Hello. Here is my attempt to summarize somewhat long story.
A very close friend of mine, who lives in Massachusetts, has
recently been laid off from her job as a pension consultant in
one of the major publicly traded consulting firms, where she worked
for the last 4 years.
Reason given -- her position is eliminated. The following facts should
be mentioned:

o Prior to her maternity leave in the spring of 2002, she was
recognized as one of the top employees in the company, with 2 "Best
Employee" award in a year (rare), excellent peer reviews, customer
feedback e.t.c. After she came back from maternity leave on part time
basis, she was moved to another team and her problems started: her
part time schedule was ignored -- often the important meetings were
scheduled on the day she was out (Fridays), the work she performed
would be changed and mailed out when she was out, if when not time
constrained. She was not given any clients or permanent assignments
despite dozens of request on her part (they have to bill hours to
demonstrate performance and earn bonuses, very
similar to a law firm, I am guessing). Generally, she was treated as
"not a team player", particularly because of her fixed hours, where
she had to leave at 4PM sharp to pick up her kidsfrom daycare.


o Second fact -- despite seeming dissatisfaction on the part of
her immediate supervisor, she was not confronted or given a chance to
improve (she still has excellent relationship with many coworkers
including subordinates and career advisor) Instead they stated the
position is eliminated and let her go. The fact of the matter is that
the company is actively hiring, and this group will fill her position
as soon as they can, as they can not do the work w/o another analyst
(or more). She was not the only person laid off, but one of the only 2
month the retirement practice professionals – the rest were
administrative staff.
Her termination is of course a problem for her: 2 young children, and
she would have a hard time finding part time job (starting as a part
timer is harder then becoming one once you are established, as you
well know). It also threw a wrench into hour child care arrangement (a
nanny) that was rather difficult to create. My wife was offered 2
weeks of "notice" payment and 2 weeks of severance, if she signs their
severance agreement.

My questions are: based on these two facts, does she have enough
leverage to
a. Negotiate better terms of severance agreement. If she could receive
say 5 month of severance pay, she could go back to work full time as
her younger child will be old enough.
b. Bring up any kind of legal action based on her unfair treatment,
and obvious transformation on the part of managment ever since she
went part time.

Your thoughts on this matter and an advice are appreciated.