Janette Wipper is a Partner in the New York office of Sanford Wittels & Heisler, LLP.
Ms. Wipper has extensive experience advocating on behalf of civil rights complainants in the areas of employment discrimination, environmental justice, and voting rights. Her litigation victories include class action settlements in Washington Park Lead Committee v. U.S. EPA, et al., which successfully relocated an African American community from a racially segregated housing development located on a Superfund site. Ms. Wipper also litigated and won Hernandez, et al. v. C&S Wholesale Grocers, which recovered $14 million in unpaid overtime wages for over 12,000 low-wage workers in six states. Ms. Wipper has also represented non-profit organizations as amici curiae in a number of cases affecting civil rights complainants in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Wipper will be overseeing the San Francisco office beginning later this year.
Ms. Wipper currently serves as class counsel in Bellifemine, et al. v. Sanofi-Aventis U.S., a national class action on behalf of 6000 women who allege gender discrimination in compensation and promotion practices at the company. The parties have reached a class settlement, which is before the Court for approval.
Before joining SWH in 2006, Ms. Wipper served as a civil rights attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Wipper worked as an advocate with Acción Ecológica in Ecuador.
