EEOC, TWC, quid pro quo, hostile work environment in Tarrant County.
Top 10 Sexual Harassment Lawyers in Fort Worth
Texas gives Fort Worth workers twin tracks for workplace sexual harassment: a federal Title VII claim through the EEOC and a state claim through the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division under Labor Code Chapter 21. The deadlines are different, the damages caps are different, and the strategy is different. Texas also expanded Chapter 21 in 2021 to reach employers with as few as one employee on sexual-harassment claims. The 10 firms below file these claims every week and know which track produces the better recovery.
Updated October 24, 202513 min readEditorially independent
Sexual harassment work in Fort Worth runs on two parallel statutes. Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers employers with 15 or more employees and gives you 180 days in Texas (extended to 300 days with a parallel TWC charge). Texas Labor Code Chapter 21 was expanded in 2021 (SB 45) to cover any employer (including employers of one) for sexual-harassment claims specifically, with a 300-day filing window. A lawyer who picks the wrong track or misses a deadline can shrink your case to nothing.
Every firm below is a Tarrant County and Northern District of Texas regular on the plaintiff-employee side. We weighted Texas Board of Legal Specialization labor-and-employment certifications, Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers selections, NELA Dallas-Fort Worth membership, Avvo and Justia ratings, and verified federal-court appearance history. Fees are typically contingency or contingency-with-fee-shift; we list real arrangements next to each firm.
How we picked these 10: We cross-checked published verdicts, Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers selections, Avvo and Justia ratings, peer reviews, and bar-association recognition. Firms that appeared consistently across at least two independent sources made the list. We do not accept payment for placement, and we do not write sponsored reviews. More on our methodology →
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Hutchison & Foreman, PLLC
500 E 4th St, Suite 100, Fort Worth, TX 76102Founded 1994Boutique
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, sexual harassment, civil rights
Founded in 1994 to fight for wrongfully terminated employees and victims of harassment. Susan E. Hutchison has 33+ years of employment trial experience and carries an AV Preeminent peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell. S. Rafe Foreman is a 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Trial-ready posture for federal court harassment cases.
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, sexual harassment, equal pay
Boutique employee-rights firm. Both founders Ashley Tremain and Carmen Artaza are board-certified labor-and-employment specialists by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and former board members of NELA Dallas-Fort Worth. Strong record on complex multi-count harassment cases.
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, harassment, FLSA
Drew Herrmann runs a Fort Worth labor-and-employment boutique focused on employee claims. Strong on sexual-harassment cases that also involve unpaid overtime, retaliation, or pretextual termination; the firm can run the harassment claim and the wage-and-hour claim in the same case.
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, sexual harassment, retaliation
Dallas-headquartered employee-rights firm serving the DFW Metroplex. Robert J. Wiley is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Deep federal-court experience in the Northern District of Texas. Active on the Dallas-Fort Worth NELA board.
Practice focus: Plaintiff-side employment, consumer law
One of the largest consumer law firms in Texas with 20+ offices across DFW, Houston, and Arkansas. Represents only employees in harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, FMLA, and wage-and-hour matters. Bench depth means the firm can run multiple cases against the same employer simultaneously.
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, retaliatory discharge
Long-running Fort Worth plaintiff-side employment practice. Handles harassment claims along with the firm’s broader retaliation and wrongful-discharge book. Strong fit when the harassment ended in a firing the employee believes was retaliatory.
Practice focus: Employee-side employment, wage theft, retaliation
Fort Worth plaintiff-side employment firm. Handles harassment claims along with discrimination, wage-theft, and whistleblower-retaliation matters. Long history in Tarrant County state courts as well as federal court.
Practice focus: Hostile work environment, sexual harassment
DFW-area boutique with a focus on hostile-work-environment and sexual-harassment claims. Useful for clients who want a discreet, negotiated resolution that does not name the employee in a federal docket.
Practice focus: Civil litigation including employment
Fort Worth civil-litigation firm with harassment and discrimination cases in the docket. Strong on cases that combine sexual-harassment facts with adjacent business-tort theories such as defamation in a reference, or intentional infliction of emotional distress in an extreme case.
Practice focus: Plaintiff-side civil litigation including employment
Fort Worth plaintiff-side firm with employment and personal-injury practice. Useful when the harassment has overlap with a workplace injury or comp claim; the firm can run both sides under one roof.
You have a strong evidence trail (witnesses, written statements, HR complaint records). Hutchison & Foreman, Tremain Artaza, or Herrmann Law. These cases move quickly to a pre-suit demand and settle when the evidence is documented.
You want a quiet, negotiated resolution without a federal lawsuit. Stacy Cole Law, Joeckel Law, or Tanner and Associates. Pre-suit demand and EEOC mediation are the primary tools.
The case is complex (multiple harassers, retaliation, parallel wage claims). Hutchison & Foreman, Tremain Artaza, or Bailey & Galyen. Each has the bench depth to run a multi-count federal case through discovery.
You were fired for reporting the harassment. Joeckel Law or Hutchison & Foreman. Title VII anti-retaliation provisions and the Texas Whistleblower Act are how these cases get a stronger damages number.
You want a trial-ready firm. Hutchison & Foreman or Rob Wiley. Both have actually tried federal harassment cases in the Northern District of Texas in the last five years.
The harassment involved physical contact that could be charged criminally. Anderson Cummings & Drawhorn or Stephens Law. Civil cases with criminal-tort overlap need sequencing strategy.
What sexual-harassment cases typically pay in Fort Worth
Settlement ranges. Most Fort Worth single-plaintiff harassment cases settle in the $25,000 to $250,000 range before suit. Cases that survive summary judgment and go to trial routinely settle for higher amounts. Cases with documented economic loss plus emotional-distress evidence settle higher than emotional damages alone.
Title VII damages caps. Federal caps under Title VII run from $50,000 (employers with 15-100 employees) to $300,000 (employers with 500+) for combined compensatory and punitive damages. Back pay, front pay, and attorney fees are uncapped.
Texas Labor Code Chapter 21. Texas damages caps under Chapter 21 mirror Title VII for tort-type damages, with carve-outs for economic loss. The 2021 SB 45 expansion lets you sue an employer of any size for sexual harassment specifically.
Attorney fees. Plaintiff-side employment lawyers typically work on contingency (33%-40%) or contingency-plus-fee-shift, where the employee pays a percentage but the attorney also recovers statutory fees from the employer if the case wins. Some Fort Worth firms offer a sliding hybrid. Get the structure in writing.
Costs. Filing fees, depositions, expert witnesses, and document review can total $5,000-$40,000 in a federal case. Most Fort Worth contingency firms front these and recover them at the end.
The Fort Worth sexual-harassment timeline
Week 1. Document everything. Save emails, texts, voicemails. Identify witnesses. Most employees who lose harassment cases lose because the evidence trail starts after the lawyer is hired.
Weeks 2-4. Consultation with a Fort Worth employment lawyer. Most firms on this list do a free initial call. Bring a written timeline.
Months 1-2. Lawyer files an EEOC charge (federal) and/or a TWC charge (Texas). You generally have 180 days for the EEOC in Texas, extended to 300 days with a parallel TWC charge, and 300 days for Chapter 21.
Months 2-8. EEOC or TWC investigation. Most cases settle here through agency mediation or pre-suit demand.
Months 8-10. If no settlement, the agency issues a right-to-sue letter. You have 90 days to file in federal or state court.
Months 10-22. Litigation: pleadings, discovery, depositions, summary judgment. Most cases settle in mediation between summary judgment and trial.
Months 22-28. If no settlement, trial. Most Fort Worth harassment cases that go to trial last 3-8 days.
Red flags when shopping for a Fort Worth sexual-harassment lawyer
Guaranteed verdict. Title VII cases have damages caps, summary-judgment risk, and jury variability. A firm that promises a specific number is selling, not advising.
Defense-side practice for the same employer. Ask the firm if they currently or recently represented your employer or its parent company in any matter.
Pressure to settle for nuisance value early. Some volume firms run on pre-suit settlements because they are fast. That is right for many cases and wrong for some. Make sure the recommended path matches your facts.
No understanding of the 2021 SB 45 Chapter 21 changes. Texas Chapter 21 changed substantially in 2021 for sexual-harassment claims. A lawyer working from the pre-2021 framework is a problem.
Vague fee terms. Get the contingency percentage, the cost-handling arrangement, and the fee-shift treatment in writing before you sign anything.
What is specific about sexual-harassment work in Fort Worth
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division. Federal Title VII cases for north Texas claimants are filed at the Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse at 501 W 10th Street. The judges here run tight discovery schedules; a Fort Worth lawyer who is in this courthouse regularly knows the chambers expectations.
EEOC Dallas District Office. The Dallas office handles intake for north Texas Title VII charges, with mediation slots available. Most cases that resolve at the EEOC do so at mediation, not after an investigator decides.
Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division. The TWC CRD handles state Chapter 21 charges. The 2021 SB 45 expansion made the Texas track meaningfully better for sexual-harassment plaintiffs against small employers.
2021 SB 45 Chapter 21 changes. Texas’s sexual-harassment statute was meaningfully expanded in 2021. Any employer (one or more employees) can now be sued for sexual harassment under Chapter 21. Individual liability for the harasser was also expanded. A Fort Worth lawyer who knows the new framework will tell you exactly how it applies to your case.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a sexual-harassment lawyer in Fort Worth cost?
Most Fort Worth harassment lawyers work on contingency (33%-40%) with the firm fronting filing fees, deposition costs, and expert expenses, recovering them from the settlement or judgment. Some firms offer a hybrid hourly-plus-contingency arrangement. If the case wins under Title VII or Chapter 21, the court can also award attorney fees against the employer separately. Get the structure in writing.
How long do I have to file a sexual-harassment claim in Texas?
Federal Title VII: 180 days from the harassment to file with the EEOC (extended to 300 days with a parallel TWC charge). Texas Labor Code Chapter 21: 300 days for sexual-harassment claims. File early to preserve options on both tracks.
Can I sue my supervisor personally for sexual harassment in Texas?
The 2021 SB 45 expansion allows individual liability for sexual-harassment claims under Chapter 21 in specific circumstances. Title VII generally limits liability to the employer, not the individual. Tort claims (assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress) can also reach the individual. A Fort Worth lawyer will tell you which theories fit your case.
What if my Fort Worth employer makes me sign a non-disclosure or arbitration agreement?
The federal Speak Out Act (2022) makes pre-dispute NDAs and pre-dispute arbitration clauses unenforceable for sexual-harassment and sexual-assault claims. Post-dispute agreements (signed after the conduct occurred) are still generally enforceable. Get a lawyer before you sign anything related to harassment.
Will my name be public if I file a federal sexual-harassment lawsuit?
Generally yes, but the Northern District of Texas allows pseudonymous filing in some sexual-harassment matters where the privacy interest outweighs the public’s interest in open courts. You and your lawyer will need to file a motion. EEOC and TWC charges are not public during the investigation phase.
What evidence do I need to win a sexual-harassment case in Fort Worth?
The strongest cases combine contemporaneous documentation (texts, emails, voicemails, photos), reports made to HR or management with dates, witness corroboration, and any treatment records (therapy, medical). Cases with none of these still win, but they are harder. Start documenting the moment you talk to a lawyer.
What kinds of damages can I recover?
Back pay, front pay, compensatory damages (emotional distress, therapy costs), punitive damages (with statutory caps based on employer size), and attorney fees. Total recoveries for single-plaintiff Fort Worth cases generally fall between $25,000 and $300,000+ depending on facts and employer size.
Should I report internally to HR before contacting a lawyer?
Talk to a lawyer first if you can. An internal report puts the employer on notice, which is sometimes required under Title VII to recover damages, but it can also trigger an employer-controlled investigation that shapes the evidence. A Fort Worth employment lawyer can help you sequence the internal report and the EEOC charge for the best evidence outcome.
One last thing. Choosing a lawyer is personal. Call two or three firms before you sign. Ask each one the same question: How many matters like mine have you handled in the last three years, and what is the realistic range of outcomes? The answer tells you most of what you need to know. — The LawFirmSquare team
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