ATTY. FINDS DISCRIMINATION ON MADISON AVE. By HOLLY M. SANDERS

Cyrus Mehri, who has wrung multi-million-dollar discrimination settlements from Texaco, Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley, is pushing ad agencies to change their minority hiring practices while threatening to haul them to court.
With the backing of the NAACP, Mehri announced the "Madison Avenue Project" yesterday, along with the results of a study commissioned by his firm, which found widespread discrimination against blacks.
While Mehri said he will push ad firms to change their minority hiring and pay practices, his firm, Mehri & Skalet, is also investigating claims of discrimination.
"We are interviewing members of the industry and are building a case brick by brick," Mehri said.
Legal experts said it will be tough to bring a class-action suit against the entire industry. Mehri would have to show a pattern of discrimination across the major agency holding companies, including WPP, Interpublic, Omnicom and Publicis. More likely, Mehri would bring a suit on behalf of plaintiffs against individual agencies or firms.
"I would be surprised if there was enough evidence to indict the entire industry," said Paul Secunda, an associate law professor at Marquette University.
Mehri was the lead attorney for the Women on Wall Street project in 2004, which won a $47 million settlement against Morgan Stanley in 2007.
The New York City Commission on Human Rights examined minority hiring practices in advertising in 1967 and again in 2004 and found them lacking both times. In 2006, the commission reached an agreement with several big ad agencies to establish minority hiring and promotion goals. One third of the reporting agencies missed one or more goals.
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