Ogletree becomes most recent firm hit with discrimination claim

SAN FRANCISCO — Labor and employment defense firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC has joined the ranks of legal industry employers that have been sued by women attorneys claiming they were discriminated against and undercompensated.

Dawn Knepper, a non-equity shareholder at Ogletree, filed the class action, represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP.

The case was filed in the Northern District of California. Knepper v. Ogletree, 18-CV00304 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 12, 2018).

Knepper claims male-dominated management and compensation committees steer an inordinate amount of credit for the firm’s business successes to other men in the firm, creating an unfair system.

“On average, Ogletree currently pays its male shareholders approximately $110,000 more than its female shareholders, in target compensation and bonus alone,” David Sanford, a partner representing the plaintiff, wrote in the complaint. “Between 2014 and 2016, the average amount of origination credits for male shareholders was nearly double that of female shareholders.”

Ryan D. King, a spokesman for Ogletree, wrote in an emailed statement that the firm has an open compensation system, allowing all shareholders to know what their colleagues earn. He said women have been fairly compensated.

“Under this system, full-time female non-equity shareholders in California have made more on average than their male counterparts in each of the last four years,” he wrote. “And the same is true if you compare female and male equity shareholders in California.”

King added that eight of the firm’s 11 new shareholders promoted Jan. 1 are women.

The fight over business origination credit has been brewing for some time. In 2011, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took the extraordinary step of demanding that it approve who got origination credit for its cases. The move resulted in dozens of women and minority partners getting credit in their law firms for Wal-Mart cases that they worked on, General Counsel Tom Mars said at the time.

The complaint against Ogletree bears many similarities to other cases Sanford Heisler has filed on behalf of female attorneys suing their employers, but Sanford hopes that this case will differentiate itself from the others by escaping arbitration and getting into the courtroom.

Sanford said Ogletree’s arbitration agreement had an opt-out clause. Knepper claims she didn’t sign the agreement. Sanford said the firm has more than 100 female non-equity partners and he expects to amend the complaint to add more plaintiffs later in the month. He said it was his understanding that Knepper wasn’t the only prospective class member who declined to sign the arbitration agreement. Sanford represented Sedgwick LLP partner Traci Ribeiro in her case against the firm. Sedgwick moved the case into arbitration and settled it last April. That firm has since dissolved.

Sanford Heisler is involved in similar litigation against Chadbourne & Parke LLP, which recently merged into Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. The plaintiffs’ firm also represents a woman partner in a lawsuit against Proskauer Rose LLP.

Steptoe & Johnson LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP also face employment lawsuits by female attorneys, although Sanford isn’t involved in those cases.

Sanford said the public cases are the tip of the iceberg, because he initially attempts to settle in the pre-litigation phase by working directly with the defendant firms.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer said it has been difficult to pursue class actions due to the pervasiveness of arbitration agreements, but he has been able to get pre-litigation settlements for groups of women at some firms.