Jones Day Facing Second Class-Action Lawsuit Over 'Fraternity Culture' Of The Firm
What this complaint alleges happens at the firm is shocking.
Jones Day (photo by David Lat)
Jones Day is facing a second gender discrimination lawsuit. The first, filed by former partner Wendy Moore, alleged the firm’s infamous “black box” compensation system is used to pay women partners less than their male counterparts. The latest lawsuit, filed yesterday in a federal court in Washington, D.C., also takes aim at the compensation system (under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act) as well as what is described as the firm’s “fraternity culture,” but from the perspective of women associates at the firm.
The purported class action has six plaintiffs, two named — Nilab Rahyar Tolton and Andrea Mazingo — and four anonymous, and the complaint alleges the environment at the firm is harmful to women:
“Jones Day’s fraternity culture presents female attorneys at Jones Day with an unpalatable choice: participate in a culture that is at best inhospitable to women and at worst openly misogynistic or forego any hope of success at the firm
For a female associate to succeed at Jones Day, she must at least tolerate the stereotyped expectations of the firm’s male power brokers. To challenge these expectations by word or deed, even in settings ostensibly provided for ‘honest’ feedback, is career suicide.”
The complaint also goes on to allege that the compensation system is used to reify sexist assumptions, as reported by Law.com:
“The evaluation process can be manipulated, and upon information and belief regularly is so manipulated, to justify pushing women out,” the complaint said. “Perhaps unsurprisingly in a firm where pay and promotion decisions are made by a single managing partner, these evaluations are easily marshaled to justify any given course of action.”
The “consensus statements” that allegedly underpin compensation and partnership decisions are riddled with gender stereotypes, the complaint alleges: “The tireless, childless female associate is inadequately ‘fun’ and excessively ‘intense’; the high-performing associate mother of small children is ‘deadline challenged’ or lacks ‘commitment.’”
And the complaint’s description of the type of behavior that is not only tolerated, but encouraged at the firm, is beyond the pale:
The complaint also describes a frat-house atmosphere at the firm. At one unidentified office, male partners allegedly kick off the firm’s holiday party by encouraging drinking in the office, followed by alcohol-fueled dancing, during which male managers “gawk” at dancing female associates for amusement. At another office, during a summer associate event at a partner’s home, after a female summer associate was allegedly pushed into the swimming pool while wearing a white dress, the male summer associate who pushed her was “applauded and high-fived” by leadership rather than reprimanded.
The complaint also called the firm’s efforts to provide support for women “window dressing”—a women’s affinity lunch group was allegedly mocked by male attorneys as an opportunity “to talk about women things and having kids.”
The complaint seeks $200 million in damages for a purported class of all female associates who are, have been, or will be employed by Jones Day in the United States.
Kathryn 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).
