On behalf of Dr. Ding Ding, Boies Schiller Flexner defeated Structure Therapeutics’ motion to compel arbitration for a second time.
Ding, whom the company hired as its first-ever chief financial officer and specifically for its planned initial public offering, was fired in 2022 less than two weeks after she reported to the CEO that she was the victim of domestic violence and with the company’s “aggressive” IPO closing date only a few weeks away. One of the founders of the company admitted during deposition that he considered how the domestic violence incident would impact the IPO. The lawsuit alleges that throughout Ding’s employment, the CEO harassed, criticized, diminished, and sidelined her because she was a woman.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied the company's motion to compel arbitration of Ding’s sex harassment claims under New York state and city laws. The court’s ruling was similar to its order in October 2024, which said that Ding’s allegations regarding the sex harassment she suffered was sufficient to invalidate the arbitration agreement pursuant to the 2022 End Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. The court expressly rejected defendants’ arguments that the applicable New York sex harassment laws require conduct that is “romantic, sexual, or lewd nature.”