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A woman who worked for the National Association of Realtors filed a lawsuit this week seeking over $1 million after she said she was fired as retaliation for her complaints about sexual harassment and discrimination in the office.
The suit was filed by Roshani Sheth, who worked for NAR from May 2014 through October 2019. Sheth was a product manager for the Realtors Information Network.
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Roshani Sheth
Sheth said she made complaints about discrimination in June 2019 and was fired from the organization that October. She alleges her firing was retaliation for filing the internal complaints with senior vice president Donna Gland, talent director Linda Russell and chief legal counsel Katie Johnson.
Sheth said she received a settlement agreement that included a payment in Dec. 19, 2019 as a result of her formal complaints about discrimination and retaliation.
NAR’s “management staff made several attempts to ruin [Sheth’s] career to cause her economical and reputational harm,” the complaint says.
Some of the details of Sheth’s complaint were first uncovered in an exposé in The New York Times from August 2023 and were repeated in the complaint, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois.
In her complaint, Sheth alleges NAR engaged in several acts of retaliation after signing the settlement agreement. That included not providing neutral references to prospective employers, allowing “or encouraging” employees to cyberstalk Sheth, and sending harassing and threatening texts.
“The National Association of REALTORS® is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace,” an NAR spokesperson said in response to the complaint. “We don’t comment on matters of employment.”
According to the complaint, those texts included a message from an unknown number that included a shorthand for “kill yourself” and “rat.” She filed a police report after receiving the texts, The Times reported last year.
Sheth alleged that NAR refused to provide neutral references for Sheth, “nor even confirm she had worked for” NAR. The lack of a neutral references led Sheth to be unemployed for 14 months total since leaving NAR in late 2019, she alleged.
According to The New York Times, Sheth filed a charge of discrimination of racial and sexual harassment with the Illinois Department of Human Rights in July 2020. The Times reported that the claim was being examined by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC] last year.
Sheth said that the EEOC issued a “Right to Sue” letter in March 2024. The EEOC issues right to sue letters after closing its investigations, and recipients must file their lawsuits within 90 days of receiving the letters. Sheth’s complaint was filed June 18, on the 90th day after receiving the right to sue letter.
In 2020, Sheth opened Real Estate Legacy, a brokerage and project management firm in her hometown of Chicago.
Sheth is seeking actual damages of $200,000 and punitive damages of $1 million.
