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3. Lawyer alleges BigLaw firm fired her 11 days…

Disability Law

Lawyer alleges BigLaw firm fired her 11 days after she disclosed epilepsy diagnosis, violating disability law

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 10, 2025, 9:00 am CDT

A former lawyer at Ballard Spahr has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired for taking medical leave after suffering gastrointestinal problems and a seizure.

Kimberly Steefel, a former of counsel for Ballard Spahr, filed the April 8 suit in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York, Law360 reports in a story noted by Above the Law.

Steefel learned that she was being fired in October 2022 on the day that she returned to the law firm’s New York office from medical leave, according to her suit. Only 11 days before she had disclosed her epilepsy diagnosis and her medical provider’s recommendation for an accommodation in the form of a flexible work schedule, the suit says.

Steefel suffered from gastrointestinal problems and what she thought was her first seizure before beginning the medical leave. She later sought “16 reasonable accommodations for her epilepsy,” the suit says.

The accommodations stemmed from the effect of epilepsy on stamina and concentration and the need to “avoid environments pervaded by anxiety and hostility,” which can lower the seizure threshold, according to the suit.

There was no attempt to discuss accommodations, the suit says. Steefel was initially told that her employment would end no later than mid-January 2023, but the date was later pushed back to mid-April 2023.

Before she learned of her firing, Steefel had “received nothing but praise and positive feedback” for her work, the suit says.

Her suit alleges discrimination, retaliation, hostile treatment and wrongful termination on the basis of Steefel’s disabilities and gender in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state and local anti-discrimination laws.

The suit alleges that the firm has a history of discriminating against disabled people, pointing to Ballard Spahr lawyer job ads with “nonsensical physical requirements” that include the ability to “stand, walk, bend and stoop,” to sit for long periods of time, and to “lift up to 40 pounds.”

Steefel also alleges that her practice group, the employee benefits and executive compensation group, created a hostile work environment on the basis of sex.

The group had a “systematic practice” of “replacing the junior- or mid-level female attorneys with other female attorneys at the same or lower level, thus keeping the cycle of maintaining females at lower-level positions only, and at the same time, hiring into and promoting to more senior-level positions only males,” the suit says.

Ballard Spahr provided this statement to the ABA Journal: “The firm disputes the allegations contained in Ms. Steefel’s complaint, and in particular, that she was terminated due to an alleged disability or her gender. The firm will defend the case vigorously.”

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3. Suit alleging Jones Day’s family-leave policy…

Law Firms

Suit alleging Jones Day’s family-leave policy discriminates against men can go to trial, judge rules

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 26, 2024, 10:52 am CDT

A federal judge has ruled that two former associates at Jones Day can go to trial on seven claims against the law firm, including allegations that its family-leave policy discriminates against male attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss of Washington, D.C., ruled in a brief Sept. 25 order. He temporarily sealed a decision with his reasoning to allow for proposed redactions to protect confidential business information and privacy interests of third parties.

Law360, Reuters, Law.com and Bloomberg Law have coverage.

The plaintiffs, Mark Savignac and his wife, Julia Sheketoff, had challenged Jones Day’s family-leave policy that grants 18 weeks of paid leave to new mothers who are primary caregivers but only 10 weeks to biological fathers in the same situation. The extra eight weeks for mothers are labeled disability leave, but the reality is that all biological mothers are given the extra paid time off, the lawsuit alleged.

The two lawyers say they complained about the Jones Day policies in a January 2019 email shortly after Sheketoff left the firm to become an appellate public defender. Savignac was fired three business days later.

Moss had allowed the August 2019 suit to proceed to discovery in September 2020. The former associates filed a third amended complaint in September 2022.

In his Sept. 25 order, Moss allowed claims of sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act and the D.C. Human Rights Act. He also allowed claims of retaliation in violation of Title VII, the Fair Labor Standards Act as amended by the Equal Pay Act and the D.C. Human Rights Act.

He tossed claims, however, of sex discrimination based on Sheketoff’s performance review and pay and the firm’s “black box” compensation system. He also tossed claims that Jones Day interfered with Savignac’s protected right to family leave by firing him while on leave.

Savignac and Sheketoff are former law clerks for then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

A mother and father in Indiana have been arrested for allegedly killing their 1-month-old daughter, violently beating and shaking the newborn and then not seeking medical attention for nearly a week as the victim slowly died in the home.

Gerard Dante Coger, 21, and Janaya Kimberly Hobson, 19, were taken into custody last week and charged with a spate of felonies, including two counts each of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, three counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, and depriving a dependent of necessary support in the slaying of Royal Coger, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

Additionally, Coger is facing one count of murder and one count of aggravated battery in his son’s horrific death.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the couple showed up at Methodist Hospital’s Northlake campus on Dec. 15 carrying young Royal who “appeared to have been suffering from abusive head trauma.” The couple had walked about a mile with the baby to arrive at the facility.

Unfortunately, the child succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead on Dec. 18.

A caseworker with the Indiana Department of Child Services then reportedly contacted the Gary, Indiana Police Department to report the child’s suspicious injuries.

The doctor who first spoke with Coger and Hobson on Dec. 15 and explained that the newborn was likely going to die because she’d been violently shaken, said the couple responded by staring back at her “like a deer in headlights,” per the Tribune. As the conversation continued, the doctor noted it was Coger who “did most of the talking” and described Hobson as appearing “flat.” She said “neither were angry” and both denied ever shaking Royal.