?Two founding partners resigned from a Los Angeles law firm after their former law firm released a slew of emails showing their use of racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ slurs.
John Barber and Jeffrey Ranen left the firm they recently launched. Both served in the labor and employment practice, defending corporations against harassment and discrimination lawsuits. Barber and Ranen did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.
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Name Change
The law firm Barber Ranen has changed its name, a firm spokesperson said, after the publication of racist, antisemitic, homophobic and violently misogynistic e-mails written by Barber and Ranen. The firm will now be called Daugherty Lordan.
Barber and Ranen resigned on June 5, after their former law firm, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, released dozens of e-mails they wrote while working there. The pair formed Barber Ranen in May, bringing nearly 140 lawyers with them from their former firm.
(Reuters)
Prejudiced Language
Lewis Brisbois released scores of e-mails in which Barber and Ranen used vile terms for women, Black people, Armenians, Persians, and gay men and traded in offensive stereotypes of Jews and Asians. The e-mails stretched back 15 years.
In an investigation, the firm found “unacceptable, prejudiced language” was “aimed at our colleagues, clients, attorneys from other firms, and even judges,” the firm said in a statement.
“The last 72 hours have been the most difficult of our lives, as we have had to acknowledge and reckon with those e-mails,” Barber and Ranen said in a joint statement announcing their resignations. “We are ashamed of the words we wrote, and we are deeply sorry.”
Lewis Brisbois recently retained a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant to review its internal practices.
Liability for Hostile Work Environment
The single use of a racial epithet can give rise to a viable claim of a hostile work environment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Title VII prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
Warning Against Racial Slurs
In a Texas case, an employer was not liable for racial harassment because it had warned employees that any further use of racial epithets at work would result in termination, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled.
