Monique Gougisha Doucette

Practice Areas

Employment Law, Litigation, Workplace Investigations and Organizational Assessments, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

Career

Monique joined Ogletree Deakins in 2009 and is a shareholder in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has over 20 years of experience handling and managing employment litigation with a concentration on complex discrimination, harassment and whistleblower claims for clients in a variety of business sectors including construction, energy, banking, and hospitality. She is also a trusted adviser for clients on workplace misconduct and sexual harassment issues, and she provides engaging, customized workplace respect/anti-harassment training for employers.

Monique is the chair of the firm’s Workplace Investigations and Organizational Assessments Practice Group. She leads internal investigations of critical, and often sensitive and high profile, issues for firm clients. These include investigations of complex matters involving claims of pattern/practice discrimination, systemic inequity in workplace practices, executive misconduct, sexual assault, and unconscious bias. Monique has assisted clients in various industries with organizational and cultural impact assessments, mitigating brand-altering crisis, and developing strategic action plans based on investigative findings. She also trains HR personnel on best practices for handling investigations. Monique’s experience includes:

Investigating allegations of systemic discrimination and mistreatment of women and people of color, including pay and promotional inequity, at a global information company.

Investigating highly sensitive onsite and offsite sexual assault claims by employees at a global entertainment company.

Investigating “cultural impact” workplace claims such as pattern and practice discrimination, institutional inequity, “good old boy” culture, and cultures of fear and retaliation by employees at a national engineering company.

Investigating allegations of systemic discrimination involving promotional inequities, tokenism, micro-aggressions and misogyny at a nationally recognized non-profit organization.

Investigating claims of ongoing and rampant sexual harassment by department leaders of a local municipality.

Investigating claims of improper and discriminatory hiring practices based on perceived “diversity requirements” at a consumer finance company.

Professional Memberships

National Bar Association (Labor and Employment Section)

American Bar Association (Management Liaison, Equal Opportunity in the Legal Profession committee, Labor & Employment Law Section; Employment Rights & Responsibilities committee, Labor & Employment Law Section)

American Inns of Court (New Orleans, A.P. Tureaud Chapter)

Louisiana State Bar Association

New Orleans Bar Association

National Employment Law Council