An ongoing dispute between a former Suns employee and the team has made its way to court.
Andrea Trischan, the team’s former program manager of diversity, equity, and inclusion for 10 months between September 2022 and July 2023, is suing the organization alleging harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination. In the lawsuit, she also alleges financial misconduct, sexual misconduct, and racial discrimination by current and past team executives.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. The suit, which was reviewed by Front Office Sports, is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial. A Suns spokesperson told ESPN that Trischan is seeking $60 million. A Suns spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sheree Wright, Trischan’s attorney, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Trischan joined the organization in 2022, just days after an ESPN story detailed a toxic workplace environment in the team offices, which started with former owner Robert Sarver. The report detailed instances of Sarver using racially insensitive language around employees, misogynistic behavior, and included a story of him pantsing an employee. In September 2022, the NBA suspended Sarver for one year after its own investigation and fined him $10 million. Sarver sold the team to mortgage lending tycoon Mat Ishbia for $4 billion in February 2023.
In her role, Trischan was supposed to help address the workplace issues the ESPN report highlighted under Sarver, one of which was an NBA requirement that the team improve its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the lawsuit states.
Roughly two months into her job, Trischan alleges the team was creating a diversity council without her approval. Multiple members of the council were team executives named a month later in a follow-up ESPN story, who allegedly contributed to the toxic workplace culture under Sarver. Some of those executives were then-team president and CEO Jason Rowley; EVP and chief revenue officer Dan Costello; Kyle Pottinger, who was SVP of ticket sales and service; and Melissa Goldenberg, then the team’s general counsel. Pottinger and Goldenberg have recently departed the organization, according to ESPN.
The lawsuit said Trischan made the connection between the executives in question and the second ESPN story, and she had multiple employees express “specific concerns” about some of the executives’ behavior, including Costello’s, who the suit states allegedly hindered the promotion of Black employees in favor of those who aligned with his views.
Trischan said she took her concerns to Suns’ human resources head Kim Corbitt, her direct supervisor, about the executives named in the ESPN story. Corbitt “directly discouraged” Trischan from investigating claims of misconduct against team executives and said they were on the diversity council to “reshape their image,” the suit says.
She was placed on an employee improvement program in late May 2023 and was fired two months later. After she was terminated, Trischan filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Arizona Attorney General’s office’s civil rights division. The complaint with the state attorney general’s office was dismissed on Nov. 5 because the “information obtained is not sufficient to establish violations,” according to ESPN. The dismissal noted it wasn’t concluding whether the Suns did or didn’t violate any laws. (When asked for comment, the Arizona AG’s office told FOS it does not comment on civil rights investigations.)
Trischan and the Suns previously tried to settle the dispute through mediation, but no agreement was reached.
