For those who track such things, there is never a shortage of litigation involving Am Law 200 firms as either defendants or plaintiffs. Several suits in particular have caught the attention of the legal media in recent weeks, including Shook, Hardy & Bacon being targeted by the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the estate of convicted Florida Ponzi schemer—and notorious University of Miami football booster—Nevin Shapiro; a former Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr associate filing a $5 million discrimination suit against that firm for allegedly retaliating against her for taking adoption leave; and Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice drawing fire from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations it dismissed an employee who had undergone treatment for cancer.
Several firms, meanwhile, enjoyed positive developments in connection with suits filed against them. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, for instance, won a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirming that the firm did not engage in racial discrimination when it laid off former associate Tameka Simmons, who is black, in 2009 amid the economic downturn. A separate racial discrimination suit filed against Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in New York federal district court by a former contract attorney alleging she was assigned less lucrative work than others at the firm was also dismissed.
