A week after Chadbourne & Parke announced it would hold a partnership vote on whether to expel Washington, D.C.-based partner Kerrie Campbell, who is leading a gender bias suit against the firm, Campbell and her lawyers urged a federal judge to block the vote from taking place.

On Wednesday, Campbell's legal team, led by Sanford Heisler name partner David Sanford, filed an emergency motion and other papers in Manhattan federal court, arguing that the partner vote is part of a broader effort to punish Campbell for bringing the litigation and discouraging potential gender discrimination claims from other woman partners.

“The purpose and effect … was not only to demean and humiliate Ms. Campbell, but also to convey a direct and undisguised threat to the firm's other female partners: anyone who joins this action places her career and reputation in jeopardy,” Campbell's lawyers wrote in a brief.