When
it
comes
to
work-life
balance,
some
firms
do
a
good
job
of
recognizing
that
their
employees
are
also
people.
DLA
Piper
came
under
fire
for
slashing
their
parental
leave
by
six
weeks
last
year
—
shows
you
where
they
stand
on
that.
The
year
before,
the
firm
was
sued
by
Anisha
Mehta.
She
claimed
that
the
firm
fired
her,
a
seventh-year
associate,
for
requesting
to
take
maternity
leave
—
they
showed
her
the
door
six
days
after
she
made
her
request.
She’s
still
going
toe-to-toe
with
the
firm
over
the
firing,
and
the
case
is
heading
to
trial.
Reuters
has
coverage:
U.S.
District
Judge
Analisa
Torres
said
that
Anisha
Mehta,
a
former
senior
associate
in
the
firm’s
intellectual
property
group
in
San
Francisco
and
New
York,
“presented
evidence
that
could
reasonably
cast
doubt
on
DLA’s
purported
reason
for
firing
her.”
It
is
worth
remembering
that
when
DLA
Piper
claimed
that
they
fired
her
over
“a
series
of
increasingly
catastrophic
blunders,”
they
pointed
to
typos
that
were
caught
before
the
documents
left
the
firm
and
the
rather
subjective
“sloppy
work
product.”
As
silly
as
it
would
be
to
fire
someone
for
those
reasons,
it
is
only
fair
game
if
the
justification
isn’t
actually
a
pretext
for
firing
someone
over
something
you
can’t
fire
them
for.
After
seeing
the
evidence,
the
presiding
judge
has
some
doubts:
[Judge
Torres]
…
said
DLA
Piper’s
performance-based
rationale
for
firing
Mehta
is
“at
best,
in
tension
with
other
evidence
in
the
record
or,
at
worst,
plainly
contradicted
by
it,”
citing
raises
and
bonuses
she
earned
during
her
time
at
the
firm,
as
well
as
Mehta’s
work
with
an
important
client.
Really
bad
business
move
to
put
someone
you
think
has
sloppy
work
product
on
an
important
client’s
matter.
A
jury
will
ultimately
decide
if
DLA
Piper
was
cutting
their
losses
after
making
a
poor
personnel
assignment
on
a
high-value
case
or
cut
a
valued
employee
who
was
with
them
for
nearly
a
decade
because
she
was
going
to
give
birth.
Not
really
sure
which
outcome
is
better
for
the
firm’s
reputation.
Law
Firm
DLA
Piper
Must
Face
Lawsuit
Over
Pregnancy
Bias,
Judge
Rules
[Reuters]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
is
learning
to
swim, is
interested
in
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.