OMAHA -- A Douglas County jury awarded $3.85 million this week to a former HDR vice president who was fired the day she formally reported a conflict of interest of another employee.
After a five-day trial that started last week, the 12-member jury deliberated three hours before unanimously agreeing that HDR discriminated against Kristine Shaner, 51, based on her gender. The jury awarded her $2.57 million in lost wages and $1.28 million for mental and emotional distress.
Shaner had been with the international engineering firm based in Omaha for 18 years, using her business degree and acumen to rise to a vice-president role in strategy and business acquisition. An example of a project she and her HDR team secured: contracts to engineer coastline solutions after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other areas in 2005.
Shaner’s attorney, Kelly Brandon, said the jury’s verdict recognized the sacrifices that Shaner made for her job — and the unjust way she was ushered out of the firm. Her job required her to travel 80% of the time while she raised two boys. She rose through the firm, becoming a senior vice president in 2010 and accumulating more than $1 million in HDR stock over her tenure.
Then a new boss made her job increasingly difficult — and fired her, out of the blue, via a phone call in November 2017, Brandon said.
Brandon said the verdict was a measure of relief after a long five years for Shaner. Shaner now lives in Arizona and works for an engineering firm there.
Brandon said Shaner prided herself on being a mentor for young women in a male-dominated field. At the time of Shaner’s termination, only 12 of 163 senior vice presidents at HDR were women, the lawsuit said.
“Kristine is incredibly resilient,†Brandon said. “Being a senior vice president at HDR was a large part of her identity. To have it taken away in a phone call with literally no warning was really devastating.â€
This week’s verdict marks the second time in a month that a jury has awarded a substantial amount for a woman who was discriminated against in the workplace. In September, a federal jury after Chief Todd Schmaderer decided against promoting her to deputy chief in 2018. The city plans to appeal that verdict.
And HDR plans to challenge this one. Kate Dittrick, an attorney for HDR, said Wednesday that the engineering firm “appreciates and respects the legal process but is disappointed and disagrees with the verdict.†HDR contended that Shaner’s job was eliminated based on a reduction in business.
“HDR plans to explore all available (appellate) options,†Dittrick said. “They’re an equal-opportunity employer and work hard to support all of their employees.â€
In a statement, Shaner said she hopes her legal battle “paves the way for others in the community to come forward when equality is absent from the workforce. Jury trials like mine provide the greatest opportunity for plaintiffs to be heard.â€
Brandon said she is hopeful, but not necessarily certain, that the tide is turning toward justice for those suffering at work. Sadly, Brandon said, her firm has no shortage of workplace discrimination complaints among women and people of color.
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Such cases can be difficult to advance to trial. That’s what makes Shaner’s verdict so important, Brandon said.
Shaner began at HDR in 1999 and steadily rose through the ranks. She and the team she helped lead “won millions of dollars of business that put HDR on the map,†Brandon said.
In 2012, Shaner was placed under a new boss. By 2015, he began taking away Shaner’s responsibilities in the firm’s client development area. He stripped her budgeting ability and redirected marketing folks to report to someone besides her. He decreased her bonuses. And he excluded her from meetings. The end result: “Everyone who attended the business meetings was male,†Brandon wrote in the lawsuit.
Then in September 2015, HDR interviewed a woman whose husband was the head of a Pennsylvania governmental agency that had hired HDR as a contractor. Shaner saw the woman’s potential employment as an obvious conflict of interest and feared that it would violate U.S. contracting rules and regulations, Brandon said.
Her boss hired the woman, despite Shaner’s concerns.
Then in November 2016, HDR established a new policy concerning conflicts of interest. By November 2017, Shaner discovered that the woman had not disclosed her conflict of interest. And the woman had spread a disparaging lie about Shaner and another employee.
Early that month, Shaner shared her concerns with human resources about the woman’s behavior and her conflict of interest. A division head told Shaner that “no significant action was going to be taken regarding (the woman),†the lawsuit said.
Two hours later, Shaner was told her position was being eliminated.
Brandon said the verdict is vindication for the devastation Shaner felt. It took at least 18 months and a move to Arizona for Shaner to find a job to try to replace the one she loved, Brandon said.
“I don’t know if the (verdict indicates the) tide is turning for women and minorities,†Brandon said. “But we think these kinds of lawsuits are important to bring awareness that, unfortunately at some workplaces, discrimination is alive and well.â€
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