Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Hit With Second Discrimination Lawsuit This Year

These are some salacious allegations.

By  
on

Just over a month after being hit with a $300 million purported class action alleging gender discrimination and unequal pay, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has been hit with another discrimination lawsuit.

The most recent suit was filed by a “John Doe” who was employed at the firm as both a staff attorney and counsel. He alleges that Los Angeles-based employment partner Johnnie James subjected him to sexual harassment and discrimination, which he says began shortly after he joined the firm. According to the complaint, James propositioned Doe to have sex with him and his husband, discussed his porn habits, showed Doe explicit images, referred to Doe as the “cute Latino,” and told Doe about his sexual fantasies involving Latino men. The complaint goes on to detail several instances of alleged inappropriate behavior:

On February 24, 2017, Doe once again reluctantly accepted James’s invitation to go out for drinks after work. While they were having drinks, James began discussing a “go-go boy” (i.e., a male stripper) with whom he was “obsessed.” In an apparent attempt to arouse Doe, James pulled out his cell phone and began playing a graphic porn scene of two men having sex. Doe was in shock, looked away, and told James he did not want to watch it. James put his phone away, but continued to brag to Doe about his sexual exploits with the go-go dancer, specifically how James “got [his] dick sucked in a gym shower stall at the Gold’s Gym in downtown LA” by the dancer. He then told Doe, “I guess I just told you that I cheated on my husband,” which Doe interpreted as a suggestion that James wanted to cheat on his husband with Doe.

Doe also alleges he was paid at least $30,000 less than associates with the equivalent amount of experience, even after he was promoted to counsel.

As reported by Law.com, the noted employment law firm denies the allegations:

An Olgetree Deakins spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that while it takes “the allegations filed by a former staff attorney very seriously, the salacious nature of these allegations do not make them true and cannot change the facts.”

“We promptly and fully investigated these allegations once they were brought to our attention, and subsequently determined them to be false, unsubstantiated or deficient,” the spokeswoman said. “Far from being terminated by the firm, upon voluntarily resigning the plaintiff accepted a partner position at another defense firm, which in fact is currently defending approximately ten cases brought by the plaintiff’s attorney in this matter.”

Read the full complaint on the next page.

Sponsored

1 2Next »

Topics

, , ,