Which firm recently found out that one of its partners was involved in a sexist email scandal, and is doing absolutely nothing about it?

21 May 2014 at 11:51 AM

Biglaw, Email Scandals, Gender, Partner Issues, Rudeness, Sexism, Sports, Women's Issues

Biglaw Partner Avoids Punishment For Participation In Lewd, Crude, Sexist Email Scandal

By Staci Zaretsky

‘Have spent all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft.’

We already knew that Biglaw firms aren’t exactly the most friendly places for women. We already knew that some male lawyers are still quite miffed that women invaded their good old boys’ clubs. What we didn’t know was that some Biglaw firms would go so far as to essentially sign off on their partners’ extremely sexist views.
Which firm recently found out that one of its partners was involved in a sexist email scandal, and is doing absolutely nothing about it?

The firm in question is DLA Piper, which may want to consider opening a DLA NO MA’AM outpost. Earlier this month, one of the firm’s sports law partners in the London office was caught exchanging incredibly lewd, crude, and sexist emails with one of his clients, Richard ­Scudamore of the U.K. Premier League.
The Sunday Mirror first covered the story on May 10, without naming the lawyer involved. A little more than one week later, that lawyer has been named thanks to reporters over at the Am Law Daily. Say hello to Nicholas West, whose DLA Piper bio has been completely wiped clean of his credentials.
Here’s one of West’s darling email exchanges with Scudamore, leaked by the Sunday Mirror:

Nicholas West

In one crude email exchange the lawyer bragged to ­Scudamore: “Have spent all day fending [Premier League planning and projects director Peta Bistany, aka “Edna”] off my graphite shaft. She is terribly relentless isn’t she?!”
The football chief and father of five who lives with his wife Catherine in a £1.8million home in Cirencester, Glos, replied: “Terribly! Must keep her off your shaft… graphite, sausage meat or flimsy sponge.” Yesterday a Premier League source said the pair claim to have been referring to golf clubs. The lawyer also told Scudamore to “save the cash in case you find some gash”.

DLA Piper launched an inquisition against West after catching wind of his involvement in this extravaganza of crude comments, but ultimately decided to do nothing. Here’s more information from Am Law Daily:

A DLA spokesman told [said] that while the firm had determined that West’s actions represented “a failure to meet the high professional standards in which we take pride,” no further action will be taken.
“We have accepted Mr. West’s assurances that these emails are not reflective of his beliefs and values and that there will be no recurrence of this behavior,” the firm said in a statement.
West released a statement of his own in which he “sincerely apologize[d]” for his actions and admitted that he had “let myself, my firm and its clients down.”
“I have an obligation to uphold the highest professional standards and I give my assurance that this will be the case going forward,” he added.

Here’s what seems to be a more accurate translation of West’s statement: “I let myself, my firm, and its clients down by getting caught. I have an obligation to uphold the highest professional standards, and because I am a lad with true honor, I give my assurance that this will be the case going forward because I won’t be so daft as to put how I really feel down in writing ever again. This is so f’ckn easy! Go United!”
It’s good to know one of the top law firms on the planet doesn’t want to discipline its partners for engaging in sexist behavior — but then again, perhaps DLA Piper feels that Nicholas West’s own embarrassment is good enough. Either way, this can’t be good for public (or pubic, amirite Nick?!) relations.
DLA Clears Partner Caught Up in Sexist Email Furor [Am Law Daily]
England football supremo Richard Scudamore made sexist slurs in a string of emails to soccer pals
[Sunday Mirror]

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Topics

Biglaw, Email, Email Scandals, Emails, Gender, Nicholas West, Partner Issues, Partners With Issues, Peta Bistany, Rudeness, Sexism, Sports, Sports Law, Women's Issues

24 Jan 2014 at 3:59 PM

California, Football, Labor / Employment, Quote of the Day, Sports

Cheerleader Proves To Be Less Than Cheertastic After Suing Her Team

By Staci Zaretsky

I love the Raiders and I love being a Raiderette, but someone has to stand up for all of the women of the NFL who work so hard for the fans and the teams. I hope cheerleaders across the NFL will step forward to join me in demanding respect and fair compensation.

– Lacy T., a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders, commenting on her proposed wage-and-hour class action lawsuit against the team. Lacy alleges that when all cheer squad commitments are taken into consideration, including time spent rehearsing, performing, and appearing at required events, she makes $5 per hour, which is less than the California state minimum wage of $8 per hour.

Skull Reaper Getting Hassled by Rest of City Council

Skull Reaper Getting Hassled by Rest of City Council

Normally stories about city-council dress codes (or at least the ones I notice) involve audience members refusing to wear pants, but this one is about a councilor who won't take off his mask.

Skull Reaper A-ji won a seat on the city council of Oita, Japan, in February, but was not allowed to attend initial meetings last week after refusing to remove his lucha-libre-style wrestling mask for that purpose. According to one report, the majority decided that allowing a masked city councilor would "offend the decency of the Assembly," which sounds like something they just made up because they're not wrestling fans. Another report said the majority cited a rule providing that "a person taking the floor shall not wear items such as a hat." If that rule exists and applies to everybody, that might be different—I'm having trouble thinking of a reason that a wrestling mask would not be an "item such as a hat."
But should they make an exception for Skull Reaper A-Ji? He did campaign in the mask, after all, so if it didn't bother the citizens why should it bother the councilors? In fact, if the citizens voted for masked representation, wouldn't making an exception be the democratic thing to do? Because Japan is awesome, there is actually precedent for such a thing:

A number of politicians who choose to wear wrestling masks have been elected at the local level in Japan, including a councillor who goes by the name Super Delfin in Osaka and the former professional wrestler The Great Sasuke, who was elected to represent Iwate Prefecture in 2003.

"Skull Reaper" is, if anything, more awesome than those guys. But unless the majority has changed its view during the last week or so, he remains shut out of council meetings.
Unless he has changed his own view, that is, and agreed to unmask. As of last week, he was standing firm. "If I take my mask off, I'm an entirely different person," he said, although in fact he would be the same person, just not wearing a mask. Still, "I will not take it off," he insisted. At last report, the stalemate had not been resolved.
These reports don't make it clear whether Skull Reaper A-ji is or has ever been a real wrestler, or if he just likes the masks. There is no suggestion that he is somehow dangerous or prone to violence, and in some legislative bodies that sort of thing might actually come in handy anyway.
Give the people what they want. Or what 2,828 of them wanted, at least.

March 18, 2013 in International Law, Lawmakers/Politicians, Sports, The Inexplicable | Permalink

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http://www.loweringthebar.net/2013/03/skull-reaper-getting-hassled-by-rest-of-city-council.html

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