She says her reviews were wrong - and the company refused to fix them
A former Eli Lilly executive medical director alleges the drugmaker built a performance case against her and then fired her after she complained of discrimination.
The lawsuit was filed on July 27, 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. According to the filing, the plaintiff - a Black woman in her fifties and a physician - was hired in April 2022 as an executive medical director in Eli Lilly's neuroscience business unit. She alleges race and sex discrimination, a hostile work environment, and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
The complaint turns largely on HR process: performance reviews, a disputed improvement plan, a 360-degree assessment, and an internal investigation. For HR teams, the allegations center on familiar functions - how reviews are documented, how internal complaints are handled, and how a performance improvement plan is applied.
At the center of the filing is the allegation that the company relied on feedback the plaintiff says was inaccurate and then declined to correct it. According to the complaint, when she challenged her second-quarter feedback in May 2025, her direct supervisor acknowledged the feedback likely contained inaccuracies but did not amend it, describing the errors as "low hanging fruit" that could later be used to show improvement. The filing says she was also told...
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