On Wednesday morning, an ex-Blizzard employee known as Christine along with her attorney, Lisa Bloom, hosted a press conference to discuss Christine’s individual lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. The press conference took place in front of Blizzard’s offices in Anaheim, California.
Christine and Lisa Bloom file an individual lawsuit against Activision Blizzard
Christine began the press conference discussing her time at Blizzard as an employee. In her testimony, she described being subjected to rude comments about her body, unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching, and more. She described Blizzard to have a frat boy culture and said that raising her concerns with her manager led to her demotion. She ended her statement with tears in her eyes and a hope that Blizzard could restructure to help the employees that still work in the company.
After Christine had spoken, it was Lisa Bloom’s turn to take the mic. The famous lawyer is most well known for representing women in high-profile sexual assault cases. Her mother, Gloria Allred was a famous feminist lawyer. Bloom and Christine outlined a series of three demands for Activision Blizzard, including a “streamlined, fast, [and] fair process for victims,” with a compensation fund in excess of $100 million. Beyond the fund, Bloom demanded a real apology from Activision Blizzard to Christine and all of the victims that have to live with the fallout of sexual harassment. Finally, Bloom demanded that a neutral third party review the career damage that employees like Christine have endured. Bloom stated that Christine should receive the job that she was entitled to before she came out against the company’s systemic sexual harassment.
This independent lawsuit adds to the growing list that Activision Blizzard has to deal with. Over the last five months, Activision Blizzard has been sued by several governmental agencies – including, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
While most of Lisa Bloom’s statements are in line with other investigations as to Activision Blizzard’s faults, her own integrity has come into question. According to a report by Ronan Farrow at The Daily Beast, Lisa Bloom was on the side of a convicted rapist, Harvey Weinstein when he was fighting his sexual assault cases. Her support towards Weinstein is antithetical to all the other work she has done to convict sexual assaulters in several high-profile cases.
This individual lawsuit comes after Activision Blizzard is faced with its third employee walkout in the last five months. This time, protesting the firing of 12 quality assurance contractors working for Raven Software.
