Biglaw

MoFo's Embarrassing Treatment Of A New Mother

The firm is about to get dragged again for how it handles new mothers.

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Sometimes, despite your best laid plans, life has a way of sneaking up and straight clowning you. Take, for example, this story that comes from the hallowed halls of Biglaw, at the firm of Morrison & Foerster.

MoFo, as you may have heard, is currently facing a $100 million pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. The complaint alleges the “mommy track” is alive and well at the firm and it will hurt your career trajectory if you have kids while at the firm:

When a female attorney at MoFo is pregnant, has children, or takes maternity leave, the firm’s standard operating procedure is to hold her back from advancement with her peers, denying her opportunities for greater pay and limiting her progression… MoFo has long been aware of these problems but has failed to take remedial measures to prevent or correct them.

The firm’s chairman, Larren Nashelsky, has felt the need to publicly defend the firm and its policies for mothers, saying they’re “somewhere between disappointed and angry”:

“It’s just not who we are, it’s not what we value and it’s, in fact, not how we operate,” Nashelsky said. “We are a diverse firm increasingly led by women lawyers that has been at the forefront of diversity of all kinds for decades now.”
….
The firm pays for child care for lawyers on trial and will pay to have breast milk shipped home for lawyers who are traveling. There are four certified coaches on staff to help lawyers returning from leave. “That’s a flavor for all of the things we do, and although it’s always unfortunate when someone brings an action against you,” Nashelsky said, “it’s why we are somewhere between disappointed and angry that the reputation of the firm [is being portrayed] as being anything other than a leader in the area of diversity and promotion and support of women lawyers and expecting mothers and fathers.”

Bold words. That’s why it must really sting that the firm is about to get dragged again for how it handles new mothers.

Yesterday, a post went up in the Facebook group Moms in Tech. It seems there was an event in the San Francisco office of MoFo and one of the speakers was a lactating mom. So far, so good. But when she actually needed to, you know, pump, she was denied access to the firm’s Mother’s Room because she was “not one of the attorneys,” she was merely a guest.

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The speaker reports the firm was “adamant” in their refusal to let her use the accommodations they created FOR BREASTFEEDING MOMS. Instead, the INVITED GUEST was directed to an individual toilet.

I’d hate to see where you’d have to pump if you fell lower in the hierarchy than “invited guest.”

It’s not like this woman was some vagabond off the street looking for a clean place to do a line — because if she had been, MoFo wouldn’t have even let her use the bathroom. But that’s as close as you can come to the male equivalent; the firm telling a male speaker that the bathrooms are reserved for attorneys and directing them to go piss on the street. Of course, that would never happen, because letting a man invited to speak at the firm “use the facilities” is just a goddamned common courtesy.

The lactation room shouldn’t be any different. On top of the gross insensitivity and the archaic availability of proper facilities to express milk, the firm was just being straight-up rude to a guest.

Do you think this is the way MoFo would have treated a client? Or do you think that they would have found a way around their “only for attorneys” rule?

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We reached out to Morrison & Foerster about this incident, and a firm spokesperson said they have apologized to the mother:

First and foremost, we’d like to apologize to [the new mother] for her experience. A partner from Morrison & Foerster’s leadership team has reached out directly to [the invited speaker] to discuss what happened. We are also looking into the details and will make it right. Morrison & Foerster is committed to providing a workplace that is supportive of all working mothers, including employees and guests, who require access to our mother’s room facilities.

There’s an entire societal shift that needs to take place. New mothers need clean places to express breastmilk while they are going about their professional lives. A common bathroom is not an acceptable substitute. Everybody needs to pitch in and figure this out.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a senior editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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