against New York healthcare institutions, including Martinez v. Staten Island University Hospital, in which certain claims survived the hospital's motion for summary judgment.

Phillips & Associates Results for Nurses, Physicians, and Clinical Staff Harassed at Work

Phillips & Associates has obtained substantial settlements for nurses, physicians, residents, and other healthcare employees in sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation cases. These results show how Phillips & Associates resolves cases when the harasser is a surgeon, a residency program director, a practice owner, or a senior physician.

Resident physician harassed by her program director at a Brooklyn hospital

Phillips & Associates recovered $1,500,000 for a resident physician who was sexually harassed and assaulted by her residency program director at a Brooklyn hospital, then retaliated against after she raised complaints about patient care.

Harasser: Residency program director with control over her evaluations and training
Claims: Sexual harassment, assault, retaliation
Resolution: Resolved before a lawsuit was filed, after private mediation failed. The client remained on paid leave for five months while Phillips & Associates negotiated.

Head nurse demoted after refusing the practice owner’s advances

Phillips & Associates recovered $1,055,000 for a head nurse at a healthcare practice who was demoted after she refused the owner’s persistent sexual comments and advances.

Harasser: Practice owner with authority over her pay, assignments, and job security
Claims: Sexual harassment, gender and national origin discrimination, retaliation
Resolution: Resolved after mediation

Surgical nurse whose contract ended the day after she ended a relationship with a surgeon

Phillips & Associates recovered $800,000 for a surgical nurse who was pursued by a surgeon for months. After she ended a relationship with him on learning he was married, her contract ended the next day.

Harasser: Surgeon at the facility. He was not her supervisor. Phillips & Associates argued he drove the decision to end her contract.
Claims: Sexual harassment, retaliation
Resolution: Resolved after an EEOC charge, before a lawsuit was filed

Anesthesiologist passed over for partnership at a New York medical practice

Phillips & Associates recovered $800,000 for an anesthesiologist who alleged gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation after physician partners promoted male doctors to partnership instead of her.

Harassers: Physician partners and supervisors with authority over promotion and job security
Claims: Gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination
Resolution: Resolved in federal court in Albany at a court conference shortly before trial

Medical practice administrator subjected to unwanted contact by a senior physician

Phillips & Associates recovered $300,000 for a regional administrator at a university-affiliated medical practice in New York City who was subjected to unwanted physical contact by the senior physician who ran the practice, then retaliated against after she reported it.

Harasser: Practice chief with authority over her assignments and job security
Claims: Sexual harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, assault and battery

Attending physician subjected to a hostile work environment by a senior physician leader

Phillips & Associates recovered $275,000 for an attending physician and director at a hospital who alleged sex discrimination, a hostile work environment, and retaliation by a senior physician leader with authority over her employment.

Harasser: Senior physician leader
Claims: Gender discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, constructive termination
Resolution: Resolved at private mediation

Phillips & Associates has obtained published federal court decisions in healthcare employment cases. In Ferrando-Dehtiar v. Anesthesia Group of Albany, P.C., 727 F. Supp. 3d 165 (N.D.N.Y. 2024), Phillips & Associates represented an anesthesiologist in claims against her practice and individual physician partners. The court allowed her failure-to-promote and retaliation claims to proceed, kept retaliation and aiding and abetting claims against three individual doctors, and allowed assault and battery claims against the physician accused of unwanted physical contact. The court dismissed the hostile work environment claims. The decision illustrates how individual physicians may face claims for retaliation and aiding and abetting discrimination under New York law, while the ultimate outcome depends on the evidence and applicable legal standards. See the firm’s employment case results for more.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Why Choose Phillips & Associates for Sexual Harassment Claims Against Doctors and Hospitals?

Hospitals defend these cases with in-house counsel, insurance carriers, and outside employment defense firms, and the accused doctor is often one of the institution’s most protected people. Phillips & Associates represents employees only, never hospitals or employers, and builds every healthcare case to stand up against that defense.

The imbalance you face

A surgeon or department chief who generates revenue can carry real influence with hospital leadership. Complaints about attending physicians often go to the medical staff office instead of HR, and the employee rarely learns what happened next. Prior complaints, investigation files, and communications between administrators sit inside the hospital, out of reach until a lawyer demands them. That is why the firm you choose matters.

How Phillips & Associates builds a case against a hospital or physician

Phillips & Associates looks for the records that show both the harassment and what it cost you: operating room and call schedules, case assignment history, evaluations, secure messaging and personal texts, complaints to nursing leadership or HR, and the timing of discipline or peer review. We seek to preserve relevant communications early because some hospital messaging platforms have automatic deletion or limited retention settings. The firm also traces who influenced the decisions about your job. Under Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, the firm’s published Second Circuit decision, an employer can be liable when a biased person who did not make the final call drove the outcome. This principle can be particularly important when a doctor who is not the employee's formal supervisor influences a hospital's decision to terminate, discipline, or otherwise penalize an employee. Depending on the circumstances, the hospital may be held responsible for allowing that physician's retaliatory conduct to influence its decision.

Every client is assigned a three-person team, a lead attorney, an associate, and a paralegal, supervised by a partner or senior litigator. The firm advances all litigation costs and has more than $1 million of its own money invested in clients’ cases at any given time, so it can retain experts and take every deposition the case needs.

A litigation record hospitals and their insurers know

Phillips & Associates has recovered more than $360 million for employees, handled more than 2,000 sexual harassment matters, and litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases. The firm has appeared before more than 110 U.S. District Judges and more than 70 U.S. Magistrate Judges and has faced more than 550 management-side defense firms, including Jackson Lewis, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Seyfarth Shaw, Morgan Lewis, and Proskauer Rose.

The firm tries cases. In Pardovani v. Crown Building Maintenance, a federal jury in Manhattan returned a $1.8 million verdict, including $1 million in punitive damages.

That record gives clients leverage in negotiation with employers, defense firms, and insurance carriers, including matters that resolve confidentially before a lawsuit is filed. See our litigation record and published case results. Not every case can or should resolve before litigation, and no outcome is guaranteed.

Recognition and how the firm works

Phillips & Associates is ranked by Chambers USA 2026 in Labor and Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs, New York, and is named to Best Law Firms 2026. All 10 partners have been selected to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment and Civil Rights Lawyers.

Founder and Managing Partner William K. Phillips remains involved in evaluating evidence, case value, litigation strategy, and the potential career consequences of sexual harassment and retaliation involving physicians and other senior medical professionals.

All attorneys and staff receive trauma-informed training, and client privacy is protected from the first call through resolution. Founded in 2011, Phillips & Associates has offices in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

About William K. Phillips

William K. Phillips is the Founder and Managing Partner of Phillips & Associates, which he founded in 2011 to represent employees only. He has never represented an employer, and the firm handles sexual harassment, retaliation, and abuse-of-authority claims against supervisors, executives, and senior professionals, including physicians and hospital leadership. He is admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and has been selected to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment and Civil Rights Lawyers.

Before law, Phillips spent more than 12 years in investment banking, including as a Vice President at Fieldstone Private Capital Group handling international mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings. He applies that training to case valuation. For a nurse, resident, or physician, damages can include a lost partnership track, suspended privileges, a derailed fellowship, or a career-long gap in earnings, and each has to be measured, not estimated.

Phillips founded the National Plaintiffs’ Summit on Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination, where employee-side lawyers train on these cases, and HarassmentHelp.org, a national resource for people facing workplace harassment. He has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, Lawyer Magazine, and Authority Magazine on workplace harassment and power in the workplace.

He sits in the firm’s intake department and stays involved in evaluating evidence, case value, litigation strategy, and the timing of key decisions. In a case against a physician or hospital leader, he looks past what happened to four questions: who held authority over the employee’s work, what the institution knew and when, what happened to the employee’s career afterward, and what the evidence can prove.

Speak With a New York Attorney About Sexual Harassment by a Doctor

If you are a nurse, medical assistant, physician assistant, resident, technician, or other healthcare employee experiencing sexual harassment by a doctor, surgeon, supervisor, or senior hospital employee, Phillips & Associates can evaluate your circumstances.

You do not have to wait until you are fired. You do not have to decide whether to sue before speaking with an attorney.

Our attorneys represent employees throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester County, and New York State.

Call (866) 229-9441 for a free, confidential consultation.

Phillips & Associates represents employees on a contingency fee basis. There are no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts, evidence, and applicable law.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Sexual Harassment in Hospitals

Can I sue a doctor for sexually harassing me at work?

Potentially. Depending on the facts and applicable law, a healthcare employee may have claims against the employer, the individual physician, or both. New York State and New York City laws may permit individual liability in circumstances where federal Title VII does not.

Is it sexual harassment if a doctor repeatedly asks me out?

It may be. One respectful request for a date, without more, is generally different from repeated advances after a refusal. The context matters, especially when the doctor influences the nurse's shifts, assignments, evaluations, or opportunities and workplace treatment changes after the employee says no.

Can a hospital be responsible if the doctor does not directly employ me?

Potentially. A hospital's responsibility depends on the governing law, the doctor's legal role and actual authority, the hospital's knowledge of the conduct, and how it responded. A doctor employed by a separate medical group or working as an independent contractor does not automatically eliminate all potential claims against the hospital.

What if a doctor offered mentorship or better assignments before making sexual advances?

Mentorship and favorable assignments are not automatically harassment. But if a physician uses those opportunities to pressure an employee into a romantic or sexual relationship, or withdraws them after rejection, the sequence of events may be important evidence. Keep records of the messages, opportunities offered, and what changed.

Can I report a surgeon for sexual harassment without losing my job?

Employees are protected against unlawful retaliation for reporting sexual harassment. However, retaliation can still occur in practice. Speaking with an attorney before reporting can help you assess the risks, evidence, and available protections.

What if the doctor says the touching was accidental?

The explanation does not end the inquiry. The nature of the contact, surrounding circumstances, repetition, witness accounts, and other evidence may help determine whether the conduct was accidental or unwelcome sexual touching.

Can a male nurse be sexually harassed by a female doctor?

Yes. Sexual harassment laws protect employees regardless of sex or gender. A male nurse may have a claim involving harassment by a female physician, male physician, or another healthcare employee.

Can I bring a sexual harassment claim if I am a travel nurse or work through a staffing agency?

Yes. Travel nurses and contract healthcare employees may have claims involving the staffing agency, the hospital, or both, depending on the employment relationship and applicable law. The hospital's control over assignments, supervision, and whether the employee's contract continues may be important.

Can I sue if I still work at the hospital?

Yes. Employees do not necessarily have to resign or be terminated to pursue sexual harassment claims. An attorney can help evaluate options while considering the employee's continued employment and risk of retaliation.

How long do I have to file a sexual harassment claim in New York?

New York State and New York City sexual harassment claims generally have a three-year limitations period, subject to the particular claim and procedural circumstances. Federal Title VII claims in New York generally require an EEOC charge within 300 days. Employees should obtain advice promptly because deadlines and filing requirements vary.

Can I recover compensation if I was not fired?

Yes. Depending on the circumstances, employees may recover compensation for emotional distress and other legally recognized harm even if they remained employed and suffered no lost wages.

$2,000,000 Sexual Harassment
$3,375,000 Sexual Harassment
$975,000 Sexual Harassment & Retaliation
$5,000,000+ Gender and National Origin Discrimination
$2,200,000 Race Discrimination & Retaliation
$1,400,000 Religious & Sexual Orientation Discrimination
$1,800,000 Race Discrimination
$3,000,000 Gender Discrimination & Sexual Harassment
$5,000,000+ Sexual Harassment and Quid Pro Quo

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Awards and Recognition

Independent legal rating organizations have recognized the firm and its attorneys for their work in labor and employment law. Phillips & Associates is ranked by Chambers and Partners in the 2026 Chambers USA Guide, Labor and Employment, Mainly Plaintiffs in New York, is recognized in Best Law Firms 2026, is listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2026 for Litigation, Labor and Employment, and has 15 attorneys recognized in Super Lawyers. Thirteen of the firm's attorneys have obtained settlements or verdicts exceeding $1 million, qualifying them for membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Recognition does not decide a case, but it reflects how clients, peers, and opposing counsel view the firm's work.

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