After Gina Bilotti filed a lawsuit against her former employer Johnson & Johnson in December 2020 alleging she was fired for complaining about an “old boys club” culture at the company, the case has been “amicably resolved” and the suit has been dismissed.
Bilotti filed the suit seven months after leaving the company, alleging wrongful termination. She was let go after a 25-year career at the company, winning numerous awards and recognition for her work and climbing up the ladder to executive positions. In 2017, then new chief financial officer, Darren Snellgrove, “immediately” treated Bilotti in a harassing manner, telling her to “shut up,” asking “did I tell you you could talk?” and saying “fuck you, Gina,” and “obviously I need to explain this to you in words you will be able to understand,” the lawsuit alleged.
J&J’s HR department took more than a year to initiate an investigation into Snellgrove’s mistreatment, despite other complaints about him.
In 2018, Bilotti met with CEO Alex Gorsky, telling him about the discrimination she had been subject to. Gorsky said it was “a big, big problem,” but never followed up with her despite promising to. That same day, the company removed two departments from Bilotti’s responsibility. The next day, her membership on four management committees was revoked. Two days later, she was subjected to a “bogus and merciless audit” investigating her financial practices spanning five years, the lawsuit alleges.
And then, three days after her meeting with Gorsky, Snellgrove reduced Bilotti’s budget. Bilotti continued emailing Gorsky, reminding him of the company’s credo, which had been referenced heavily to her. That year, she received a pay cut of nearly $90,000, with a year-end bonus falling below the low end of the company’s target range.
Bilotti took disability leave in 2019, falling ill due to the stress of the prospect of losing her pension and medical benefits 10 months before she, a single mother, was eligible for early retirement. In 2020, when her doctor released her to return to work, Bilotti’s employment was terminated by the company.
The numerous allegations Bilotti and her attorneys at Smith Mullin PC made against the company include those of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. J&J denied the allegations, telling Law 360 in June of last year that it had investigated and considered the allegations to be without merit. Responding to the complaint, the company said that any action it took against her was based on “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons and it was not motivated in whole or in part by her gender and/or sexual orientation.” Bilotti and her lawyers argued that the company was using the same tactics it used to allegedly obscure its knowledge that its baby powder contained asbestos for decades and that J&J was trying to “cloak this case in a shroud of secrecy with its over-the-top blanket protective order.”
The case dismissal reads that the matter has been “amicably resolved” and that all claims in the case are “dismissed in their entirety without prejudice”. Smith Mullin PC, J&J and the company’s attorneys at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath did not respond to Fierce Pharma’s request for comment by the time of publication.