Alexa T. Milton

On October 17, 2024, U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin granted final approval of a $28.5 million proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by Relman Colfax and co-counsel the National Student Legal Defense Network against Walden University (“Walden”), a for-profit university that offers online degree programs. The lawsuit was filed on January 7, 2022 and brought claims under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and Minnesota state law. Plaintiffs alleged that Walden engaged in “reverse redlining” by intentionally targeting Black and female students for what it falsely represented to be cost- and time-effective online degree programs, but that actually amounted to an expensive predatory scheme.

On June 30, 2023, Relman Colfax filed this gender discrimination lawsuit against the Mukwonago Area School District (MASD) and its superintendent, Joe Koch, for denying Jane Doe #1, an eleven-year-old transgender girl, access to girls’ restrooms at school. (The girl’s name is being withheld to protect her privacy.) The complaint raises claims under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Equal Protection Clause.

On October 6, 2021, Relman Colfax filed a lawsuit in Indiana federal court alleging that Old National Bank engaged in lending discrimination in Indianapolis in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

In December 2020, Upstart Network (“Upstart”), the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (“LDF”), and the Student Borrower Protection Center (“SBPC”) entered into an agreement to appoint Relman Colfax to serve as an independent fair lending Monitor to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the fair lending implications of Upstart’s lending platform, and to issue a series of periodic reports on its findings and recommendations.

Led by Megan Cacace, Relman Colfax conducted a two-year Civil Rights Audit of Facebook along with civil rights and civil liberties leader Laura Murphy.  Megan and the Relman Colfax team provided analysis on the civil rights implications of the company’s policies and practices, and recommendations for improvement, and documented their findings in three public reports.

This class action lawsuit successfully challenged Wisconsin Medicaid's categorical exclusion on gender-confirming treatments for transgender beneficiaries with gender dysphoria.

In a historic victory for Ashton Whitaker, a transgender student in Wisconsin, the firm secured a landmark Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2017 recognizing that Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment protect transgender students from discrimination at school. The firm obtained an $800,000 settlement in January 2018.

Relman Colfax filed suit against the City of Peoria, alleging that the City intentionally targeted enforcement of its “chronic nuisance ordinance” in predominantly African-American neighborhoods and against buildings with predominantly African-American tenants, in violation of the Fair Housing Act. On August 31, 2020, HOPE settled its claims. Pursuant to the settlement, the City amended the ordinance and police department policies to ensure nondiscriminatory enforcement of the Ordinance and to protect tenant rights.

This Fair Housing Act lawsuit against the City of LaGrange, Georgia challenged the City's utility service policies—including denying utility services to individuals with unpaid court debt and requiring a Social Security number to obtain utilities—for having an unlawful disparate impact on African Americans and Latinos.