{"id":2691,"date":"2008-12-16T14:28:58","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T19:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2008-12-16T17:58:39","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T22:58:39","slug":"ex-foley-lardner-associate-may-proceed-with-discrimination-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2008\/12\/ex-foley-lardner-associate-may-proceed-with-discrimination-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Foley &amp; Lardner Associate May Proceed with Discrimination Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story gets filed under: &#8220;How Not to Deal with Associate Layoffs and Subsequent Discrimination Allegations&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/law\/2008\/12\/15\/7th-circuit-lets-ex-foley-associate-go-forward-with-discrimination-suit\/\">via the WSJ Law Blog<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Zafar Hasan, a Muslim of Indian descent, claims that, post-9\/11, he was fired from Foley &amp; Lardner because of his religion, race, national origin and color. The district court granted the firm\u2019s motion for summary judgment. [Yesterday], a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit reversed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/resources\/documents\/foleylardner.pdf\">Seventh Circuit opinion in Hasan v. Foley &amp; Lardner, 07-3025 (7th Cir. Dec. 15, 2008) notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Foley initially claimed that it fired Mr. Hasan for poor performance. . . . However, after Foley located Mr. Hasan\u2019s work evaluations, which were mostly positive, the firm changed its tune, maintaining that it actually fired Mr. Hasan not because his work was unacceptable but because it only had enough work to keep the best associates in the department occupied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A reasonable jury could also find that Foley\u2019s alternative explanation \u2014 that it fired Mr. Hasan because the firm did not have enough work for all the associates in the Business Law Department \u2014 is pretextual as well. . . . One partner reported that Mr. Hasan was the only associate fired for lack of work; another testified at his deposition that Foley had dismissed other lawyers because of the economic climate. And the internal firm-wide memo claimed that Foley\u2019s economic performance in 2001-2002 was strong, while Foley now contends that the firm was in a downward spiral that required it to jettison Mr. Hasan. A jury could reasonably infer from these facts that Foley partners directed work towards other, non-Muslim associates in the Business Law Department in order to use Mr. Hasan\u2019s lack of work as a pretext to fire him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A law firm, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foley.com\/services\/practice_detail.aspx?practiceid=45\">especially one with a prominent labor and employment group<\/a>, should just know better.  And, at the very least, not provide law exam fodder for the employment discrimination law professors of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Cross posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/laborprof_blog\/2008\/12\/ex-foley-lardne.html\">Workplace Prof Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story gets filed under: &#8220;How Not to Deal with Associate Layoffs and Subsequent Discrimination Allegations&#8221; (via the WSJ Law Blog): Zafar Hasan, a Muslim of Indian descent, claims that, post-9\/11, he was fired from Foley &amp; Lardner because of his religion, race, national origin and color. The district court granted the firm\u2019s motion for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labor-employment-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}