In June, when the internal emails of former Lewis Brisbois partners John Barber and Jeff Ranen were leaked to the New York Post a month after the partners, along with over 100 other attorneys, left the firm to start their own, Barber Ranen, it offered another lesson to learn in crisis management.

The emails revealed years of sexist, racist, misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic language by the two partners, and in the aftermath, they resigned from the new firm, which was renamed Daugherty Lordan. And anyone who believes their bad behavior ”doesn’t matter” because “they always talk that way behind the scenes” and not publicly is wrong, said marketing consultant Raleigh Mayer.