What counts as retaliation under the New York City Human Rights Law?

Who does this apply to?

Anyone who opposed discrimination, filed a complaint, testified or helped in an investigation, or requested a reasonable accommodation (Admin. Code § 8-107(7)).

The rules

• “In any manner.” Retaliation need not result in “an ultimate action” or “a materially adverse change,” but must be “reasonably likely to deter a person from engaging in protected activity” (§ 8-107(7)).
• Any person. The rule applies to “any person,” so an individual manager can be liable for retaliating (§ 8-107(7); Doe v Bloomberg L.P., 36 N.Y.3d 450, 459 (2021)).

What courts have said

In Albunio v City of New York, 16 N.Y.3d 472, 477–79 (2011), a police commander defended an officer her superior was hostile to because he perceived him as gay, saying he “was the better candidate.” The Court of Appeals upheld her retaliation verdict: a jury could find she opposed discrimination without saying so in those words. In Mihalik v. Credit Agricole Cheuvreux North America, Inc., 715 F.3d 102, 115–16 (2d Cir. 2013), the Second Circuit held that rejecting a supervisor’s advances and telling him his conduct was “offensive and shameful” could be protected opposition. The limit: in Williams v New York City Hous. Auth., 61 A.D.3d 62, 71–72 (1st Dep’t 2009) the claim failed because coworkers who had not complained got the same assignments.

What should I gather?

• What you said or did, to whom, and when, and any written version of it.
• What changed afterwards, and when.
• How people who had not complained were treated.