Rob Milesnick has represented employees as a plaintiff's lawyer, defended employers as a defense attorney, and prosecuted civil rights matters as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He has seen these cases from every angle — which means he can tell you honestly what you have.
In every consultation, we focus on two questions: What did your employer say was the reason? And what does your experience tell you the real reason was? That second question — the honest, gut-level answer — is usually where the case actually lives.
A high-income employee without a protected class issue may not have a claim. A lower-wage employee subjected to clear discrimination may have a very strong one. What matters is what happened — and why it happened.
The value of an employment case is a complex function of harm, available evidence, protected class status, jurisdiction, and facts that often only become fully known through discovery. What matters at the outset is whether the core elements are present — not a preliminary dollar estimate.
In Oregon, state claims with BOLI must be filed within one year. In Washington, the Human Rights Commission has its own filing windows.
These deadlines are not flexible. Missing them typically forecloses your claims entirely — not just delays them.
Check Your Timeline →Personality conflicts, general unfairness, poor management, and difficult working relationships — even genuinely bad ones — do not support an employment discrimination claim unless they are tied to legally protected characteristics or protected activity. An honest initial evaluation will tell you where your situation falls relative to that line.
Termination, demotion, failure to promote, pay disparities, and hostile work environments based on race. Includes overt conduct and systemic or implicit bias patterns.
Sex-based adverse employment actions, pregnancy discrimination, pay disparities, and male-dominated hierarchy structures that systematically disadvantage women.
Following Bostock v. Clayton County, Title VII protects LGBTQ employees under federal law. Oregon and Washington also provide independent state-law protections. Both federal and state tracks may be available.
Adverse employment actions based on national origin, language, immigration status in certain contexts, or ethnic background — whether overt or embedded in facially neutral policies.
Adverse action taken because you reported discrimination, raised concerns internally, supported another employee's complaint, or filed an EEOC or BOLI charge. Timing is often the most important evidence.
Severe or pervasive conduct based on protected characteristics that makes the workplace intolerable. Includes harassment, microaggressions at sufficient frequency and severity, and systemic bias embedded in workplace culture.
Public employment cases — involving government agencies, school districts, universities, and other public employers — often carry additional layers of protection and complexity that can significantly change the analysis.
Even a case that appears modest at first may be considerably more complex when these factors are involved. Public employees are often automatically elevated to a more thorough evaluation for this reason — not because public cases are always stronger, but because the full picture is almost never obvious from the initial facts alone.
A public school employee earning $52,000 per year who is wrongfully terminated at age 54 may have economic damages that include: two years of back pay, front pay through anticipated retirement, lost pension contributions and vesting, lost retiree health benefits, and compensatory damages for emotional harm. The total damages picture can be substantial even when the salary alone suggests otherwise.
State agencies, ODOT, OHA, DSHS, school districts, community colleges, universities (U of O, OSU, UW, WSU), port authorities, municipal police and fire departments, and county agencies — all subject to both federal anti-discrimination law and state civil service protections.
Retaliation is one of the most frequently charged violations in employment law — and among the most underreported. If you experienced adverse action after reporting discrimination, supporting a colleague, or raising concerns internally, you may have a standalone claim even if the underlying conduct you reported doesn't support its own case.
Timing is often the most powerful evidence in a retaliation case. When adverse action follows protected activity by days or weeks — especially when performance had been satisfactory before — courts recognize the proximity as circumstantial evidence of a retaliatory motive. Document the sequence carefully.