Charles E. Guerrier was born and raised in the northern steel town of Youngstown, Ohio. After attending college and law school in Cleveland, he remained in that city to practice law. Upon graduation from law school he helped establish the Sex Discrimination Clinic (now the Fair Employment Practice Clinic) at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. Then, in 1973, he joined Women's Law Fund, Inc., the first not-for-profit organization in the country to provide support and representation to plaintiffs in gender discrimination cases. During his tenure with Women's Law Fund, he served as Staff Attorney and, in 1978, became the Executive Director. In this position he worked with nationally known feminist litigators including the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The first case supported by Women's Law Fund was LaFleur v. Cleveland Board of Education (1974), in which the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional mandatory pregnancy leave policies applicable to teachers. Subsequent cases opened all aspects of police work to women in both Cleveland and Atlanta. While with Women's Law Fund, Mr. Guerrier devoted much of his time to enforcing Title IX and its promise of equal educational opportunity without regard to sex. He filed the first federal court action to enforce Title IX and later wrote the first section-by-section analysis of Title IX and its regulations for use by Title IX coordinators in applying the law.
From 1973 until 1999, Mr. Guerrier was an Adjunct Professor of Law at his alma mater, Case Western Reserve University. He taught courses on sex discrimination and employment law.
Mr. Guerrier joined the Cleveland District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1983 and remained with the EEOC until 2012. During his career he served in various capacities, including Senior Lead Trial Attorney and Regional Attorney. While with the EEOC, he litigated cases across the country, including in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, and Washington.
Mr. Guerrier retired from the EEOC in 2012, at which time he joined Haynes & Haynes, P.C., as Of Counsel.
Practice Areas
Constitutional and Civil Rights
Employee Rights
Race Discrimination
Sex and Gender Discrimination
Age Discrimination
Disability Discrimination
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Federal Civil Procedure
Appellate and Supreme Court Practice
Education
Adelbert College, Western Reserve University, B.A., 1969
Franklin Thomas Backus School of Law, Case Western Reserve University, J.D., 1972
Current Bar Admissions
The Supreme Court of the United States, 1976
The Supreme Court of Ohio, 1972
The Supreme Court of Alabama, 2013
The Northern District of Ohio, 1973
The United States Court of Appeals for the
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1975
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2013
The Northern District of Alabama, 2013
The Middle District of Alabama, 2013
During his career, Mr. Guerrier has also represented parties in over 25 different federal district courts and courts of appeal.
Reported Cases of Interest
Ball v. Brown, 450 F.Supp. 4 (N.D. Ohio 1977) (practice of cancelling woman's voter registration from upon marriage violative of federal voting rights act)
Collins v. Koch Foods, Inc., 2022 WL 1741775 (11th Cir. 2022) (vacating remittitur of damages and awarding full back pay to victim of discrimination).
Hardin v. Stynchcomb, 691 F2d 1364 (11th Cir. 1982) (Fulton County Sheriff's practice of restricting positions open to female deputies violated Title VII).
Smith v. City of Pelham, 2021 WL 5863412 (11th Cir. 2021) (surreptitious forensic search of computer by Chief of Police could constitute adverse employment action and retaliation).
Stevens v. Califano, 448 F.Supp. 1313 (N.D. Ohio 1978), affirmed, 443 U.S. 901, 99 S.Ct. 3091 (1979) (declaring the Aid To Families With Dependent Children - Unemployed Fathers program to be unconstitutional and extending the program to families with unemployed mothers).
Yellow Springs Exempted Village School Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. Ohio High School Athletic Ass'n, 647 F.2d 651 (6th Cir. 1981) (state high school association rule prohibiting coeducational teams in certain contact sports was more restrictive than Title IX and would be enjoined).
Current and Past Memberships and Associations
Alabama State Bar Association
Alabama Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section
(former Chair and Member)
Birmingham Bar Association
National Employment Lawyers Association
National Employment Lawyers Association - Alabama Affiliate
(former President, Treasurer and Member)
National Coalition for Sex Equity in Education, (Honorary Lifetime
Member, 1980)
President Carter's Advisory Committee For Women (Member and
Co-Chair of Administrative Committee) (1979-1981)
Governor's Task Force For The Implementation of the Equal Rights
Amendment (Ohio) (1974-1975) (Chair of Employment
Committee; Co-Chair of Insurance Committee)
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (Board Member, 1986-1998)
Auditing Committee (Chair 1990); Personnel Committee
(Member); Nominating Committee (Chair and Member)
Cuyahoga County Bar Association (1975-2001)
Federal Courts Committee (Member); Ethics Committee (Chair
and Member); Civil Liberties Committee (Vice-Chair and Member);
Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (Member); Continuing
Legal Education Committee (Member)
Shaker Heights, Ohio, Human Relations Commission (Member
1992 - 1996)
American Jewish Congress - Ohio Region; Commission on Law and Social
Action (Member, 1991 - 1995)
Publications
"Title IX and the Achievement of Equal Educational Opportunity: A Legal Handbook", (1980)(116 pages)(published through the United States Department of Education).
"State Protective Legislation: Good Faith Compliance or Convenient Discrimination", 1 Employee Relations Law Journal 452 (1976).
"Civil Rights by Default", 24 Clev. St. Law Rev. 62 (1975)(with B. Besser).
"Choice of Forum", a chapter in a handbook on Title VII litigation for practitioners, published by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education of the University of Michigan (1974).
“Make Your CLEs A Holiday,” Birmingham Bar Bulletin, Summer 2021.
Presentations
Over his career Mr. Guerrier has frequently been called upon to speak on various topics. He has spoken more than 200 times at local, state, or national conferences on topics involving sex discrimination in education, employment law, constitutional law, and federal jurisdiction and procedure. While continuing to speak on these topics, more recently Mr. Guerrier has been developing seminars which integrate the arts, history, philosophy and the law. Examples include Freedom of Expression: From ‘La Gazette de France' to the Johnson Amendment, and Why Does Winning Seem So Hard?: Applying John Lewis Gaddis' On Grand Strategy To Litigation. He is currently working on a seminar involving the Oresteia and the foundations of the Western system of public justice.