Women's Issues

Things You Can't Unsee: The Managing Partner In His Underwear

Why did he invite a young associate into his office when he was dressed down to his skivvies?

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Welcome back to The Pink Ghetto, a series where we take a look at some of the most appalling stories from one of the most sexist industries in the world: the legal profession. Today, we have a story about a young attorney who was invited into her managing partner’s office — while he was in his underwear. These are real emails that we’ve received from real readers.

When you see things like this happening, say something. Together, we can inspire the change necessary to stop this disturbing behavior from being so prevalent in the law. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations of women in the law.

I was an associate in my first job after passing the bar exam at a boutique matrimonial law firm representing high net worth clients. I was very excited to work there as this was a well-known firm with a reputation for handling high-profile cases.

It was early evening and everybody else in the firm had left except me and the managing partner whom I worked for. I was still there because I was working on an assignment. He hadn’t left because he had an Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers function to attend later that evening.

When I had finished drafting the documents I was working on, I knocked on the managing partner’s office door so I could give him my work and go home. After hearing him say “come in,” I walked into his office and saw him seated at his desk wearing nothing but white fruit-of-the-loom type undies and an undershirt. He was clipping his toenails with a nail clipper over a waste basket. (He was overweight and shaped like a beachball. Trust me — it was not a pretty sight.)

Seeing him in his underwear, I hesitated. I didn’t know what to do. Should I leave? Say excuse me? Finally, I decided just to brazen it out. I walked from the doorway to his desk and deposited the papers on his desktop, trying to avert my eyes and pretend nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. “What’s the matter?” the partner said to me. “Haven’tya ever seen a man in his underwear before?” I mumbled something in reply like “not at work,” and high-tailed it out of his office as fast as I could.
To this day, I still can’t figure out whether he was trying to come on to me or he was just a slovenly pig. Probably both.

Do you have a law school or law firm story you’d like to see appear in The Pink Ghetto? Email me (subject line: “The Pink Ghetto”) or find me on Twitter, @StaciZaretsky. You will be kept anonymous. Submissions are always welcome.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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