The Sexual Harassment of U.S Women in 1994 was of grave concern to the authorities. On September 1 a San Francisco jury awarded Rena Weeks, a former secretary at Baker & McKenzie, said to be the largest law firm in the world, a record $7.1 million in punitive damages for sexual harassment that occurred on the job. Of that total, $6.9 million was to come from Baker & McKenzie and $225,000 from Martin R. Greenstein, a former partner at the firm. A judge later cut the judgment against the firm to $3.5 million (still a record in such a case) because Baker & McKenzie did not deliberately violate the employee’s rights. The punitive damages against Greenstein were upheld, since he had, the judge said, shown ‘seriously abusive’ conduct toward women and had ‘denied or minimized his actions.’ Baker & McKenzie appealed the judgment.
In the aftermath of the 1991 Tailhook scandal, which led to harassment charges against 140 naval aviators, ex-Navy Lieutenant Paula Coughlin won $1.7 million in damages on October 28 from the Las Vegas Hilton, where the Tailhook convention of Navy fliers was held. Coughlin, who had resigned from the Navy earlier in the year, was one of more than 80 women who alleged that they had been assaulted or molested by aviators at the convention. The damage award, handed down by a U.S. district court jury, was the first verdict to result in the scandal. The jury said the hotel had failed to provide adequate security.
In another case involving the military, the Navy announced late in the year that it would court-martial four male instructors for pressuring female students to have sex. The trial was not expected to begin before 1995. From the aforementioned, the Sexual Harassment of U.S Women in 1994 never went unpunished.
