Biglaw Practice Leader Encourages Women To Tell Him If They Plan On Becoming Pregnant… For ‘Budgetary Reasons’

From Above the Law authored by Sophie Power as told to Elie Mystal:

“You’d really think that a law firm partner would know better than to potentially violate anti-discrimination laws in a well attended meeting of a practice group.

Then again, most people don’t really know Jones Day. The firm has built up quite a reputation during the Trump era for aiding and abetting the President, and the firm wasn’t exactly known as a great place for women even before it hitched its wagon to the sexual predator-in-chief.

Still, what went down last week at the Business and Tort Litigation group meeting in Cleveland crosses a line, even for Jones Day.

Sources report that, at the meeting, women in the group were “encouraged” to tell management if they were pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant within the next year. They said that this would help the group plan its budget.

We’re told that partner Stephen Sozio, who is co-leader of the firm’s health care practice and chair of the firm’s litigation department in Cleveland, added that he understood if women who were in their first trimester were uncomfortable talking to him. He encouraged those women to contact his administrative assistant and tell her about their plans.”

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