Sex Assault in the Workplace

Harassment risk is not evenly distributed. Finance, media and fashion, healthcare, hospitality and law each concentrate power in ways that make misconduct easier to commit and harder to report. This guide explains the patterns by sector, the freelancer trap, and why industry context strengthens rather than weakens a claim.

Verbal and visual harassment is the hardest type to raise, because it is so often defended as a joke. This guide explains when comments, jokes, images and group chat content cross into unlawful harassment, why conduct not aimed at you personally can still count, and how the standard differs in New York.

Physical harassment is treated more seriously than verbal conduct, and a single incident of unwanted touching can be enough to support a claim. This guide explains where the line falls, why you may have tort claims against the individual alongside your employment claim, and what to do immediately after it happens.

Sexual harassment does not require that the harasser and the victim be of different sexes, and it does not require sexual desire as a motive. From Oncale to Bostock, this guide explains how federal law protects same-sex and LGBTQ+ employees, and where New York and New Jersey go considerably further than Florida.

Harassment at a holiday party, a conference, a client dinner, or on business travel can still be workplace harassment. The test is not whether it happened in the office but whether it was connected to work. This guide explains the connection factors, the settings where it most often occurs, and the evidence that proves these cases.

The law on silencing harassment victims has changed substantially. The federal Speak Out Act limits pre-dispute NDAs, New York requires that confidentiality be the complainant's own preference, and New Jersey makes concealment provisions unenforceable against employees. This guide explains what you can still say and what to check before signing.

Retaliation is a standalone legal claim that can succeed even when the underlying harassment claim does not. This guide explains what counts as protected activity, the broad range of employer actions that qualify as retaliation, how causation is proven, and why timing is so often the decisive evidence.

The customer is not always right. Employers can be held liable for sexual harassment by clients, customers, patients, guests, and vendors when they knew or should have known and failed to protect their staff. This guide covers the legal standard, the industries where it happens most, and what an adequate employer response requires.

When a co-worker rather than a supervisor is the harasser, employer liability turns on a negligence test: did the company know or should it have known, and did it act. This guide explains what counts as notice, what a proper response looks like, and why the employer's reaction is often the real issue in these cases.

Harassment by a supervisor, partner, or executive triggers the heaviest employer liability in employment law, but it is also the hardest to report. This guide explains the Faragher-Ellerth framework, who legally counts as a supervisor, why HR is often compromised, and how to protect yourself when the harasser controls your career.