What You Need to Know

• Fourteen years' worth of emails between former Lewis Brisbois lawyers have reignited conversations about how problematic behavior gets instilled in law.
• One exchange shows a partner repeating a slur first used a decade earlier by Barber Raben founder Jeffrey Ranen.
• DEI professionals say it's not realistic to put the onus on interrupting bad behavior on subordinates given the power dynamics of law firms.

As late as October 2022, partners at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith fielded complaints about the tradition of obliging associates to sing their schools’ fight songs at a holiday party, emails released by the firm last week show.

“My associates have formed a union and they vociferously object to it,” Jeffrey Ranen, former vice chair of the firm’s employment department, said in an email to fellow partners who would all join him at the firm he and department chair John Barber would form seven months later.

Want to continue reading?
Become an ALM Digital Reader for Free!

Benefits of a Digital Membership

• Free access to 1 article* every 30 days
• Access to the entire ALM network of websites
• Unlimited access to the ALM suite of newsletters
• Build custom alerts on any search topic of your choosing
• Search by a wide range of topics

Already have an account? https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMie2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmxhdy5jb20vYW1lcmlj...