Paul C. Sprenger is an American attorney. One of the founding partners of Sprenger + Lang, PLLC, he is now of counsel to that firm.
Sprenger remains lead counsel on a television writers' age discrimination lawsuit which began in 2000. The case involved claims of widespread age discrimination in the television production and talent agency industries. These claims have been pursued for years with help from other firms and organizations, such as AARP.
Sprenger earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan School of Business Administration in 1962 and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1965. From 1965 until 1977, Sprenger practiced law with the Minneapolis business/defense law firm of Johnson & Sands, becoming a partner there in 1970. In 1977, Sprenger began his own firm, with a primary focus on employment discrimination class actions. In 1989, Sprenger merged his firm with Jane Lang's firm based in Washington, D.C. to form Sprenger + Lang, PLLC.
In Minneapolis in August 1988, Sprenger filed Lois E. Jenson and Patricia S. Kosmach v. Eveleth Taconite Co. in U.S. District Court[1] This became the first sexual harassment discrimination class action lawsuit in the U.S., and is known as Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co. A fictionalized account of the landmark case was made into a 2005 film, North Country, with Woody Harrelson portraying the lead attorney "Bill White," acting in the Paul Sprenger role. [2]
Sprenger is the treasurer of the Tregaron Conservancy, an environmental non-profit organization that restores and maintains the Tregaron historic estate in Washington, D.C. Sprenger serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlas Performing Arts Center and serves as the Treasurer of the organization. Sprenger is a Trustee of the Sprenger.Lang Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting arts and arts education. Paul Sprenger and his wife Jane Lang were included in Washingtonian magazine's 2007 list of Washingtonians of the year.