A Look Back at Sexual Harassment Claims Against Legal Leaders
With claims against Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment and assault fresh in our minds, we thought we'd take a glance back at some vile behavior alleged against leaders in the legal profession.
October 16, 2017 at 05:07 PM
6 minute read
With claims against Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment and assault fresh in our minds, we thought we'd take a glance back at some vile behavior alleged against leaders in the legal profession. It's not a joking matter. A recent study in the Harvard Business Review found that 40 percent of women in the legal profession will or have experienced sexual harassment. Here are some of the more notorious cases in recent history.
Baker McKenzie and partner Martin Greenstein: Legal secretary Rena Weeks alleged in 1991 that Greenstein, an IP attorney, repeatedly harassed her by groping her, lunging at her and pouring M&M's down her breast pocket. After Weeks' suit was filed, several other women who worked at the firm claimed he had sexually harassed them. A San Francisco jury in 1994 awarded her a record-breaking $7.1 million in punitive damages, determining that Baker McKenzie knew about Greenstein's pattern of harassing women but failed to address it. The award was later reduced to $3.5 million. The verdict was upheld on appeal.
U.C. Berkeley Board of Regents and law dean Suit Choudhry: Tyann Sorrell, a former assistant to Choudhry, sued him and U.C. Berkeley's Board of Regents in March 2016, alleging that Choudhry had hugged, kissed and touched her in unwanted ways and that the university denied her requests to be transferred to another position after she complained. Choudhry subsequently stepped down as dean. In April, the school agreed to pay Sorrell $1.7 million. Choudhry is the I. Michael Heyman professor of law at Berkeley, where he remains a tenured professor in good standing.
President Bill Clinton: Former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones alleged that then-Gov. Bill Clinton in 1991 exposed himself to her and propositioned her. Clinton settled with her in 1999 for $850,000. That same year, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found Clinton in civil contempt in the case and ordered him to pay $1,202 for providing misleading testimony about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton later settled an ethics complaint initiated by Wright. His Arkansas law license was suspended for five years. In 2001, Clinton resigned from practicing before the U.S. Supreme Court amid the possibility of being barred from it following the sex scandal involving Lewinsky.
Faruqi & Faruqi and Juan Monteverde: In 2015, a federal jury in New York found Faruqi & Faruqi partner Monteverde partially liable in a case brought by former associate Alexandra Marchuk for creating a hostile work environment at the securities boutique. Marchuk, a Vanderbilt Law School graduate who alleged Monteverde groped her and made sexual comments in front of co-workers, won a $140,000 judgment. She had sought $13 million. Marchuk and the firm later settled the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Holland & Knight: Tampa tax lawyer Douglas Wright was promoted to chief operating partner in 2004 despite sexual harassment allegations by as many as nine women lawyers at the firm. After a local newspaper reported that Wright was promoted following an internal investigation that uncovered the harassing conduct, he stepped down from that position. Among other things, Wright allegedly asked women at the firm to feel his “pipes” or biceps. Several associates who in 2006 responded to The American Lawyer's Midlevel Associate Survey expressed dissatisfaction with the firm's handling of the matter. Wright is the firm's current operations and finance partner. Wright did not respond to requests for comment. A firm spokeswoman declined to comment.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman: After corporate partner Frode Jensen left Pillsbury in 2002 for Latham & Watkins, then-firm chairwoman Mary Cranston and managing partner Marina Park issued a press release claiming that Jensen's departure came on the heels of sexual harassment allegations that involved him and a significant decline in his productivity. Jensen responded with a $45 million defamation suit naming the firm, Cranston, Park and partner John Pritchard. Among other things, the suit claimed that a number of Pillsbury partners had been accused of sexual harassment and had never had the allegations publicly disclosed by the firm. The two sides confidentially settled the case in 2003. Pillsbury issued a statement at the time of the deal that said Frode was a valued and respected member of the firm and was one of the firm's most productive corporate partners.
Sullivan & Cromwell: Then-associate Aaron Charney sued the firm in 2007, alleging that it discriminated against him and subjected him to “lewd and illegal” conduct because he was gay. The parties confidentially settled later that year, after it was revealed that Charney boiled and smashed with a hammer his computer's hard drive. Charney said he was compelled to do so after a meeting with the firm about settling.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: After President George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas to the high court in 1991, an FBI interview with Anita Hill, who previously worked with Thomas at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was leaked to the press, and Hill was called to testify at Thomas' reopened Senate confirmation hearings. Hill testified that Thomas, after she refused to go out with Thomas, talked about sex at work, including women having sex with animals and “his own sexual prowess.” Hill described one instance in which Thomas asked, “Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?” Thomas testified that the accusations were false. He was confirmed by a 52 to 48 vote.
New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler: In 1993, Wachtler was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for threatening to kidnap the daughter of his former lover Joy Silverman. Prosecutors accused Wachtler, once considered a strong candidate for New York governor, of using “his power, influence and resources as chief judge” to threaten and harass Silverman, her 14-year-old daughter and Silverman's boyfriend. Wachtler, quoted by Tom Wolfe in “The Bonfire of the Vanities” for saying “a grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted,” pleaded guilty only to threatening to kidnap Silverman's daughter.
Ongoing Gender Bias Suits: At least four Big Law firms currently are facing pay and promotion disparity lawsuits brought by women. They are Winston & Strawn, Chadbourne & Parke—absorbed into Norton Rose Fulbright after a deal that closed earlier this year—as well as Proskauer Rose and Steptoe & Johnson.
Contact Leigh Jones at [email protected]. On Twitter: @LeighJones711
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