Former Fried Frank Associate Sues For $50m
About a year ago a former litigation associate at U.S. firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson claimed that the firm refused to promote her to partner because she was openly gay.
Julie Kamps filed the complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and with human rights divisions in New York and the case went to mediation. According to a press release at the time: “During her decade-long tenure at the firm, there has never been more than one openly gay partner and no openly gay partners in the New York litigation department.”
Whilst the mediation was taking place, Kamps was apparently fired. That was not the end of the story however. Kamps is now preparing to file a $50m (£31m) lawsuit in which she is also seeking to be reinstated to Fried Frank as a partner.
Am Law Daily : In the complaint, to be filed this week, Kamps claims that Janice Mac Avoy, a litigation partner, “knowingly made unwelcome sexual advances and sexual comments to Kamps, both alone and in the presence of others.” Mac Avoy allegedly “told Kamps it was ‘the biggest regret of her life’ that she had not slept with Kamps ‘when she had the chance,’” and discussed various sexual acts with Kamps, the complaint states. Kamps also alleges that Mac Avoy encouraged her to “wear women’s clothes,” because William McGuinness, chair of the firm’s litigation department, believed Kamps’s preference for men’s shirts could “make clients uncomfortable.”
Her taste in shirts is rapidly falling down the list of things that might cause discomfort.
