A former Reed Smith attorney based in New Jersey has sued the Big Law firm, alleging that the firm paid her less because of her gender, and thwarted opportunities to grow her practice.

Sherri Affrunti, who worked at the firm starting in 2002 as an associate and resigned in 2019 to start her own firm, said in a complaint filed Dec. 18 that Reed Smith discriminated against her as a female lawyer. She alleged she “was continuously paid substantially less than her male comparators both within and outside of the Firm’s Princeton Office against whom she outperformed or equally performed.”