She had filed a sexual harassment and racial bias suit against Florida Power Corp., but the suit was dismissed by the court.

The tapes set off a national furor about the company's relations with minorities, and led to Texaco's record settlement of the bias suit last week.

That bias suit goes to trial this year.

After Texaco agreed to settle the case for $176.1 million - a record for a bias suit - the review proceeded.

Texaco agreed to pay a settlement of $176.1 million last month, a record sum for a bias suit.

Since that report, the tapes have been released by plaintiffs' lawyers in the bias suit.

The bias suit, filed by the Reagan Administration, received national attention because the owner, the Starrett Housing Corporation, had taken an unusual line of defense.

He became the firm's legal counsel in late 1999, succeeding Christine Edwards, a former Dean Witter lawyer who was forced to resign over a scandal involving a bias suit brought by a former employee.

"This is history-making," Diana Coleman of Roosevelt, the lead plaintiff in the bias suit, said of the notices going out today.