In July 1998, United States District Judge Suzanne Conlon granted summary judgment to Ameritech Corporation and related entities ("Ameritech"), in a case in which current and former female employees sought service credit for time spent on pregnancy or maternity-related leaves of absence while employed by AT&T and its subsidiaries (Ameritech's predecessors) before April 29, 1979, the effective date of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act ("PDA"). Prior to the PDA, employees of Ameritech's predecessors did not receive full service credit for the full period of their maternity leaves. The PDA changed the law, and after its effective date in 1979, female employees received service credit for periods of disability leave attributable to pregnancy to the same extent as for other similar disabling conditions. Employees did not receive retroactive service credit for pregnancy or maternity-related leaves taken prior to AprilÝ29, 1979. When Ameritech was formed in 1984, the AT&T Divestiture Order
