Steptoe Strikes Back in Gender Bias Suit Filed by Ex-Associate
Firing back at gender bias allegations filed by a former associate, Steptoe & Johnson forcefully denied Thursday that it has a pay disparity between women and men and urged a Los Angeles federal judge to send a suit against the firm to arbitration.
August 13, 2017 at 12:45 AM
17 minute read
Firing back at gender bias allegations filed by a former associate, Steptoe & Johnson forcefully denied Thursday that it has a pay disparity between women and men and urged a Los Angeles federal judge to send a suit against the firm to arbitration.
Steptoe lodged a motion to compel arbitration as its first substantive filing since former associate Ji-In Houck accused the firm of discriminating against female lawyers in a class action complaint filed on June 23.
The firm—defended in the suit by Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer labor and employment head David Reis and partner Dipanwita Deb Amar, both of whom are based in San Francisco—argued that Houck's claims should be sent to arbitration because she had twice “signed written agreements to arbitrate any disputes she might ever have with the firm.” Steptoe also maintained that those agreements prohibit Houck from pursuing a class action against the firm.
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