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Sex, Drugs and Lawsuits at Boston Law Firm

This story about an associate who claims that her law firm failed to investigate her complaint that she had been drugged at a firm holiday party, and that another associate had been drugged and raped, seems like a plot out of a TV show like Boston Legal -- but unfortunately, it's not. 

According to the article, yesterday, the associate, Michelle Moor, filed a discrimination complaint at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, asserting that the firm did not take her allegations seriously. The complaint describes that Moor had two glasses of wine at the firm holiday party.  Later, feeling ill, she went to an emergency room, where a blood test revealed she had ingested Tegretol, an antiseizure medication that can cause memory loss when mixed with alcohol.  When Moor later told a more senior associate about the incident, the other associate confided that she had been raped by a Bingham employee the year before and reported the incident to the police.  She did not, however, tell the firm, for fear of not being promoted.  Subsequently, Moor reported both incidents to the firm's human resources officer, who said that the firm would investigate.  Later, Moor overhead a discussion where a Bingham employee revealed that he enjoyed having sex with women who were unconscious and that he knew where to get date-rape drugs.  Moor brought this information to the human resources office as well.  Eventually, Moor left the firm over concerns for her safety -- and thereafter, the firm issued a notice to employees about the drugging incident.

If Bingham were representing a company where an employee reported the type of conduct that Moor did, I'm certain that they'd advise their client to undertake a full investigation of the incident, collect statements and take remedial action if necessary.   Likewise, I'm guessing that Paul Hastings would have advised its clients not to act so insensitively in terminating a potentially protected employee.  Why don't law firms take the same advice that they'd render to their clients?

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on May 8, 2008 at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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