A former Quarles & Brady associate, Luis Ramírez, has sued the firm claiming he was the victim of discrimination and retaliation. The individual complaint, filed Thursday in Arizona federal district court in Phoenix, alleges that Ramírez, a Hispanic of Dominican heritage, and other minority associates were passed over for assignments by partners who preferred to give work to non-minorities.
In the 13-page complaint, Ramírez—who is representing himself pro se—writes that his performance reviews and those of other minority attorneys “were unduly more critical than the evaluations of non-minority associates, contained generalizations and stereotypes based on race and national origin, and false assertions that were not verified for accuracy.” Ramírez claims that after he complained of discrimination within the firm, he was blackballed from work on certain clients, including “an international package delivery company,” which he alleges was one of the firm’s largest clients. The complaint claims that his termination from Quarles on was based on evaluations “that were manufactured and not based on fact.”
According to this firm Web site and Ramírez’s Linkedin page, he is currently the managing partner of Pryor, Ramirez & Amar, a Tempe firm that specializes in litigation relating to automobile lemon laws. The Am Law Daily tracked down this ad featuring Ramírez on YouTube. We reached out to Ramírez via e-mail but did not hear back from him by the time of this post.
Reached by phone on Friday, Quarles & Brady Phoenix managing partner Jon Pettibone said the firm had not yet decided whether to hire outside counsel in the matter. “We’re disappointed that Luis elected to file the suit,” Pettibone says. “We believe there is no merit to it and our intention is to defend ourself fully.”
