After a federal judge in San Francisco approved the class-action settlement yesterday, the two sides announced an agreement that calls for Abercrombie & Fitch to pay $40 million to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs.

One of the organization's earliest victories included a class-action suit filed against several Boston publishing companies that awarded the female plaintiffs $1.5 million in back pay.

Even though two of the female plaintiffs had been driving buses wearing their hijabs for years, after 9/11 they were told by various supervisors that their head scarves violated the transit agency's uniform policy, their lawyers said.

But Democratic appointees are more sympathetic to female plaintiffs than Republican appointees.

The settlement requires the company to pay $40 million to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs who charged the company with discrimination.

She has sympathized with female plaintiffs, notably a hard-driving woman denied a partnership at Price Waterhouse.

Yet that made no difference in the lawsuits, which took off on the wings of sympathetic female plaintiffs, a product fallen into social disrepute and a highly evolved, well-financed plaintiffs' bar.

Implant Lawyers Displaced A judge said the negotiating in the Dow Corning breast implant case should be done by the female plaintiffs, not their lawyers.