Massachusetts lawyer agrees to pay $100,000 in sexual harassment suit

Jet, April 14, 1997

A White Massachusetts attorney recently agreed to pay $100,000 to five former female employees who accused him of sexual and racial harassment.

According to the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), attorney Donald E. Green, whose Roxbury law firm serves a predominately Black clientele, made numerous scandalous and offensive comments in the office about his sexual attraction to Black women.

Green, who is 57 and is married to a Black woman, allegedly asked employees at his firm to rate the looks of potential female clients on a scale of 1 to 10 before he would see them, according to the complaint. If he received a favorable response, he would sit in on the intake interview, said the lawsuit.

Also, according to the lawsuit, Green said, "I only date Black women with full figures," and "I like dark meat."

Additionally, Green allegedly would receive pornographic magazines in the office, which staff members were forced to open as part of their job duties.

One employee told EEOC that once Green, after being told he looked like he had lost weight, said it was the result of "having a lot of sex."

Another employee told EEOC that on a different occasion, Green lifted a client's skirt and remarked "isn't this the best ass you have ever seen?"

EEOC lawyer Elizabeth Grossman told JET: "I feel very pleased that we came to this agreement. I hope Mr. Green will refrain from this behavior in the future. We tried to put mechanisms in place in the agreement that will make the law offices of Donald E. Green a better place for women of color to work."

Although the law firm denied the allegations, it signed a consent degree and entered into agreement with EEOC concluding the lawsuit. Green told the Boston Herald newspaper that economics forced him to sign the decree and pointed to his recent marriage to a Black law student as proof he does not discriminate.