Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell: Charney's Response to the S&C Statement

It will take a while for Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell to pick up speed as a legal case. New York Supreme Court isn’t exactly a rocket docket. When we were in private practice, we worked on a New York Supreme Court case with a 1973 index number. That’s before we were born.
But on the public relations front, battle has been joined. Yesterday Sullivan & Cromwell sent us this statement, via S&C partner Theodore O. Rogers, Jr., in which the firm “categorically denie[d] Mr. Charney’s allegations of discrimination and retaliation.”
We contacted Aaron Charney, by email, to seek his response to the statement. What he wrote to us, plus a statement of his current employment status at the firm, after the jump.


Here’s what Charney wrote to us in an email this morning:

I find it disgraceful that Rodgin Cohen, on behalf of the firm, “categorically denies [my] allegations of discrimination and retaliation”.

As I stated in my Complaint, there was no “real investigation” which S&C was obligated to pursue in accordance with its own Office Manual at the time of my internal complaint in May 2006. Chairman Cohen’s categorical denial demonstrates his unwillingness to engage any of the multitude of specific allegations. It is more of the same conduct that led me to conclude that I had no recourse other than filing the Complaint.

As for Theodore Rogers, it is mind-boggling that a man who fabricated a performance review and is a principal player in S&C’s retaliation is conducting its ongoing investigation, for which S&C claims that I cannot attend to my client obligations. The fact that Rogers acts as both a retaliator and investigator here shows that S&C continues to demean its own policy and that S&C’s internal anti-discrimination policy is not worth the paper that it is written on.

We also asked Charney to confirm that he has been asked to stay away from the office — and whether he’s still drawing a paycheck from S&C. He wrote:

I have been told by Ted Rogers himself that I officially on paid leave and am not permitted to come to the office. My email, blackberry and voicemail access have been cut off.

So if you’re trying to reach Aaron Charney, you won’t have much luck trying his old Sullcrom.com address. Try contacting him at his personal email address, which appears on page 24 of his Complaint (which you can access in full via this post).
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell (scroll down)

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