Legal Advocacy Fund Cases

Case History
Areta Kowal-Vern, a 52-year-old doctor with 26 years of experience as a clinician and pathologist, was recruited to Loyola University Medical Center as an assistant professor of pediatrics in August 1987. She retrained at Loyola in pathology and hematopathology from 1988 to 1992, developing expertise in her field. She became an assistant professor of pathology and pediatrics in 1992. Her work at Loyola included significant research accepted by the World Health Organization, an assistant directorship of the Hematology Laboratories, and more than 40 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Having fulfilled all job assignments and requirements for promotion, Kowal-Vern asked to be promoted to associate professor, but was told to wait until 1996, when a new chair would be instated. In December 1996 Kowal-Vern met with the chair, and noted her exclusion from hematopathology meetings, the removal of her secretary, and a notice from a younger male assistant director indicating he was now the associate director of the Hematology Laboratories. After meeting with the chair, Kowal-Vern was demoted from her laboratory directorship and replaced by two younger, less experienced males.

At the time that Kowal-Vern was employed by Loyola, there was no grievance committee at the medical center. Kowal-Vern sought legal counsel and her attorney sought to negotiate with the university in January 1997 to no avail. She filed suit in federal court one month later, alleging discrimination in the denial of promotion. Kowal-Vern received a letter of termination that March, at which time she amended her complaint to include an additional charge of retaliation. Kowal-Vern was not able to find a position for nearly two years. She eventually obtained taped and written documentation that the chairman was providing adverse references against her. Additional charges of slander and adverse references were filed against her former department chair and the university, respectively.

Kowal-Vern was one of nine individuals terminated, all of whom were over 40 years old and five of whom were women. The terminations were not part of a department downsizing; rather, the department was increased from 35 to 47 members. At the time of her termination, the department employed only one female full professor. In addition, there are no women physicians in important executive positions or committees. Female physicians represented 33 percent of the assistant professors, 24 percent of the associate professors, and 10 percent of the full professors, though two women were promoted to full professor after Kowal-Vern filed suit.

Kowal-Vern filed suit in 1998 in federal district court alleging sex discrimination, age discrimination, and retaliation. In spring 2003, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court's decision to grant the university's motion for summary judgment, which dismissed Kowal-Vern's suit in its entirety. Kowal-Vern chose not to appeal the appellate court's decision and filed a subsequent suit against the university alleging breach of contract.

Key Case Issues
Sex discrimination in the denial of promotion, age discrimination, retaliation