Biglaw, Contract Attorneys, Disability Law

Biglaw Firm Gets Hit With ADA Lawsuit

Biglaw firm sued under Americans with Disabilities Act

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On May 1, a lawsuit was filed against Pepper Hamilton, alleging violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Andrew Fischer was a project attorney, paid an hourly wage for billable work. He was with the firm from 2006 to 2013, when he alleges he was terminated in retaliation for seeking reasonable accommodations for his disability.

Fischer was diagnosed with Delayed Sleep-Phase Disorder in 2007, which screws with circadian rhythms and makes working “traditional” hours challenging. In 2008 Pepper Hamilton, in response to unrelated contract attorney billing fraud (the complaint alleges a contractor billed and got paid for 8 months after they left the firm — which sounds like a hilarious bag of worms), instituted a rule allowing project and contract attorneys to work only from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fischer’s diagnosis prevented him from getting to work early and as a result he was unable to bill a full workload. Fischer repeatedly requested accommodations (allowing him to work later or work remotely), and throughout the years they were only occasionally met. Eventually, Fischer alleges he was let go for being unable to bill 40 hours a week.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that supervising attorneys “repeatedly mocked Fischer and made deprecating comments about Fischer’s disability and his request for an accommodation.”

I don’t claim to have any knowledge about the specific allegations in this lawsuit, but… all this guy wants to do is work late. I’d have thought that was an advantage for a Biglaw firm. Having spent a fair amount of time in the world of contract attorneys, I am sympathetic to the utility of standardized hours that Pepper Hamilton tried to institute, but that doesn’t seem like a great excuse for not accommodating these requests.

Of course, this is only the complaint. To stretch a sports analogy, there’s still plenty of time left on the litigation clock, and Pepper Hamilton will have its literal and figurative day in court.

Fischer v. Pepper Hamilton LLP [U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]

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