LA County Fires Lewis Brisbois Over Racist Emails... From Lawyers Who Left The Firm... That The Firm Disclosed To The Public
Query: Should the client punish the lawyers' prior firm for this?
According to a report from Bloomberg, Los Angeles County has dumped Lewis Brisbois over racist, sexist, antisemitic, and all around gross emails exchanged by former Lewis Brisbois partners.
Which got us thinking… is this the right outcome?
After all, the partners at issue have already left Lewis Brisbois, decamping for their own firm which very rapidly ceased to be their own firm after they resigned. In fact, this all came to light because Lewis Brisbois released the emails, claiming that they only learned of the emails recently. Assuming that’s true… should Lewis Brisbois be penalized here?
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On the other hand:
“Our office expects that law firms with whom we contract actively promote and practice inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism, and treat everyone in their workforce with dignity and respect,” [LA County Counsel Dawyn Harrison] said. “It is critical that firms handling our most sensitive matters are empathetic to and compassionate toward the constituents we serve,” she said.
The highest levels of the firm might not have known what was going on in this group, but the fact that it happened at all speaks to a breakdown in firm culture. As a client, LA County is distancing itself from a place where emails like these could ever happen.
What is a law firm? If it’s a collection of partner fiefdoms, then the current version of Lewis Brisbois doesn’t have anything to do with what Barber and Ranen did. If it’s a unified entity, then it has to treat oversight of its constituent practice groups seriously and accept responsibility when this happens on its watch. The latter seems like the better model.
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“We are in a dialogue with our longtime client and have no additional comment at this time,” Lewis Brisbois spokesperson Chris Coffey said.
Feel free to have a dialogue, but the county isn’t likely to budge.
LA County Cuts Ties With Lewis Brisbois After Racist Emails [Bloomberg Law News]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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