"Gender Discrimination: The Evolution Continues"

Tony G. Puckett

Program will cover evolving issues in gender-based harassment and employment discrimination, including:

• What are the current court cases defining sexual harassment
• How has sexual harassment law beyond the garden variety sexual harassment cases
• Are courts recognizing sexual stereotyping cases
• Are transgender employees covered by Title VII
• How employers can deal with complaints and put themselves in a defensible position if litigation ensures
• Ways to deal with office romances,
• How dealing with any of these situations can give rise to a retaliation claim

Why is the subject significant to the HR profession?

Harassment law under Title VII expanded considerable in recent years beyond garden variety sexual harassment. The area now includes protection for same sex harassment, sexual stereotyping, sexual favoritism and sexual orientation. Several new cases have discussed these developments in the last two years.

Experience
Tony G. Puckett represents management in all aspects of labor and employment law. His practice involves counseling employers in employment issues and representing employers in discrimination cases, wrongful discharge cases, wage and hour actions, Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigations, National Labor Relations Board proceedings, union negotiations and arbitrations. In addition to representing private employers, Mr. Puckett also represents municipalities in union negotiations, arbitrations and civil rights employment actions. Mr. Puckett successfully represented several Oklahoma cities in challenging the constitutionality of the Oklahoma Municipal Employees Collective Bargaining Act.

Education
Mr. Puckett was graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in English and received his J.D., with distinction, in 19688 from the university of Oklahoma School of Law.

Publications/Presentations
Mr. Puckett is a frequent speaker at seminars and institutes on employment law, issues in the public and private sectors. Mr. Puckett presented programs at the Annual Labor Management Conference sponsored by the National Academy of Arbitrators, Southwest Region, in 2000 and 2001, and the International Personnel Management Association, Southern Region Conference, in 2001. Mr. Puckett has authored the following articles: " Supreme Court Broadens Liability for Sexual Harassment?", V. 69, No. 31, Okla. Bar Journal 2784 (8/1/98); "Supreme Court Decides Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Issue", V. 69, No. 17, Okla. Bar Journal 1465 (4/25/98); "Reviewing the State's Drug and Alcohol Testing Act", V. 29, No. 3, Oklahoma Cities and Towns (2/29/99). Mr. Puckett is also a co-author of Age Discrimination in the Workplace: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals, published by the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, and a contributing author of the Sixth Edition of How Arbitration Works, published by BNA in 2003.

Professional Organizations/Memberships
Mr. Puckett is a member of the Oklahoma County, Oklahoma (past-chair, Labor and Employment Law Section) and American Bar Associations (labor and employment law section), in addition to the Oklahoma Association of Municipal Attorneys and the Society for Human Resources Management. Mr. Puckett was a Barrister in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Inn of Court for the years 1998-2000, and is a fellow of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. Mr. Puckett is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, and The National Registry of Who's Who.

Admissions
Oklahoma 1988; U.S. District Courts for the Western, Eastern and Northern Districts of Oklahoma; U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth and Tenth Circuit; United States Supreme Court.