5 days ago
NY judge tosses racial discrimination lawsuit against WilmerHale law firm
Aug 6 (Reuters) - A New York state court judge has thrown out an ex-WilmerHale associate's discrimination and defamation lawsuit against the U.S. law firm.
Jean Dassie, who is Black, said he was discriminated against because of his race and that the firm defamed him in his 2022 year-end evaluation. Dassie alleged that despite performing above average, he was told he would not be promoted to counsel and was terminated following his 2023 mid-year review.
New York County Supreme Court Justice David Cohen on Tuesday tossed out Dassie's lawsuit, opens new tab against WilmerHale and Anh-Khoa Tran, a former counsel at the firm, who both denied wrongdoing. The defendants were shielded from defamation claims because they had a "common interest in communicating about plaintiff's job performance," Cohen said.
Cohen also dismissed Dassie's discrimination and hostile work environment claims, finding that he did not make any allegations that members of the firm had made comments about Dassie's race or national origin.
Because Dassie "has not shown any animus toward him based on his race or national origin, his hostile work environment claim may not be maintained," Cohen said.
Dassie did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Tran or a spokesperson for WilmerHale. Lawyers from Proskauer Rose defended both WilmerHale and Tran in the litigation.
Dassie's lawsuit centered on a 2022 confrontation he had with Tran over the editing of PowerPoint slides. Dassie alleged that Tran gave a false report of the confrontation to WilmerHale, which affected his 2022 year-end evaluation.
WilmerHale's evaluation said Dassie had an altercation with a supervising attorney that was "inconsistent with WilmerHale culture and values."
