Glenn Schlactus

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.

In late 2021, State Street Corporation (State Street) hired Relman Colfax to complete an independent civil rights audit. The audit examined State Street’s business policies, practices, products, and services from a civil rights perspective. The final audit report was published on May 30, 2023.

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.

This lawsuit, brought on behalf of Amber Reineck House, its founder and President, Courtney Atsalakis, and the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, alleges that the City of Howell and its employees discriminated against people with disabilities by engaging in a concerted effort to prevent Amber Reineck House from opening a sober living home for women.

This lawsuit, brought under the Fair Housing Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504, and state law, challenged the Dallas Housing Authority’s cancellation of project-based housing subsidies that would have permitted adults with disabilities to live in integrated homes in the community.

In this Fair Housing Act lawsuit against a Virginia landlord, which challenged a racially discriminatory policy of rejecting all applicants with criminal backgrounds, the defendant agreed to adopt a new policy to ensure equal access to its properties.

Relman Colfax represents plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit against an Indianapolis realty company for operating a predatory and discriminatory rent-to-own scheme in the Indianapolis area. 

In this groundbreaking lawsuit, Relman Colfax challenged Santander Bank's poor record of mortgage lending in minority neighborhoods in Providence, Rhode Island. 

In 2013, in the first reverse redlining case filed against a for-profit school in the country for engaging in deceptive practices to encourage low-income African-American students to take out large federal student loans for an education that the school knew was inadequate, the firm obtained a $5 million settlement for a class of over 4,000 members. 

This First Amendment and race discrimination case challenged a county government’s dismissal of three doctors who were outspoken opponents of budget cuts that impacted a public hospital serving the predominantly African-American population on the south side of Chicago.