NYC Settles Former Agency Attorney’s Race and Gender Bias Suit

New York City settled a case with a former Department of Buildings attorney who sued the city and agency, alleging she was harassed, discriminated, and retaliated against by her supervisor because she’s a Black woman.

The case was discontinued without prejudice. Shelia Cockburn, who worked as a hearing attorney with the buildings department’s administrative enforcement unit from 2019 to 2022, has 30 days to apply to reopen the action if the “settlement is not consummated,” Judge J. Paul Oetken of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Friday.

Cockburn filed the lawsuit in January claiming ...