Biglaw

Former Biglaw Attorney Goes On Anti-Asian Racist Social Media Rant

She's made three attempts to back away from her awful Facebook post and failed in every attempt.

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Christina Ignatius

A former Jones Day An attorney (at least according to her LinkedIn profile) turned law tutor (whatever that means) finds herself in the middle of a social media sh*tstorm. Christina Ignatius took to Facebook to unleash a racially charged rant — nominally inspired by the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians — to let loose on all manner of offensive stereotypes about Asian people.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Jones Day reached out to Above the Law about this story. Despite what her LinkedIn profile says, the firm is, justifiably, distancing itself from Ignatius:

Notwithstanding her claim to the contrary, Christina Ignatius is not, and has never been, a Jones Day lawyer.  Over eight years ago, Jones Day hired a third-party vendor to review documents for a few month period, and Ms. Ignatius was on the third party vendor’s team that helped in that review.  That is her only connection to this Firm.

In a Facebook post that was shared on the Chapman Law Alumni group page (it’s since been deleted), Ignatius rails against Asians that “took over Orange County” — propagating the trope of Asians as bad drivers and ridiculing her perception of a generically Asian accent — and calls dealing with Asians “one annoying thing after another.”

It’s jaw-droppingly awful, and you should really read it in full:

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And then comes the backlash. Oh, don’t worry — despite using an offensive term like “rice rocket,” using pidgin English to describe what Asians might say, and calling white men who marry Asian women “suckers,” Ignatius doesn’t back down from her statements.

In the first response to the burgeoning controversy, she says she “had no idea that talking about stereotypes would be so provocative.” Well, here she is smashing the stereotype that lawyers are smart. But seriously, let’s be clear here: her original post isn’t some academic discussion of stereotypes — it advances harmful assumptions about what all Asians have, do, say, think, and want. But she ends her post insisting — despite all the evidence to the contrary —  that “I do not hate Asians. I really love them and find differences to be funny and interesting.”

You can read the full non-apology yourself:

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And she had another rant on social media (and it’s a long-ass doozy of a post) that is a cavalcade of distracting BS meant to provide some sort of cover for the awful things in her first post. This time, she calls out law schools for touting diversity as a smokescreen to increase enrollment numbers, which, fair enough. Goodness knows that’s a hobby horse this blog has been forwarding for years, but what ON EARTH does that have to do with Ignatius’s original post?

Ignatius also name checks controversial Yale Law School professors Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, as if their work somehow justifies anything she said. I’m… not going to turn this into a post about Chua and Rubenfeld — they have to defend their controversial opinions all the damn time (something Ignatius has steadfastly avoided) — and they get dragged plenty here, so let’s just put a pin into that red herring.

Let’s be clear: in the word vomit of a follow-up post, Ignatius makes no apology for her hurtful words — though it does, bizarrely, make clear she never got dumped by an Asian guy… um, okay? And she also hates people she went to law school with (remember the post went viral when it was posted in a law school alumni group). The amount of other people who Ignatius blames for some measure of her present pickle combined with a complete lack of personal accountability for her own post is astounding.

According to a statement made to the Orange County Register, Ignatius claims she’s received threats as a result of going viral. But she still refuses to apologize, saying, “I’m kind of a silly girl, who is fun and easygoing… My life is not news.” She also says that because she “loves” Asians and had no hatred when she wrote her post, then her casual racism should be ignored:

“I didn’t have any intent of anger and hatred,” said Christina Ignatius, who claims to be the top law school tutor in the United States. “If you have no malintent, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Earlier this week, Ignatius on Facebook compared Orange County Asians to the cast of the hit movie “Crazy Rich Asians.”

She calls herself “Tenacious Ignatius” on social media — but it seems like “Racist Ignatius” is far more accurate.

UPDATE: Leah Wilson, Executive Director of the State Bar of California, has made the following statement about Ignatius’s social media blitz:

“Racial bias has no place in the practice of law. By statute and to protect the integrity of the attorney discipline process, whether a complaint has been filed with the State Bar and whether an investigation is in process are confidential. The State Bar thoroughly reviews all complaints of attorney misconduct and must adhere to the current rules governing attorney conduct. We work to ensure that all Californians have access to qualified and ethical attorneys. Additionally, effective November 1, new ethics rules for attorneys will include specific provisions to allow the State Bar to better hold attorneys accountable for discrimination and harassment based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other protected categories, in their representation of clients and in law firm operations.”

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).

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