Jones Day, responding to a gender bias lawsuit filed last week that accused the firm of maintaining a “fraternity” atmosphere and took aim at its “black box” compensation system, indicated through a handful of court filings Tuesday that it will ask a San Francisco state court to place case records under seal and alleged that the suit should not have been filed in light of the firm’s partnership agreement.
Former Jones Day partner Wendy Moore, now a Perkins Coie partner in Palo Alto, filed the lawsuit as a representative action under California’s Private Attorneys General Act. On behalf of herself and other “aggrieved” employees of the firm, Moore alleged that her former law firm violated California’s equal pay law and the state’s Labor Code through “systematic gender discrimination in compensation.” Her complaint accused the firm of operating “as a fraternity” that marginalizes women lawyers and treats them as “second-class citizens.”
