Major, Lindsey & Africa offices in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM)

Updated at 12:05 p.m.

The legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa is suing a former partner who last month joined a competitor's new outpost in Washington, a move her lawyer said was partly spurred by her desire to escape what she claimed was a "hostile, male dominated work environment" that was tolerated without consequences.

Major Lindsey's lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Lauren Drake, who jumped to rival recruiter MLegal Group. The complaint, brought by the management-side firm Littler Mendelson, alleged Drake has violated a noncompete provision in her employment contract with Major, Lindsey & Africa, or MLA. The suit was accompanied by a request for an injunction.

"MLA spent significant time and resources training Drake to become a first-class recruiter who built significant goodwill in the market in the District of Columbia and who had access to MLA's confidential information, including non-public candidate and law firm information as well as training materials and techniques," Littler shareholder Paul Kennedy said in court filings. "By virtue of her position with MLA, Drake had responsibilities for certain of MLA's important law firm clients as well as attorney candidates."

The litigation appears poised to open a window into workplace culture at Major Lindsey, the country's largest legal recruitment firm, and it will offer a glimpse more broadly at competition among recruiters, who help place associates, partners and in-house counsel at law firms and corporate legal departments.

Lawyers for Major Lindsey deny the firm perpetuated or otherwise tolerated any office misconduct.

"The first time MLA heard of any complaint is when we asked Lauren to honor her non-compete agreement. We have a zero tolerance policy and would have investigated any report," Maureen R. Dry-Wasson, Major Lindsey's general counsel and global privacy officer, said in a statement Friday. "As a matter of fairness to all the people who work here, I'm disappointed by the use of this tactic in a matter that is very straightforward."

California-based MLegal, which pressed into the Washington market this year, has lured away several Major Lindsey employees—including Jane Sullivan Roberts, whose husband is Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.—for the new Washington office.

Drake's lawyer, Leslie Silverman, a shareholder in Washington at the labor and employment firm Fortney & Scott, traded a series of letters in early October with Littler Mendelson in which she claimed Major Lindsey accepted a work environment plagued by sexual misconduct by high-ranking male executives.

"Despite outward appearances, the venerable legal recruitment firm has largely become a far less professional boys' club, leaving a number of its employees and, in particular, many of its stalwart older female employees feeling dismayed, disenfranchised and increasingly uncomfortable in their work environment," Silverman wrote in one letter, which was included as an attachment to Major Lindsey's lawsuit.

Lauren Drake. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM(

Silverman alleged Major Lindsey "continues to host an unprofessional and male dominated workplace atmosphere in which senior male executives engage in highly inappropriate conduct with subordinate female employees." Silverman's letters did not identify any executives by name, and no specific instance of alleged misconduct was mentioned. She said the workplace atmosphere made "Ms. Drake, and other female employees at MLA, feel powerless and uncomfortable in the workplace." Drake, according to Silverman, "expressed her discomfort directly to a key leader."

Littler's Kennedy, responding to Silverman, flatly rejected claims that Major Lindsey allowed any workplace environment where male misbehavior was allowed to flourish.

"Ms. Drake never complained about any of the issues you raise during her employment. Indeed, despite having every opportunity to complain (including under MLA policies outlining multiple avenues of recourse for alleged discriminatory behavior), she did not, and, moreover, had nothing but positive comments about MLA upon her departure, a time when one might expect candor about an employee's workplace experience," Kennedy wrote in one exchange. "We find it curious that she now raises these issues only in response to a letter demanding her compliance with MLA's non-compete obligation."

Major Lindsey "offers a diverse work environment, with multiple females in key leadership positions," Kennedy said in a letter to Silverman.

"You may be aware that MLA has a vigorous policy against harassment in the workplace, and diligently investigates—and when appropriate, remedies—any conduct deemed inconsistent with its policy," Kennedy wrote. "MLA embraces the #MeToo Movement, and is prepared to investigate further the multiple generic allegations you raise."

A Major Lindsey partner since July, Drake had worked at the firm for five years upon her resignation Sept. 24. Drake, a lawyer, formerly spent more than 16 years with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. before arriving at Major Lindsey. Her employment contract at Major Lindsey included a one-year noncompete clause, according to court records.

MLegal has hired two other Major Lindsey employees, including Jane Sullivan Roberts, now serving as managing partner of MLegal's Washington office. She had been a recruiter at Major Lindsey since 2007. Major Lindsey's lawsuit said Drake was the only employee among the three who was subject to a noncompete provision.

MLegal "stands to capitalize, without the same investment of resources that MLA had to make, on the goodwill and relationships that inevitably will follow Drake at MLA's expense," Littler's Kennedy said in a court filing. He said MLegal is "looking to staff its D.C. office with trained recruiters, including Drake, for purposes of gaining a fast-track competitive advantage in the market without having to undertake the investment of time and resources otherwise required."

Silverman called Major Lindsey's noncompete provision "unreasonable, unnecessary and against the public interest." MLegal, founded in 2001, "has been in the partner recruiting business for many, many years," she said in a letter. "They have developed their own databases and processes. Their recruiters have no need nor desire to use MLA's 'confidential' information."

"Ms. Drake wants nothing more than to move on with her life while being able to remain employed in a profession she loves and provide for her family," Silverman wrote in a letter to Major Lindsey's attorneys.

She also said enforcement of the noncompete provision would clash with public policy. "Today more than ever before, the public is demanding greater accountability from employers in protecting their female employees from sexual harassment, unjust treatment and hostile or abusive workplaces," Silverman said.

Major Lindsey's lawsuit was assigned Friday to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a former Baker McKenzie white-collar partner who joined the trial bench in 2017.

 

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This report was updated to include the assignment of a Washington trial judge to Major Lindsey's suit.