A female shareholder at labor and employment firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has sued the firm for gender discrimination, seeking class status and $300 million in damages.

The lawsuit, filed by Orange County-based nonequity shareholder Dawn Knepper, is the latest filed by David Sanford of Sanford Heisler Sharp. He has also sued the legacy Chadbourne & Parke and the now-defunct Sedgwick, among others, for similar claims.

“Through formal policies and widespread practices, [Ogletree's] male leadership interferes with, limits, or prevents female shareholders from receiving the appropriate credit for the business they bring to the firm and their hard work in running complex and demanding cases day-to-day,” says the complaint against Ogletree, which was filed Friday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

“Through these practices the firm systematically overlooks, devalues, or undermines female attorneys as business generators, which adversely impacts their pay and promotion,” it adds. Knepper has been an attorney at the firm since 2005, representing employers in employment law, according to her firm bio.

Knepper argues in the complaint that “on average, Ogletree currently pays its male shareholders approximately $110,000 more than its female shareholders, in target compensation and bonus alone.”

The complaint alleges the law firm does not promote women at rates “remotely equal” to men. As an example, Knepper alleged that, while women represent approximately 58 percent of Ogletree's associates, only 32 percent of shareholders are women.

Ogletree is represented by Nancy Abell of Paul Hastings. Ogletree, in a statement, said it “will confidently defend the firm against these claims as we remain steadfast in our commitment to equal opportunity for all.”

“Equal opportunity has been a core principle of Ogletree Deakins since the firm's founding, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind—gender or otherwise. We take the allegations filed by one California shareholder very seriously,” it added. “However, the decision-making process that governs our compensation system is both fair and equitable.”

Knepper also filed a separate complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that she is not under any agreement to arbitrate her claim individually with Ogletree, arguing that she never signed an arbitration agreement disseminated by the firm. The collective action suit is brought under federal and California state civil rights and equal pay statutes, as well as California's Private Attorneys General Act—which can carry large statutory penalties.

Sanford Heisler said in a press release it estimates about 100 women are members of the proposed class. The suit seeks $100 million in damages for alleged underpayment at Ogletree, $100 million for compensatory damages, and $100 million for punitive damages.

Jill Sanford, who is also representing Knepper in the case, said in a statement: “We are at a cultural tipping point where women in the workplace will no longer tolerate unfair treatment, whether it comes in the form of sexual harassment or, as seems true at Ogletree, discriminatory pay and promotion practices that disadvantage women.”

The suit against Chadbourne, which has since merged into Norton Rose Fulbright, is still ongoing. The suit against Sedgwick had settled. Before this latest suit against Ogletree, there were at least five lawsuits against large firms pending or recently resolved.

A recent issue in the Chadbourne suit and a similar one against Proskauer Rose is whether partners can be considered employees (and therefore have the ability to sue in court rather than arbitrate) in the context of gender discrimination claims. As The American Lawyer reported earlier this year, there is a growing argument that the centralized management of law firms makes an average partner more akin to an employee.