Gender Bias Suit Hits Employment Firm Ogletree

Ogletree Deakins, one of the nation’s largest labor and employment firms, has been sued for gender discrimination in a class action filed in the name of its female non-equity shareholders. The complaint alleges the firm has a  “do as I say not as I do” practice, and it quotes a managing shareholder as saying that “we’re not real good at practicing what we preach.” Female shareholders, according to the complaint, “face discrimination in pay, promotions, and other unequal opportunities in the terms and conditions of their employment,” and male shareholders “are disproportionately over-represented at every level of the Firm’s management and leadership structure.” Ogletree, in a press release that predated the filing of the complaint, maintains it has an outstanding diversity record and touts the numerous honors it has received for its “achievements in diversity and gender inclusion.” The plaintiff firm, Sanford Heisler Sharp, in a statement on its website, couches this suit in the context of the #MeToo movement, although they are cautious about it. “We are at a cultural tipping point where women in the workplace will no longer tolerate unfair treatment,” writes attorney Jill Sanford, “whether it comes in the form of sexual harassment or, as seems true at Ogletree, discriminatory pay and promotion practices that disadvantage women.”