via
Getty)
If
an
employee
tells
you
—
repeatedly,
over
the
course
of
months
—
that
the
work
environment
is
making
them
physically
ill,
firing
them
roughly
a
month
after
they
take
disability
leave
sounds
like
a
lawsuit
in
the
making.
K&L
Gates
is
learning
this
lesson
the
hard
way.
Bonnie
Carter,
a
former
IT
manager
has
filed
a
federal
lawsuit
against
the
firm
in
the
Western
District
of
Pennsylvania,
asserting
claims
of
discrimination,
retaliation,
and
hostile
work
environment.
The
heart
of
the
allegations
are
that
the
firm
violated
the
Americans
with
Disabilities
Act
by
terminating
her
just
32
days
after
she
returned
from
approved
short-term
disability
leave.
And
the
timeline
the
complaint
lays
out
is,
to
use
a
legal
term
of
art,
not
super
great
for
the
defense.
Carter
joined
K&L
Gates
in
March
2023
as
Manager
of
Endpoint
Engineering,
overseeing
IT
engineers
and
handling
technical
issues
across
the
firm’s
global
offices.
She
alleges
that
she
received
positive
performance
reviews
in
December
2023
and
December
2024
and
routinely
worked
50-plus
hour
weeks.
According
to
the
complaint,
problems
began
when
the
firm
hired
a
new
Chief
Information
Officer,
Harpreet
Suri,
in
August
2023.
Within
months,
plaintiff
alleges
that
the
new
regime
set
the
tone
by
telling
IT
staff
that
“everyone
she
has
encountered
in
the
IT
department
is
generally
lazy
and
gets
paid
too
much.”
There
are
allegations
that
the
CIO
“routinely
yelled
and
screamed”
at
IT
staff,
made
threats
about
job
security,
and
generally
ran
the
department
through
intimidation.
One
notable
allegation
claims
that
after
the
plaintiff’s
team
successfully
completed
an
assignment
to
perform
about
100
hours
of
coding
over
four
days,
the
only
reward
for
working
through
the
nights
was
a
call
to
berate
them
for
causing
the
rush
—
a
rush
that
management
imposed
upon
them
—
through
poor
planning.
By
early
2025,
plaintiff
says
the
environment
had
taken
a
tangible
physical
toll.
She
was
vomiting
in
the
mornings,
unable
to
sleep,
and
suffered
severe
stomach
pain.
Between
January
and
September
2025,
she
claims
she
raised
these
issues
with
her
direct
supervisor
on
at
least
four
separate
occasions,
explicitly
connecting
her
health
problems
to
the
workplace.
On
September
10,
2025,
Carter’s
physician
told
her
she
needed
to
immediately
reduce
her
stress
levels
and
mandated
a
medical
leave
of
absence.
She
applied
for
and
was
granted
short-term
disability
leave
through
October
6,
2025.
When
she
returned
to
work
on
October
6,
the
complaint
alleges
that
her
supervisor’s
demeanor
was
“dramatically
and
immediately
different,”
and
Carter’s
work
scope
shrunk
to
just
two
projects.
This
effectively
stripped
her
of
approximately
85
percent
of
her
job
responsibilities.
Then,
32
days
after
her
return,
Carter
received
a
Teams
call
invite.
Nothing
good
ever
happens
over
Teams,
and
this
was
no
exception.
An
HR
rep
informed
Carter
that
her
“position
has
been
eliminated.”
A
lawyer
trying
to
avoid
litigation
might’ve
suggested
waiting
at
least
more
than
a
month
before
putting
the
firm
in
a
position
that
looks
so
retaliatory.
When
reached
for
comment,
the
firm
replied
that
“the
firm
does
not
comment
on
personnel
matters.”
The
lack
of
comment
isn’t
surprising,
though
personally
I’d
placed
my
money
on
the
firm
citing
ongoing
litigation
as
opposed
to
“personnel
matters.”
Once
there’s
a
federal
lawsuit,
it
feels
like
it’s
grown
a
bit
beyond
a
mere
personnel
matter.
HRD,
a
human
resources
publication,
put
it
this
way:
For
HR
teams,
the
sequence
here
is
hard
to
look
away
from.
An
employee
raises
health
concerns
tied
to
the
workplace
multiple
times.
Management
acknowledges
but
does
not
act.
The
employee
takes
approved
leave.
She
returns
to
a
sharply
reduced
role.
Weeks
later,
she
is
gone.
That
is
the
kind
of
chain
of
events
that
draws
legal
attention
—
and
the
kind
that
better
internal
processes
might
have
interrupted
well
before
it
reached
a
courtroom.
This
also
isn’t
K&L
Gates’s
first
rodeo
with
ADA
claims.
Back
in
2020,
another
Pittsburgh-based
employee
—
a
data
specialist
named
Frank
Krastman
—
sued
the
firm
under
the
ADA
after
alleging
he
was
fired
for
requesting
disability
accommodations
related
to
anxiety
and
ADHD.
No
one
will
confuse
Biglaw
with
a
warm
and
fuzzy
environment.
The
work
is
high-impact
and
the
deadlines
are
tight.
In
an
industry
that
is
—
for
now
—
denominated
in
time,
every
level
of
the
firm
finds
itself
stressed.
But
just
because
Biglaw
is
a
pressure
cooker
doesn’t
mean
the
staff
has
to
contend
with
physical
illness
brought
on
by
the
job.
(The
complaint
in
Carter
v.
K&L
Gates
LLP,
No.
2:26-cv-00577
is
on
the
next
page…)
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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