Nonprofit Law Group Sues Wal-Mart

The Impact Fund, a nonprofit group in Berkeley, Calif., is attracting attention through a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that could soon become the largest employment discrimination class-action case to go to trial, The National Law Journal reports.

Wal-Mart will appeal a federal appeals court decision that this month granted the case status as a class-action, said Theodore J. Boutrous, the company’s chief counsel on appeal.

The Impact Fund is working with other nonprofit groups and for-profit law firms on a case charging the company with discriminating against women. It is also working on a handful of other class-action lawsuits.

The Impact Fund was founded by Brad Seligman, who spent 11 years at a traditional law firm in Oakland, Calif. He says he made so much money representing people in class-action lawsuits that he wanted to find a way to give some away.

At first he wanted to create a fund that would help lawyers whose clients could not afford to pay for the research needed to pursue a big lawsuit. But then he said he realized it wasn’t just lack of money that held lawyers back, but lack of understanding of how to pursue such cases—so he set up an organization that could provide such counsel.