Goldman Sachs Group is in talks to settle a lawsuit alleging gender pay disparity, ahead of going to trial next month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Wall Street giant has discussed figures that could reach about $200 million with lawyers representing Cristina Chen-Oster and other plaintiffs in the class action, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
A representative for Goldman Sachs declined to comment. There's no guarantee that the two sides will agree on a settlement before the trial, another person said.
Resolving that case would defuse the risk that a trial could inflict further embarrassment on the bank, which has denied the allegations in the lawsuit, the industry's most prominent over gender. Attorneys suing Goldman have also tried to bring a claim of a boys' club atmosphere, though the court has said that would require individualized inquiries into incidents and didn't qualify for class treatment.
A discrimination complaint was first filed in July 2005 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Chen-Oster, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who joined Goldman in 1997 and sold convertible bonds. She was a managing director at Deutsche Bank AG by the time she was allowed to take Goldman to court in 2010.
It took another eight years for a court to let her and other women represent more than 1,400 current and former employees, though Goldman fought to send many to arbitration. The case was set to head to trial in June, almost two decades after she first complained.
