Ropes & Gray has settled a two-year-old discrimination lawsuit brought by former partner Patricia Martone, who claimed management routinely passed her clients off to younger male partners and unfairly pushed her out of the firm (NYLJ, March 29, 2011). In a one-page stipulation filed May 16 in the Southern District, Ropes and Martone, 65, agreed that all claims and counterclaims tied to the dispute "are hereby withdrawn" and "dismissed in their entirety, with prejudice," with neither side having to pay the other’s legal fees. "This matter has been settled," a Ropes spokesman said in a statement. "Ropes & Gray wishes Pat Martone well."
The resolution comes seven weeks after Ropes counsel Bettina Plevan, a labor and employment partner at Proskauer Rose, argued at a summary judgment hearing before Southern District Judge John Koeltl that the firm fired Martone in 2010 because it no longer made economic sense to keep her, not because it was discriminating or retaliating against her (NYLJ, March 29, 2013).
