Big law firm leaders are adept at offering platitudes about diversity, equity and inclusion. They extol their “no jerk” policies and their “emphasis on culture and excellence” as ex-Barber Ranen founder John Barber recently put it.
The reality — as now-infamous emails by ex-Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith partners Barber and his colleague Jeffrey Ranen reveal — is not always so high-minded. The fall-out should be a reminder to all firms that bigotry can flourish among powerful partners.
“This is a black eye for many, and it’s still rolling out,” legal PR specialist Elizabeth Lampert told me. “It’s a sad day for the legal industry, but it should be used as an opportunity to educate.”
When rainmakers leave and take a big group of lawyers with them, it’s rarely a feel-good transition. Still, what’s unfolded after Barber and Ranen exited 1,600-lawyer Lewis Brisbois along with nearly 140 colleagues to launch a competing shop (now renamed Daugherty Lordan) in May sets a new benchmark for disaster.
No one is walking away from this scandal unscathed. Not Barber or Ranen, who have decimated their reputations and who may face disciplinary action by the State Bar of California. Not Daugherty Lordan, where at least nine lawyers were copied on one or more offensive emails but still followed Barber and Ranen to their new firm, which has physical offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach and San Francisco, as well as virtual outposts in nine other states.
And not Lewis Brisbois, which over the weekend in a story first reported by the New York Post made public dozens of the ex-partners’ bigoted emails spanning the past decade. It’s a move that screams the question: How did the firm not realize what was going on?
I’ve read the emails — and they are vile.
Women are repeatedly referred to as the c-word, a judge is dubbed “Sugar Tits,” an email about a baby shower uses the n-word (spelled out) as its subject line, men are denigrated as f*gg*ts. Discussing an employee who requested overtime, Barber wrote to “kill her” via a sexual act that I won’t detail.
Antisemitism is pervasive, with Ranen writing in 2012 that “we will not hire Jews.” He also described how he “almost ONLY” emailed opposing counsel, an observant Jew, on the Sabbath, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to answer.
Incredibly, both men are employment lawyers. It’s not as if they didn’t know better. “You need to be way more careful with what you put in writing,” Barber emailed Ranen, who responded, “I’m sure you’re right. Pot – Kettle – Black.”
Barber and Ranen did not respond to a request for comment but issued a lengthy statement to my colleagues on Monday apologizing for the “thoughtless, hurtful and inappropriate words we used and sentiments expressed.” They also said they were “taking time away to explore the ways in which we can most effectively demonstrate our contrition.”
I asked legal recruiter Karen Shafrir Vladeck, a managing director at Whistler Partners, if she thought the duo had a path to redemption.
“I cannot imagine another firm hiring them, nor can I imagine many (if any) of their large corporate clients staying with them,” she said in an email.
Their conduct may also violate the California bar’s Rule 8.4.1, which covers discrimination, harassment and retaliation. While the bar by law cannot confirm whether an investigation is underway, board of trustees chair Ruben Duran in a statement said that the organization “rejects this foul, disrespectful behavior in the strongest possible terms, and I am confident that our Office of Chief Trial Counsel will address this conduct to the extent allowable under current rules and statutes.”
As for Daugherty Lordan, the emails show that while a few lawyers over the years were copied on offensive emails, none appeared to be privy to the full scope. A source familiar with the situation said a “power imbalance” between these subordinate lawyers and Barber, who chaired Lewis Brisbois’ employment group, and Ranen, a vice-chair, that made it difficult to push back or complain.
Indeed, that may largely account for why Lewis Brisbois took no action during Barber and Ranen’s tenure.
Flo Nicolas, co-founder and chief operating officer of DEI Directive, which helps employers leverage diversity, equity and inclusion data and analytics, said firms need to do better. “If you’re missing things under your nose, it shows a disconnect at the leadership level,” she said.
Lewis Brisbois in a statement said after Barber and Ranen quit, the firm received an anonymous complaint about their behavior and launched an investigation. Firm leaders said they were “shocked to find dozens of emails” filled with “unacceptable, prejudiced language.”
But what to do with this pile of odium? A Lewis Brisbois spokesperson in an email said that the management committee “felt it had a moral obligation to be transparent about the emails that were found as soon as possible.”
Firm leaders consulted ethics experts before arriving at the decision to go public and have also retained a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, according to the spokesperson.
Still, the emails weren’t just dumped. There was also an index flagging all the offensive comments to make it extra-easy for reporters to find them.
Might Barber and Ranen argue they’d been defamed or their privacy was violated?
Pansky Markle partner Ellen Pansky, who is based in California and focuses on attorney misconduct and malpractice matters, was skeptical, though she cautioned that she’s not privy to the details of the case. But in general, she told me, “If a lawyer is using a firm’s email, there’s case law that there’s no expectation of privacy.”