The POWER 30: Matthew Alan Frank

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That’s the view of Minneapolis attorney Matthew Alan Frank at Nichols Kaster and also president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association.

The pandemic has raised some new variations of potential claims for discrimination or retaliation for protected activity including advocating for a safe workplace or pursuing the right to remain away from the job site, Frank said. He notes that Minn. Stat. sec. 144.419 protects employees from retaliation for being in quarantine or for having to care for a person in quarantine, and provides for damages including attorney fees.

Another possible avenue of relief afforded by the Minnesota Human Rights Act is pertinent to the Black Lives Matter and other racial movements. Minnesota Statute 363A.12 makes it an unfair discriminatory practice to discriminate against any person in the access to, admission to, full utilization of or benefit from any public service because of race or other protected status. Frank believes it could provide a tool for those opposing discrimination in law enforcement. “You can’t retaliate [against an employee] for opposing conduct that is forbidden by the MHRA,” he said.

Frank has a number of important cases under his belt. One is Conlon v. Surly Brewing Co., a Fair Labor Standards Act where he and Steven Andrew Smith (see page 18) established that employees could not be forced to pool their tips and procured a $2.5 million settlement for the class. He was a principal brief drafter in Friedlander v. Edwards Lifesciences, which said that a whistleblower acts in good faith under the statute when the report is not reckless or knowingly false.

Frank and David Schlesinger (see page 18) are working with Gender Justice in JayCee Cooper v. Powerlifting USA Powerlifting Minnesota because they believe their client has been barred from powerlifting because she is a transgender woman. The case is brought under the MHRA and is venued in Ramsey County but It is early days yet.

Frank once asked a lawyer what he was most proud of, and the lawyer said it was his lawsuit where McDonald’s got rid of metal slides that were burning children.
It’s likely that he will succeed in his quest to have an answer like that.