Christine E. Webber

Christine E. Webber is a Partner at Cohen Milstein and a member of the Civil Rights & Employment practice group. In her role, Ms. Webber represents victims of discrimination and wage and hour violations in class and collective actions.

Ms. Webber is a tenacious, hands-on litigator, highly-regarded for her ability to organize the large, high-profile class and collective actions and work closely with economic and statistical experts on developing sophisticated statistical analyses of class claims.

Ms. Webber has had the honor of representing clients in some of the largest, groundbreaking discrimination and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class and collective actions in the United States, including Keepseagle v. Vilsack (D.D.C.), a historic nationwide race-based discrimination class action brought by Native American ranchers and farmers against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The landmark $760 million settlement required the USDA to pay $680 million in damages to thousands of Native Americans, to forgive up to $80 million in outstanding farm loan debt, and to improve the farm loan services the USDA provides to Native Americans. Ms. Webber was lead counsel in In re Tyson Foods FLSA MDL (M.D. Ga.), a collective action involving FLSA claims at over 40 Tyson chicken processing plants, which ultimately resolved the claims of 17,000 chicken processing workers who had been denied compensation for donning and doffing required safety and sanitary equipment; and Hot v. Willis Group Insurance (S.D.N.Y.), where she represented a class of women vice presidents in Willis’ Northeast region, who complained of discrimination with respect to their salary and bonuses. The “glass ceiling” case was settled in 2007 for $8.5 million-plus attorneys’ fees, a record-breaking average payment of $50,000 per woman. Ms. Webber continues the fight in Dukes v. Wal-Mart – a nationwide pay and promotion sex discrimination class action that went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 and addressed standards for class certification in employment discrimination matters.