July 29, 2025
Harini Srinivasan of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC secured a $45 million settlement on behalf of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who claimed pregnancy discrimination and also challenged AT&T’s attendance point system, earning her a spot among the employment law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
Her biggest case:
Srinivasan noted that one of her largest cases is Cynthia Allen et al. v. AT&T Mobility Services LLC , which she has been litigating in a Georgia federal court for six years since joining the firm.
In that case, two women lodged a suit challenging AT&T’s automated attendance policy that would assign employees points for every time they were absent or late, and once a certain number of points were reached, they would face termination, Srinivasan said.
Srinivasan explained that the system would not assign points if employees were late for certain reasons, but those reasons excluded pregnancy and morning sickness, resulting in the two lead plaintiffs being eventually terminated.
The case has been “the most rewarding client-relationship I have ever had,” Srinivasan said.
“These are women who are often just so excited about being at the beginning of starting their families and then it turns into sheer terror that they’re about to lose their jobs, lose the livelihood that’s going to support that family,” Srinivasan said.
While the two lead plaintiffs have reached a confidential settlement with AT&T, an intervening plaintiff is proceeding with her claims, Srinivasan explained.
Other notable cases:
The administrative case at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that led to a $45 million settlement for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who claimed the agency forced them to light duty once they became pregnant was a remarkable one, Srinivasan said.
She explained that in that case, a group of women claimed that once they made it known they were pregnant, not only would their duty change, their bosses would tell them that “they were a liability and … made to feel like their pregnancy was a barrier [for] them being able to do a job they had trained hard for.”
The settlement also led to CBP changing its employment policies, allowing women to decide if and when they wanted to go on light duty while pregnant, Srinivasan noted.
“There’s no requirement that you have to stay in active duty all the way up until the day you give birth, but it really should be up to them and their doctor to be making that determination, not their boss,” Srinivasan added.
Srinivasan said that another case that she has found particularly meaningful is a lawsuit lodged against the Salvation Army in Illinois federal court in 2022. There, five adults who enrolled in the Salvation Army’s rehabilitation centers are claiming they worked 40 hours a week, usually for the benefit of the organization’s thrift store, without getting paid minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“It’s just such an interesting and important case because these are incredibly vulnerable people, people on the brink of houselessness, or who’ve been in and out of incarceration, … and have been marginalized in so many ways,” Srinivasan said.
Her proudest moment:
For Srinivasan, her proudest moment happened in 2023, when the Seventh Circuit denied a group of staffing agencies’ bid to dismantle a class of about 13,500 Black workers who claimed they were not hired because of their race.
“There’s really nothing like the moment when the law catches up to the harm,” Srinivasan said, adding that she still remembers when the appeals court decision came in.
“It really affirmed that the discrimination happening through these staffing agencies is no less real or unlawful than if it was happening from a direct employer,” Srinivasan said.
The case eventually headed back to an Illinois federal court, which signed off on a $6 million settlement in April 2024, court records indicate.