Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 28, 2011
Daniell concentrates on discrimination, sexual harassment
David Laprad
Grace Daniell, a solo practitioner, concentrates on employment discrimination, sexual harassment, personal injury and domestic relations cases. She says the employment and sexual harassment cases are her passion, and has tried over 100 of the harassment cases since 1996.
- David Laprad
Like many lawyers, Grace Daniell admits to working a lot. She arrives at the office before the sun is up, is lucky to make it home before prime time television kicks in, and spends a good chunk of each weekend at work, too. As a solo practitioner, she has employees counting on her, a business to run, and clients who are looking to her for help.
But in the midst of her responsibilities, Daniell has found a place where she can make a difference in the lives of her clients, and that makes the weight on her shoulders worth bearing.
While Daniell takes personal injury and domestic relations cases, employment discrimination and sexual harassment matters are her passion.
Despite a widespread call for equality, tolerance and respect in the workplace, many of her clients are people who believe someone has violated their rights under Title VII or the Tennessee Human Rights Act, which make it unlawful for an employer to discharge or refuse to hire someone based on the person’s race, religion, gender, age, or national origin. There are days when Daniell receives more than a half dozen calls from people claiming such discrimination.
While not all of the calls Daniell receives are related to sexual harassment, her Web site, www.gracedaniell.com, lists
the hot button issue as one of her practice areas. Despite the sensationalism surrounding such
cases, and the large sums of money some plaintiffs have pocketed as a result of pursuing legal action against their perpetrators, Daniell says most of her clients are merely looking for closure.
“It’s not about money. They want to put what happened behind them. And they want to make sure the person who sexually harassed them is stopped,” she says.
Like all issues of right and wrong on which the law is brought to bear, resolving a sexual harassment case is not as simple as proving the occurrence of unwelcome behavior. Even in a case where a male supervisor indisputably made advances on a female employee, complications arise that make resolving such cases challenging.
“Certain people are more vulnerable to being a victim in the workplace than others. If someone has had problems with a spouse, that person might be more easily preyed upon at work. That creates hurdles in litigation. If I have client who’s claiming the problems she’s experiencing are a result of what happened at work, but she has other issues in the background, the defense will focus on those. That’s unfortunate, because the two are in no way related. It’s like having a pre-existing condition on a personal injury case; there’s no correlation,” she says.
There are other obstacles when pursuing a sexual harassment claim, and Daniell does her best to prepare her clients to overcome them.
“I try to educate my clients from the start. Suing someone for sexual harassment is a lengthy and stressful process, and they’re going to have to face the defendant during court proceedings and depositions, so I need to know if they’re in it for the long haul,” she says.
Since the experience of pursuing a sexual harassment claim can be traumatic, Daniell says she doesn’t take it personally when a client lashes out at her.
“When a client gets upset, I’m going to be the person [on whom] they take out their frustrations. That’s part of the job, so I do everything I can to help my client through that moment, maintain the relationship, and bring the case to a conclusion,” she says.
When that day arrives, Daniell says clients are relieved and usually thankful they endured until the end.
“I’ve had clients come to me after the fact and say that had it not been for going through that process, they wouldn’t be where they are today. That was something they needed to experience to be able to move on with their lives. I care about my clients, so I like hearing that I helped,” she says.
While Daniell has bills and salaries to pay, she says she avoids clients who are after money.
“That’s not the kind of case I handle, and there’s usually not that much to go on anyway. My interest is piqued when someone has truly been wronged. I’d rather champion an underdog than someone who’s out to reap a financial benefit,” she says.
Daniell is able to relate to her sexual harassment clients, as she experienced unwelcome behavior while working as a secretary. But she doesn’t dwell on what happened; rather, she marvels at how her workaholic tendencies were evident even then.
“I worked and went to school full time, and I was almost too focused on school. Looking back, I wish I’d taken more time to enjoy myself,” she says.
Daniell and her family moved to the Chattanooga area in time for her to graduate from Hixson High School. She then took a job as a secretary and started attending classes at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Daniell says she lacked direction as an undergraduate student and started down the path to law as a result of taking a wrong turn on campus.
“I was heading toward the business department, because I wanted a business degree, and I ended up in the criminal justice department. Whoever I ran into recruited me into the program. I wound up doing an internship in the DA’s office, and that sparked an interest in the law, so I took the [LSAT] and off I went.”
Daniell continued her pattern of all work and no play at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she earned her law degree. While working with an attorney on a voter’s rights case during her summer breaks, she developed an interest in constitutional law; following graduation, she took a one-year clerkship with Judge Hewitt Tomlin of the Tennessee Court Appeals in Jackson. Her goal from there was to work for the U.S. district attorney, but the office was slow in responding to her application, so she took a job with Luther Anderson, an insurance defense firm in Chattanooga.
Daniell was with Luther Anderson for seven years. During her tenure with the firm, she learned the ins and outs of litigation from senior partner Sam Anderson, did a considerable amount of professional liability work and was made partner. when she came to a point where she wanted a change, she started taking cases on behalf of plaintiffs through the Chattanooga Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service.
One of the first cases Daniell accepted through the service was a sexual harassment claim, which she won. Both Daniell and her client were happy with the $1.2 million verdict, but Daniell’s work on behalf of plaintiffs put her at odds with her work at Luther Anderson, so she retired from the firm and launched a new practice with another attorney. He moved out of state a number of years later, and Daniell has been a solo practitioner ever since.
Daniell might be on her own at work, but she has company at home, including a husband of 20 years and a daughter who’s 14. Although Daniell used to be active in the Bar, she says she’s cut back on her commitment to the professional association so she can spend the few hours she has outside of the office with her family. Together, they like hiking, camping and other outdoor activities.
Daniell and her husband are also caring for parents who have entered the latter stages of life. Because Daniell waited until her mid-30’s to have a child, there’s some overlap between raising her daughter and caring for the older members of her family, so she has a lot to handle, even when she’s away from work. What she doesn’t have, however, are regrets – at home or work.
“I wouldn’t change [one thing]. It’s hard being a solo practitioner because there’s no one to back me up if I’m sick or I want to go on vacation. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’ve enjoyed it,” she says.
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