Biglaw Firm Accused Of Firing Immunocompromised Paralegal Who Asked To Work From Home
The Am Law 100 firm is being sued under under state, federal, and New York City laws.
As Biglaw firms attempt to get their employees back into the office at any cost in the wake of the pandemic, one Am Law 100 firm now stands accused of firing an immunocompromised staff member in retaliation for his request to work from home after receiving a cancerous diagnosis.
Steven Miller had worked as a litigation paralegal in Pillsbury’s New York office since 2013. In a suit he filed against the firm last week, he claims that despite talks of returning to the office during the coronavirus crisis, Pillsbury had previously allowed him to work from home following his 2021 diagnosis with JAK2, a “cancerous condition” that put him at high risk of contracting COVID-19. At the time, he’d submitted a letter from his doctor that urged him to work remotely, and the firm complied with his doctor’s orders, seeing as everyone else was still working from home.
As noted in the complaint, Miller was fired on February 15, 2022, shortly after he sent HR a January 26 letter from his oncologist requesting that he be allowed to work from home until July 2022 — a time that stood in conflict with the firm’s planned return-to-office date of February 22. The American Lawyer has the details on what Miller alleges happened next (which sounds quite reminiscent of a stealth layoff):
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Supervisors had cited poor performance as the reason for Miller’s termination, even though Miller’s most recent performance review had been positive, according to the complaint. Miller claims that Pillsbury discriminated against him “based on his disability and retaliated against him for requesting reasonable accommodations for his disability.”
Miller is suing Pillsbury under state, federal, and city laws, and discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as retaliatory termination can be found among the seven causes of action listed in his complaint.
A Pillsbury spokesperson offered the following statement on Miller’s lawsuit: “These allegations are without merit, and we are confident in our defense. We continue to be recognized by the leading organization for business disability inclusion as one of the best places to work.”
Pillsbury Fired Immunocompromised Paralegal for Work-From-Home Request, Suit Alleges [American Lawyer]
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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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