Dumas & Vaughn partner Ashley Vaughn was recently awarded the Arthur H. Bryant Public Justice Award by the Oregon Trials Lawyers Association. This prestigious award is only awarded once a year. Ashley received the award as one of a group of four female attorneys who represented women who had been sexually harassed at the Oregon Legislature over the past few years. Their case led to the resignation of Senator Jeff Kruse, policy and law changes relating to the processing of harassment and discrimination changes at the Oregon Legislature, and a $1.3 million settlement on behalf of the survivors.
Sen. Sara Gelser shed public light on Sen. Kruse’s long history of harassment when she made a complaint and publicized the Legislature’s failure to adequately respond to complaints of harassment and discrimination in the capitol. In 2017, Sen. Gelser was featured in TIME magazine with other women as the 2017 “Person of the Year,” as one of the “Silence Breakers” who spearheaded the #metoo movement.
Significantly, as noted by the Oregonian, “[t]he list of reforms the Legislature agreed to implement is long. In addition to creating a new Equity Office to handle complaints, lawmakers agreed to conduct regular surveys of the workplace climate in the Capitol and conduct exit interviews of all interns, pages and volunteers. The Legislature will also mandate that supervisors in the Capitol report all non-confidential complaints and implement recommendations by the Oregon Law Commission to protect reporters, complainants and respondents.”
Ashley is honored to have been a part of this important case and the changes that resulted from it. She is also honored to have received the Public Justice Award from OTLA, an organization that is committed to securing justice for victims of torts in Oregon.
Read more about the case in The Oregonian.
If you believe you have been the victim of workplace harassment and would like to speak with an attorney, send Ashley a confidential message.