A former Clifford Chance (CC) associate has sued the firm for discrimination, claiming it targeted women and minorities when it laid off six US associates in 2007, reports The New York Law Journal.

In a complaint filed on Thursday (28 October) in New York's Supreme Court, Karen Ramdhanie said that on the eve of the layoffs, two white male associates were transferred out of her group, leaving just black lawyers and women to be laid off.

"They were so blatant in their discrimination," Ramdhanie said in an interview.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages under New York City's Human Rights Law for discrimination based on race, gender, national origin and age. She is also seeking a letter of apology from CC and a change in the firm's hiring and firing policies with regard to black associates.

Ramdhanie, who has been out of a job since being laid off, is also suing on behalf of her two sons, whom she said have been damaged by emotional distress, mental anguish and humiliation.

A spokesman for CC, Michael Kachel, declined to comment, citing a firm policy of not commenting on litigation.

Ramdhanie, 48, joined CC in December 2006 after working at UBS and, before that, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. She was placed in a rotation with a group of associates that worked exclusively with Standard & Poor's (S&P) in reviewing documentation to rate mortgage-backed securities.

Ramdhanie claims partners at the firm assured her the S&P rotation was short-term and she could move into transactional work within months of the hire. The S&P matters were advisory in nature, and Ramdhanie said she had told CC she would only be interested in the job if she could develop her transactional expertise, the complaint says.

Ramdhanie said the eight-lawyer S&P was disproportionately black – of 37 associates in the financial products department, only four were black, and they all worked with S&P.

In November 2007, amid a downturn in the structured finance markets, CC laid off Ramdhanie and three other black lawyers, as well as two white women, the complaint says. Two white males also had been in the group before the layoffs, the complaint said, but they were transferred shortly before the cuts were made.

Ramdhanie said that she held off suing the firm in part because she worried about the effect on her career. She also had been trying, unsuccessfully, to find a job, she said. She added that she decided to file now that the three-year statute of limitations is about to run out.

Ramdhanie said that since being laid off, she has suffered from depression and sought the help of a mental health professional. Her 17-year marriage collapsed in early 2009, and her relationship with her sons has become strained, the complaint said.

This article first appeared in the New York Law Journal, a US affiliate title of Legal Week.