Pregnant Memphis Utility Attorney’s Disabilities Bias Win Upheld

An in-house lawyer with Memphis Light, Gas & Water can keep the more than $110,000 she was awarded for the municipal utility’s failure to allow her to work from home for 10 weeks after a doctor placed her on “modified bed rest” because of complications with her pregnancy, a federal appeals court ruled.

The Feb. 21 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit clarifies the court’s prior case law on when an employee’s physical presence in the workplace is a required “essential function” of the job for purposes of federal disability discrimination law. Going into the ...