Douglas Wigdor

Douglas Holden Wigdor (born September 26, 1968) is a founding partner of the law firm Wigdor LLP, and works as a litigator in New York City, specializing in anti-discrimination law.

Education

Wigdor received his B.A. degree from Washington University, St. Louis where he now endows a scholarship to the Arts & Science School and for which a cycling studio has been named after him. He received his J.D. degree from Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and is a member of the International Tennis Club of the United States. He received a master's degree at St Cross College, Oxford University and was named the 2007 and 2014 Alumnus of the Year. The college has named the West Quad library and garden room after him and his wife Catherine, an alumna of Lincoln College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was on the university’s 1995 national championship basketball team. Wigdor has lectured on university campuses as a guest lecturer and speaker.

Career

Doug Wigdor clerked for the Federal Court and worked as an attorney in the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. He then worked for corporations defending themselves against discrimination suits while an attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. In order to begin prosecuting those discrimination suits themselves, he founded Wigdor LLP in 2003 with the future District Attorney for Brooklyn, New York Kenneth P. Thompson. That year he received a $7.5 million jury award against Wal-Mart, which was one of the largest yet under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 . In his career, Wigdor coined the phrase “recessionary discrimination” to describe the use of the economy as a pretext for discrimination.

Among his cases, in 2009, he represented five women in a gender discrimination matter against Citibank, a case that appeared on the front cover of Forbes Magazine. In 2012 Wigdor represented Nafissatou Diallo, a housekeeper attacked in the Sofitel Hotel by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund. He later also represented multiple alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein. In terms of discrimination cases against large financial groups, he has represented clients in a gender discrimination case against Dresdner, and pregnancy discrimination cases against Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. He has also represented clients against Fox News, settling for approximately twenty clients out of court for $10 million. Other notable cases he has represented have included a racial discrimination case on behalf of actor Rob Brown against Macy’s, and the representation of Charles Oakley against James Dolan and Madison Square Garden.

As a complainant himself, Wigdor brought a lawsuit against SoulCycle after being banned from the spinning studio subsequent to the representation of one of its former instructors.

Mr. Wigdor represents five NY1 Anchorwomen in Age and Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Charter Communications.