• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 16, 2013

Joy Noel, the Interpublic Group of Companies legal employee who sued the agency holding company for denying her job promotions based on her race, has appealed last month’s jury verdict that dismissed her complaint.

In the appeal papers filed with a New York court, Noel said she was willing to settle the case for $110 million. In the highly unlikely event that IPG would settle for that amount, Noel said she would also insist that the company issue a press release “thanking me for my many years of service as a valued IPG employee.”

That settlement sum is more than double the $50 million in damages Noel asked for in her initial complaint, filed last year. In the appeal, she alluded to stress-related maladies she believes were caused by the "hostile working environment" she was forced to endure at IPG.

The holding company's alleged "discriminatory practices, which are endemic only to black employees at IPG have currently created an unhealthy, uncomfortable, stressful and difficult environment for me to work in," Noel claimed.

“Since my case started, IPG has retaliated and made life difficult for me; but after the judgment was handed down it only got worse,” Noel said in papers filed with the court Monday. “Life at IPG has now become unbearable.”

Noel, a nearly 20-year IPG veteran, said she was “sure that IPG does not want me on the premises and those feelings are mutual.”

An IPG rep didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the appeal.

Along with her appeal, Noel asked the court to waive the normal court costs and processing fees. “Because of my poverty, I am unable to pay the costs of said proceeding,” her papers stated. She cited as assets a $650,000 home, for which she pays a $3,846 monthly mortgage. Liabilities include various bills and loans.

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