Matthew C. Ellis, PC

Came across this article this morning about race discrimination in the banking industry against employees and clients. It's a good read, though it's pretty disturbing.

One thing I found notable as one who prosecutes these kinds of cases is that the basis for the article was that employees had secretly recorded interactions at work with the employer about the racism, and clients had done the same. That - the secret recording of in person communications - is conduct that is unlawful under Oregon law. But should it be? Telephone conversations can already be secretly recorded by a party to the conversation in Oregon and now that every smartphone contains features to record conversations, do people have a diminished expectation of privacy in "in person" interactions? Should there be an exception to the "no secret recording" rule in these kinds of circumstances (i.e. if a party has a reasonable belief that discrimination is occurring) or in all circumstances?

This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry A JPMorgan employee and a customer secretly recorded their conversations with bank employees.