Fired for Being White? Starbucks Must Pay $25M to Manager After Racial Controversy | New Jersey Law Journal
A U.S. District Court jury in Camden, New Jersey, awarded $25.6 million to a white former Starbucks manager who claimed the company engaged in reverse discrimination when it fired her amid protests over the arrests of two Black customers.
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Who was Shannon Phillips and why was she fired?
Jurors heard Shannon Phillips' claims that she was fired because the company needed a scapegoat as it faced a public relations crisis over the racially charged incident.
Starbucks came under heavy criticism after a manager at a Philadelphia location called police to report that the two men were sitting down at the cafe without ordering anything.
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How did the arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia café impact Starbucks?
Following a six-day trial, the jury awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages and $12.5 million in punitive damages on Phillips' federal civil rights claim and another $300,000 in compensatory and $12.5 million in punitives for violations of New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination.
Senior U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who presided at the trial, will award lost back pay and future wages, and will consider a fee application at a later date.
The company claimed at trial that Phillips, a regional manager overseeing cafes in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was fired for being ineffective and absent in the period after the arrests.
But jurors also heard testimony that the employee who called police was complying with a Starbucks policy that applied to cafes in areas with crime problems.
The jury also heard testimony from a Black Starbucks manager, Paul Sykes, who was the supervisor of the employee who called 911. Sykes said Phillips, who was his boss, was fired because of her race, and he was safe because of his, according to Laura Mattiacci of Console Mattiacci in Moorestown, New Jersey, who represented Phillips.
"Shannon Phillips is very grateful that the jury saw the truth of what happened," Mattiacci said of the verdict.
Kate Oeltjen and Holly Smith of Mattiacci's firm assisted her at trial. Starbucks' lawyer, Richard Harris of Holland & Knight in Philadelphia, said he was not authorized to discuss the case. Starbucks' communications staff did not respond to a request for comment.
The arrests of the two men brought the company heavy media attention and prompted the one-day shutdown of all its U.S. stores so employees could undergo racial bias training.
The jury of five men and three women found unanimously in Phillips' favor. It deliberated after Slomsky denied Phillips' request for sanctions based on Starbucks' production, on the eve of trial, of a video from a security camera on the day of the two arrests.
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What was the outcome of the jury verdict?
Mattiacci requested the video in 2020 but did not receive it until three years later.
In September 2022, Slomsky denied Starbucks' motion to dismiss, finding that a reasonable jury could conclude that some white employees of the coffee company got unfavorable treatment based on their race.
Mattiacci said she will seek roughly $3 million for past and future lost pay, and roughly $1 million on her fee application, which will include a fee enhancement based on her decision to take a Law Against Discrimination case on contingency.