William Phillips on Sexual Harassment, What HR Is Actually Doing

What happens when a former investment banker who restructured airlines after 9/11, flipped multimillion-dollar houses before 2008, and modeled in Milan between law school and his bar exam finally finds himself desperate at 48 with two kids and a house full of frozen equity — and ends up building the largest plaintiff-side sexual harassment and discrimination firm in New York? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with William Phillips, founder of Phillips & Associates, about what the 80% of people who never report harassment don't know about their options, why HR is not on your side and never was, and how a federal complaint drafted before a single call to the company changes everything about what happens next. Bill explains what actually drives a case from $100,000 to $3 million, why NDAs do not prevent employees from talking to a lawyer about discrimination, and why he tells every single client the same thing on day one — go get another job, we'll handle this. They also discuss the consensual relationship that ended and became a retaliation case worth a significant settlement, why a bad performance review before the termination doesn't end a harassment claim, how he built a database of 8,000 clients to value cases like no other employment lawyer in the country, and the nonprofit harassmenthelp.org and National Plaintiff's Summit he founded to share what the other 80% don't know they're missing. William Phillips is the founder of Phillips & Associates, a sexual harassment and employment discrimination firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia. He has recovered over $300 million for employees who were harassed, discriminated against, and retaliated against. Connect with William Phillips: Phillips & Associates harassmenthelp.org New York / Miami Chapters 00:00 Introduction to William Phillips 00:45 What to say to the person sitting in their car in the parking lot after it happened 01:31 The biggest misnomer — calling a lawyer doesn't mean filing a lawsuit 02:54 Why making a complaint the wrong way makes everything worse 03:32 HR is not on your side — and what to do instead 04:26 Why the harasser almost never gets sent home when HR investigates 06:37 From investment banking and mergers and acquisitions to modeling in Milan to employment law 07:44 How restructuring airlines after 9/11 taught him to negotiate everything 09:59 Real estate boom and collapse — how he ended up starting over again at 48 11:50 Working for free for a year and a half to learn discrimination law from scratch 13:29 Opening Phillips & Associates with a phone and building it like a business not a law firm 15:14 Why lawyers fail at business and why thinking like a CEO protects clients 17:05 How having $1 million invested in client cases changes the dynamic 19:08 The single most important thing to do before saying anything to HR 19:39 What evidence you actually need — and how to document things in real time 20:36 How to know if what's happening is illegal or just a terrible boss 21:39 Is the fear of being blacklisted realistic and how does the firm address it 23:26 The performance improvement plan that appears right after a complaint 24:37 NDAs and severance agreements — do they prevent you from talking to a lawyer 25:30 What drives a case from $100,000 to $3 million 27:41 From first call to resolution — the Cliff's Notes version of how a case moves 30:14 Why a team model of lead attorney, associate, and paralegal matters 31:03 How the firm evaluates whether a case is worth taking 32:42 What the defense does first and how Phillips counters it 35:10 What if the employee wasn't ideal — but it's because they were being harassed 36:23 Holiday parties, conferences, and the go along come along dynamic 37:13 The consensual relationship that ended and became a retaliation case 40:16 What the $3 to $5 million cases look like 42:27 Miami or New York — where he does his best thinking 43:07 harassmenthelp.org, the podcast, the National Plaintiff's Summit, and the books 46:33 Where Phillips & Associates can help and how to reach them #WilliamPhillips #PhillipsAndAssociates #SexualHarassmentLaw #EmploymentDiscrimination #MeToo #HarassmentHelp #TrustcastShow #WorkplaceHarassment #EmploymentLawyer #Retaliation