Weekly performance meetings in glass room visible to others were retaliatory, plaintiff says in suit against Morgan Lewis

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Law Firms Weekly performance meetings in glass room visible to others were retaliatory, plaintiff says in suit against Morgan Lewis

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 1, 2024, 3:37 pm CDT

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A Black patent prosecution specialist born in 1962 alleges that Morgan, Lewis & Bockius gave better opportunities to white, younger co-workers and retaliated when she complained by holding weekly performance meetings in a glass-walled conference room visible to colleagues. (Image from Shutterstock)

A Black patent prosecution specialist born in 1962 alleges that Morgan, Lewis & Bockius gave better opportunities to white, younger co-workers and retaliated when she complained by holding weekly performance meetings in a glass-walled conference room visible to colleagues.

Melinda Robertson filed the lawsuit March 28 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Law360 has the story.

Robertson says for the first few months of her employment in 2022, she was responsible for preparing, filing and uploading information disclosure statements into the law firm’s portal at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Robertson was then told in April 2022 that her largest client, General Electric, was being assigned to another office. She was demoted to reporting only incoming Patent and Trademark Office documents, which prevented her from training on a new system, the suit says. She later learned, however, that the General Electric work was assigned to a colleague in her office.

Robertson also says she was assigned substantially less work than white employees in the same position, and she was not given overtime work, despite the firm’s announcement that it was available to anyone who wanted it.

Frustrated by her lack of progress, Robertson applied for a job as a legal secretary. She was told that she was qualified, but her manager refused to sign the transfer request form. Instead, Robertson was notified in September 2022 that there were deficiencies in her performance.

Robertson complained to the human resources department that same month that she was the victim of discrimination based on age and race. The weekly meetings in the glass room began. She left the firm Nov. 30, 2022, “due to the intolerable nature of her employment,” the suit says.

The suit alleges violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as well as retaliation.

Morgan Lewis did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.

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