Tech Executive Seeks Record $95 Million Payout After Disability Discrimination Case

A former technology executive who was dismissed from her role at an AI firm after falling asleep in a sauna during a work trip is seeking a potential record payout of £76 million (approximately $95 million USD). Shannon Burns, formerly the Vice President of Engineering at Gitpod, has won a disability discrimination case against the company, which is now owned by OpenAI, the developers of ChatGPT.

Ms. Burns was recruited by Gitpod in late 2022 and offered a six-figure salary along with an equity package potentially worth over £30 million. However, she reported that the company culture was male-dominated. In April 2023, she attended an off-site team-building event in Lofer, Austria. During the event, which involved alcohol consumption among staff, Ms. Burns, who has ADHD, could not access her room and ended up sleeping in a sauna. She stated that her ADHD condition contributed to forgetfulness and a tendency to lose items.

Following the trip, Gitpod's CEO, Johannes Landgraf, expressed concern over Ms. Burns' "lack of professional accountability." In June 2023, she was terminated from her position. Ms. Burns contends that her dismissal was discriminatory, noting that male colleagues who had also been drinking were not disciplined. In 2025, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal ruled that Ms. Burns was dismissed due to her ADHD and found in her favor on the disability discrimination claim.

Ms. Burns is seeking £76,071,992 in compensation, basing her claim on calculations of her potential future earnings in the lucrative tech industry, which her legal team describes as a "forensic calculation." Her claimed losses for future earnings alone are estimated to exceed £59 million. The remainder of the sum is intended to cover injury to feelings and an ACAS uplift.

Gitpod attempted to cap Ms. Burns's claim at £1 million, arguing that her demand for over £76 million was "extraordinary" and that the arguments in her schedule of loss were "palpable nonsense." The company sought an order for Ms. Burns to pay a £1,000 deposit to continue her claim for losses exceeding £1 million, asserting that such a claim had "little reasonable prospect of success."

However, an Employment Judge at the Birmingham Employment Tribunal dismissed Gitpod's application. The judge acknowledged Ms. Burns's "exceptionally high pay history" and her argument that she would have continued a highly lucrative career had she not been dismissed. The tribunal also noted that OpenAI acquired Gitpod for a sum believed to be $400 million (£302 million). Given Ms. Burns's 0.85% shareholding in Gitpod, her shares could be worth approximately $3.4 million (£2.6 million) currently and potentially $27.85 million (£21 million) in four years, based on the acquisition price.

The tribunal stated that while an award of the sum claimed by Ms. Burns is "highly unusual" and perhaps more common in the U.S., it could not be determined at that stage that her valuation had little reasonable prospect of success without expert reports.

Ms. Burns, who previously worked for Silicon Valley firms including Slack and Lyft, has developed PTSD since her dismissal and has reportedly left her career in tech. Her legal team has accused Gitpod of using "aggressive litigation tactics to drag out the process and wear her down."

A full compensation hearing is scheduled to take place at a later date. Gitpod has indicated its intention to appeal the tribunal's ruling.

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