LVMH Sued by In-house Attorney Over Harassment and Retaliation

One of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s own in-house lawyers in New York on Tuesday accused the French luxury brand’s Stateside subsidiary of condoning another employee’s sexual harassment of her, and then retaliating against her after she reported it. LVMH denies the allegations.     Andowah Newton, who is still a vice president of legal affairs and litigation counsel at LVMH, claimed in a lawsuit filed in New York state court that a “senior-level management employee,” whom she didn’t identify in the suit or name as a defendant, had been harassing her since 2015. In its statement Tuesday, LVMH disputed her characterization of the alleged harasser’s job title, describing him instead as a “member of the company’s facilities staff.”   The suit claims the harasser hung around her office complimenting her looks even as she rebuffed him, tried to kiss her at a work event by using European greeting norms as pretext for unwanted advances, and once even physically lunged over her to reach for her phone on her desk. But it is the company’s response to her complaints that is central to the dispute. Newton claims that she “informally” reported the harassment over the course of 2015 to 2018, speaking directly to staff,

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