A federal judge in Boston has tossed out defamation and invasion of privacy claims leveled against Ropes & Gray by former associate John Ray as part of a broader discrimination and retaliation lawsuit targeting the firm [PDF]—in part because Ray’s attorney missed a deadline for formally opposing a motion to dismiss those claims. 

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns dismissed the two counts in an order issued last Tuesday, roughly two months after allowing Ray to add them to the suit he filed against Ropes, 13 of its partners, and its former chief people officer in August 2011 claiming they treated him as the firm’s “token black associate” and a “diversity hire.”