Who is Shannon Phillips? White Starbucks manager wins $25.6 million in a racial discrimination lawsuit

Shannon Phillips, a white Starbucks manager, was awarded $25.6 million after winning a lawsuit that alleged that she and other white employees were retaliated against after the controversial arrests of two Black men at a Philadelphia location in 2018.

In April 2018, a Starbucks employee in Philadelphia refused bathroom access to two Black men while they were waiting for a person to arrive for a business meeting. The staff member then called the police on the Black men after they refused to comply with the staffer’s demand that they leave the store.

The arrest caught on camera sparked nationwide protests resulting in boycotts and allegations of racism against the company. In the wake of the incident, Shannon Phillips, who worked as a Regional Director for the Starbucks chain in Philadelphia, was allegedly asked to fire a white manager from a different store despite them not being part of the arrests. Phillips alleged that the store asked her to fire multiple white employees who were not involved in the incident to recalibrate the store’s tarnished image amid the controversy.

Phillips was reportedly fired after she refused to comply with the management’s demand. In the wrongful termination lawsuit filed in the wake of her dismissal, Phillips alleged that her race played a pivotal role in her firing. The lawsuit alleged that Starbucks fired her because she was white, “in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”

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Shannon Phillips worked for Starbucks for nearly 13 years before she was fired

During closing arguments last week, Shannon Phillips’s lawyer Laura Mattiacci successfully argued that their client was offered up as a ‘sacrificial lamb’ to calm the public outrage on the heels of the Black men’s arrest. However, the company countered, saying that Phillips's firing was a result of management's decision to find someone with experience in dealing with a crisis of the magnitude they were encountering at the time.

However, a federal jury in New Jersey appeared to have agreed with the plaintiff’s argument and decided that race was a decisive factor in Phillips’ firing. The jury found that Starbucks violated federal and state anti-discrimination laws and awarded Phillips $600,000 in compensatory damages, along with $25m in punitive damages.

Shannon Phillips, who graduated from Otterbein University, has decades of experience as a manager in multiple companies, including Blockbuster store and CPI Corp. Phillips began working for Starbucks as a Regional Director in Philadelphia in 2005 and continued in the role for nearly 13 years before she was fired in 2018. Phillips currently works as Regional Director of Sales at Raymour & Flanigan Furniture and Mattresses in Philadelphia.

During the trial, Phillips’ lawyer cited testimony from a Black district manager, who was responsible for the store where the arrests took place. The manager described Phillips as a beloved employee who worked around the clock before and after the 2018 arrests.