A federal magistrate judge ruled Thursday that Chadbourne & Parke leaders who are named as defendants in a $100 million gender bias suit against the now-defunct firm must search their personal email accounts for potentially relevant documents that would be subject to review by the plaintiffs.

Ruling from the bench in Manhattan federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses sided with lawyers for former Chadbourne partners Kerrie Campbell, Mary Yelenick and Jaroslawa Zelinsky Johnson in a discovery dispute over the personal email accounts of several members of Chadbourne's leadership. A Sanford Heisler Sharp team led by David Sanford represents the women in the case, which alleges that Chadbourne paid women partners less and offered them fewer business development opportunities than their male counterparts.

The ruling comes as the former partners and Chadbourne, now part of Norton Rose Fulbright, remain in the midst of limited discovery related to the women's employment status at Chadbourne. The two sides were ordered to search for documents that could help determine whether the three women qualify for protection under federal employment laws, or if their former partner roles make them business owners who fall outside the scope of those protections.