Civil Rights, Discrimination and Working Family Representation

For over 25 years, Greg Hecht has been representing individuals and working families to protect their civil rights and against discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and other grounds provided under the law.

Greg’s first civil rights and the case against race discrimination case was over 25 years ago brought on behalf of the highest-ranking Black female officer in a Metro Atlanta county police department. She was subject to racial slurs and being constantly moved around from one shift to another while she had a young child at home, all in an effort to make her quit because she spoke out about discrimination. At the same time, Greg represented a Black male narcotics officer who was subject to similar race discrimination in the same department. After 2 years of litigation, deposing every county commissioner in that county and gaining over 15 affidavits showing discrimination, that suburban county finally settled with both plaintiffs. Twenty-five years later, that brave female trailblazer is the new incoming Chairperson of the Henry County Commission, which is the same county that discriminated against her 25 years earlier.

Hoping for change but continuing to fight, Greg has seen ups and downs in civil rights and anti-discrimination progress. Unfortunately, over the last four (4) years, he has seen a dramatic uptick in discrimination and civil rights violations. From 2018 to 2020, Greg represented nine (9) Black female employees who were fired on the same day and were subject to disparate treatment and racially charged remarks.

Twenty-five years ago, Greg was lead counsel in a wrongful shooting case against the City of Atlanta, where two (2) white officers chased down, shot, and killed a Black teenager who ran from them. No gun or weapon was found near or around the teenager. Witnesses said that the young man did not have a gun or weapon. These officers had been involved in over ten (10) prior to shootings. Greg has worked with many law enforcement officers as a prior Assistant District Attorney to protect victims from violent crimes, as well as in wage and hour cases. When Greg asked other officers about the number of prior shootings, many told him they had never pulled their guns during their entire careers and were shocked at the number of prior shootings. Greg deposed former Mayor Maynard Jackson during that case who was courageous during his testimony and helped explain some of the tragic practices back during that time. After two years of litigating and a motion for sanctions against the City for providing the wrong use of force policy during the entire litigation, the City settled. Some new practices were later put in place.

In addition to his civil rights and anti-discrimination work, Greg has represented numerous working Georgians on harassment and wage and hour violations. He has represented many women on sexual harassment and gender discrimination cases. He has represented Georgians on national original discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, and disability discrimination cases.

In addition, he has represented many law enforcement officers in Georgia against local governments who have refused to pay for roll call periods. He has fought for working Georgians for over 30 years.

Greg believes in equal justice under the law, stopping hate and discrimination, and extending love. Greg believes that we need to address racism from the ground up by listening to one another, learning from one another, and extending love to one another.