This is a must read … NY Times write….
When Kerrie L. Campbell joined the Washington office of the law firm Chadbourne & Parke in January 2014, she brought more than two decades of experience in consumer product safety and product defamation litigation. But she contends that other Chadbourne partners shut her out of leadership positions and paid her far less than male partners at her level.
After being told this year that she would be terminated, she sued in federal court on Wednesday, asking for a total of $100 million on behalf of herself and other female partners who, she said, receive less compensation than male partners even when they bring in more client revenue.
A five-man management committee at the firm arbitrarily awards male partners more points, which translate into higher dollar compensation, than they do to women, she maintained.
“This meant not only that the deck was stacked against her, she was destined to make two or three times less than her male counterparts did,” her lawyer, David W. Sanford, argued in papers filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
A spokesman for Chadbourne, Jason Costa, said in statement that the law firm denied the gender discrimination claims. “Ms. Campbell’s complaint against the firm is riddled with falsehoods and, once the facts are fully presented, the firm is confident that her allegations will be shown to be completely baseless,” the statement said.
Ms. Campbell’s case gives an unusually detailed look at closely guarded law firm compensation. Firms are famously opaque because they are private partnerships, not public companies, and set their own pay levels. At elite laws firms like Chadbourne, partners earn hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars a year.
Other lawyers like Ms. Campbell are challenging their firms’ remuneration with lawsuits, accusing management of favoring men and penalizing women.
Full story at
