Contract Attorneys

Cleary Sued By Former Project Attorney With Reality TV Past

Project Attorney takes firm to court after they tell him, "You're Fired!" Or put on unpaid leave at least.

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Hey kids! Do you like gossip and scandal about Biglaw firms? If so, Santa’s got one more gift in his sleigh for you. According to a complaint filed last week in DC federal district court, someone’s been on the naughty list.

Former Cleary Gottlieb project attorney, Lyle Silva, (think contract/document review attorney but with the façade of full-time employment) has filed suit against the firm alleging that white project attorneys were kept on additional projects while black and Hispanic employees were furloughed and eventually laid off.

Silva — whom reality tv fans may remember from Donald J. Trump Presents: The Ultimate Merger in which former Apprentice baddie Omarosa tries to find love — worked in the Washington D.C. Cleary office for about a year from 2011-2012. During that time he rolled from one project to another, but when the work started to dry up, he and a Hispanic project attorney were put on unpaid leave — which is less catchy than “You’re Fired!” — and the white project attorneys were allowed to roll to additional work. According to the complaint, at the time he was let go Silva was told that his performance wasn’t an issue, and he’d received good reviews and a discretionary bonus the year before. However, in an interview with the National Law Journal, Silva revealed the issue may be more complex:

But Silva said in a phone interview with the National Law Journal on Wednesday that superiors at Cleary first based their decision to cut him on his results in an essay test, called a “privilege exam,” that they had given him during the hiring process.

Cleary denies the allegations saying in a statement to ABA Journal:

We are aware of the lawsuit and believe that the complaint is without merit. The plaintiff filed a complaint approximately two years ago with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which dismissed the matter last September.

In my time as a contract attorney I have never worked directly for Cleary, either in their DC office or any other office, and I do not know any of the parties involved (I didn’t even watch that terrible Apprentice spin-off) so I’m in no position to comment on the specifics of this suit. But I can talk about the industry in general…

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The nature of document review work is one of constant change. Projects get bigger, they get smaller, the amount of documents for review change and cases settle. Even when you have a full-time gig at a vendor or law firm there are simply no guarantees that the work will last, and as the very bottom of the totem pole document review attorneys are often on the chopping block. And when a project does get smaller, and only some of the reviewers are let go, the process of who stays and who goes can be a free for all. If a team lead likes grabbing a drink with you after work, that can be the difference between looking for new work or staying on a project. The cuts happen so quickly and frequently in the industry there can be a desensitization to the process that really does affect someone’s paycheck.

We will, of course, update you on the status of the case as it develops, because as pointed out by the National Law Journal’s Katelyn Polantz:

The suit pokes at the sore spot that’s formed between some large corporate law firms and their low-level attorneys, who are often contractors or temporary workers. The at-will employees have had few successes in the court system with employment law complaints.

That means we’ll only see more of these kinds of cases in the future.

The full complaint is available on the next page….

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Alex Rich is a T14 grad and Biglaw refugee who has worked as a contract attorney for the last 7 years… and counting. If you have a story about the underbelly of the legal world known as contract work, email Alex at alexrichesq@gmail.com and be sure to follow Alex on Twitter @AlexRichEsq

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