“Our best work gives a voice to each client who opposes discrimination in the workplace and takes a stand against being judged on anything other than individual merit at work or at school.”

Linda M. Correia

Linda M. Correia is a civil rights attorney who has represented employees in employment discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower cases for 29 years.  A founding member of Correia & Puth, PLLC, Ms. Correia has focused her practice on cases involving sex discrimination, sexual harassment, race discrimination, pregnancy discrimination,  disability discrimination, and retaliation, and Title IX, under state and federal civil rights statutes. She also counsels employees on executive compensation agreements and in severance negotiations.

Ms. Correia is a nationally recognized Title IX lawyer who has extensive experience advocating for coaches and other employees who have lost their jobs in retaliation for their advocacy for gender equity for their student athletes and other students.  She also has represented students and employees who have faced sex discrimination or sexual harassment or retaliation at school, and helped her clients hold educational institutions accountable for their failure to ensure that discrimination did not interfere with their right to equal educational opportunity.

Super Lawyers ranks Ms. Correia as one of the top 50 women lawyers in Washington, D.C. Best Lawyers has recognized Ms. Correia as among the highest peer-rated plaintiff employment lawyers in the Washington, D.C. area since 2009 and as “Lawyer of the Year” in 2020 among Civil Rights lawyers.  Washingtonian Magazine also selected Ms. Correia among its “Top Lawyers” for more than a decade. Ms. Correia also is ranked among the Law Dragon 500 for her work in employment law.

Ms. Correia currently serves as First Vice President of the National Employment Lawyers Association, and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2014.  She served as President of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association from 2004 to 2007, where she continues to serve on the Board of Directors.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Foundation, and the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Representative Cases:

• Achieved settlement on behalf of six Howard University students who were sexually assaulted or raped and alleged that the University’s response interfered with their ability to complete their education.
• Settled a Title IX retaliation and sex discrimination case against the University of North Florida for $1.25 million on behalf of a women’s basketball coach.
• Successfully negotiated the $3.4 million settlement of a Title IX retaliation case against Florida Gulf Coast University.
• Achieved reinstatement of a high school lacrosse coach who had been fired after advocating for her players’ rights under Title IX.
• Helped resolve retaliation claims of employees at the University of Oregon who took a stand regarding UO’s handling of confidential records in a student sexual assault case.
• Represented a witness in litigation against Florida State University alleging sexual misconduct by a football player.
• Settled claim of an employee who exposed sexual misconduct at a private high school in Baltimore, Maryland, successfully overcoming an asserted religious exemption under Title IX.

In 2000, Ms. Correia served as co-counsel to the plaintiff class in Hartman v. Powell, a gender discrimination class action that garnered a settlement in the amount of $508 million, the largest award in the history of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  She shared the 2000 Trial Lawyer of the Year award presented by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for her work on this landmark case.

In 2017, Ms. Correia was inducted into the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, composed of the most accomplished members of the labor and employment law community nationwide. In 2013, the Women’s Caucus of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington D.C. honored Ms. Correia for “exemplary leadership as a committed advocate on behalf of injured women” and as a “champion for the advancement of women trial lawyers.”  In 2009, the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association honored Ms. Correia as its Lawyer of the Year, largely for her role in the Title IX retaliation case against Florida Gulf Coast University. The D.C. Employment Justice Center honored Ms. Correia with its William K. Anderson, Esq. Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award in 2008 “for helping the EJC to secure, protect and promote workplace justice.”

Ms. Correia is a frequent lecturer on litigation strategy and employment litigation issues, and she has taught Pretrial Litigation at the Washington College of Law of the American University. She was twice selected to serve on a D.C. Superior Court Task Force to developing model employment law jury instructions. She is rated by Martindale-Hubbell as “AV Preeminent”, the highest attorney peer review rating.

Ms. Correia earned her undergraduate degree from Boston University in 1985, and she graduated from the Washington College of Law of the American University in 1991, where she has since taught Pretrial Litigation. Ms. Correia is a member of the Bar of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.