In April, Goldman Sachs, whose building is picturedhere, asked to weed out the majority of the women in the class,citing arbitration agreements they signed. (Photo:Shutterstock)

(Bloomberg) –Women suing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in one of the era'sbiggest Wall Street gender-discrimination lawsuits asked a federaljudge this week to stop the bank from forcing more than 1,000 ofthem into arbitration.

Lawyers for the group argue that Goldman has waited too manyyears to now try to push them out of open court andinto the closed-off system of arbitration. Theycite their case's 755 docket entries, 376 discovery requests, 100letters to the court, 44 motions, 33 days of depositions and 20expert reports. Goldman said in a separate filing that arbitrationis standard on Wall Street.

Cristina Chen-Oster, a former vice president at the bank, fileda preliminary complaint against Goldman in July 2005 — and lastyear a judge allowed her and co-plaintiffs torepresent as many as 2,300 other current and former employees.

“It is no coincidence that Goldman's last-ditch effort todismantle the class came after it lost” the fight over classcertification, her lawyers wrote in the new filing. They claim thatthe bank pays women less because of bias.

Goldman has said it's vigorously defending the firm against whatit believes are meritless accusations. In April, the bank asked toweed out the majority of the women in the class, citing arbitrationagreements they signed — a kind of promise not to sue. Inanother filing this week, lawyers for Goldman said the women“ignore that arbitration of employment disputes has long been astandard business practice across the financial servicesindustry.”

This month, the Goldman women won access to personnel files andrelated information for 32 male peers in their fight to provebias.

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