Your browser is not supported. please upgrade to the latest version of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge.

Couple’s Suit Over Parental Leave Is New Challenge to Big Law Firm

Noam Scheiber

08/19/2019

Jones Day, one of the nation’s largest law firms, faced a harsh spotlight this year when six female lawyers filed a class-action complaint saying they had faced gender and pregnancy discrimination while working there and had been subjected to a “fraternity culture.”

Now the glare has intensified, with a couple formerly employed at Jones Day charging in a federal lawsuit that the firm discriminated in its parental-leave policies and that the husband was fired after he questioned the practice.

The complaint, filed Tuesday, maintains that the firm and some of its partners promoted crude stereotypes about gender roles, with a prominent male partner asking rhetorically, “What would a man do on parental leave — watch his wife unload the dishwasher?” The same partner, the suit claims, teased a male associate for taking parental leave to care for a child.

The plaintiffs are Mark C. Savignac and Julia Sheketoff, who worked in the firm’s elite appellate practice in Washington. Their lawsuit asserts that Jones Day’s policy unlawfully denied Mr. Savignac the full leave he was entitled to after their son was born in January and that it unlawfully fired him when he complained about the policy.

    Parental Leave

Load older comments...

Loading comments...

Add comment

11

September 2022

William, Harry, Catherine and Meghan reunite to honor Queen Elizabeth II

08

October 2022

RemotePC™ Enables Users to Access and Manage their Remote Computers from any iOS or Andr...

23

November 2021

Concerns Grow Over Safety of Aduhelm After Death of Patient Who Got the Drug

29

July 2021

Women Surgeons at Greater Risk of Pregnancy Loss, Study Finds

21

September 2022

GM to sell up to 175,000 electric vehicles to Hertz through 2027

You've Been Timed Out

Please login to continue