The federal judge overseeing the gender discrimination case against Morrison & Foerster has denied the firm's motion to sanction a former associate who signed a waiver of claims before suing the firm.

The firm claimed in a motion filed earlier this month that the associate, proceeding anonymously as Jane Doe 4, and her lawyers at Sanford Heisler Sharp brought claims that were “knowingly baseless,” due to the release she signed upon termination from the firm.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California, who was hearing arguments on a separate set of motions in the case Thursday, found that the Jane Doe plaintiff could sufficiently allege that she faced economic duress when signing the release about a month before her planned maternity leave. However, at the same time she denied Morrison & Foerster's sanctions motion, Corley instructed lawyers at Sanford Heisler not to bring their own retaliatory motion against Morrison & Foerster.