Following up on my previous posts (links below): Bloomberg Law, Fired Muslim Associate Says Pro-Israel Foley Managing Partner Tanked Her Job:
A Muslim summer associate who was fired by Foley & Lardner over Gaza comments claims that the firm’s late chair was instrumental in her dismissal.
Jinan Chehade said that former managing partner Stan Jaspan “admitted that he — not CEO Doogal — made the decision to revoke” her offer despite being told that she “had unequivocally condemned the Hamas attacks,” according to a filing made Wednesday in opposition to Foley’s motion for summary judgment.
Chehade claims that Jaspan revoked her offer over the objections of several other Foley & Lardner partners and staff, including its DEI chief Eileen Ridley and its CEO Daljit Doogal.
Bloomberg Law, Foley Rejects Claim Former Leader Had Role in Firing Arab Lawyer:
Foley & Lardner rejected a former summer associate’s claim that the firm’s late chair was instrumental in her dismissal.
The claim “has no basis in fact and is borne of unsupported allegations and gross mischaracterizations of the record,” the firm said in a court filing Wednesday.
Foley & Lardner revoked a job offer in October 2023 over comments the former summer associate, Jinan Chehade, made about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which has sparked ongoing nationwide campus protests. The firm’s current CEO, Daljit Doogal, made the decision to rescind the offer, the firm said in its filing. …
Chehade filed her lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois in May 2024.
Law360, Foley & Lardner Says Palestine Support Didn’t Doom Job Offer:
Foley & Lardner LLP asked an Illinois federal judge Wednesday for an early win in a bias suit from a former summer associate who claims that the firm pulled a job offer because of her public support for the Palestinian people, arguing that the rescission did not occur because she was an Arab Muslim but rather because her statements about Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel “not only violated the firm’s core values, but also constituted a display of incredibly poor judgment.”
Foley & Lardner motion for summary judgment maintained that it was aware of law grad Jinan Chehade’s ethnic and religious background when it hired her as a summer associate, and “It was not until plaintiff made multiple troubling, public statements about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks (to which she has admitted) and then ‘doubled down’ on those statements when confronted about them, that Foley & Lardner’s CEO and chairman, Daljit Doogal, decided to rescind plaintiff’s offer.” …
Chehade, a Georgetown Law graduate with family and friends in Gaza and Lebanon, sued Foley & Lardner in May 2024 after the firm let her go shortly before she was set to begin her full-time associate position on Oct. 23, 2023, after questioning her about her pro-Palestine comments and about Students for Justice in Palestine, a group to which she no longer belonged. She confirmed in her lawsuit that she had advocated publicly for Palestinian rights, but the firm said Wednesday her response to its queries left Foley & Lardner’s management with the impression that she “condoned the attacks.”
In her complaint, Chehade says she told the firm that she “condemns any loss of human life” and argued that none of Foley & Lardner’s lawyers lost their employment for supporting Israe
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- Foley & Lardner Rescinds Offer To Incoming Associate Due To Anti-Israel Comments (Dec. 4, 2023)
- Georgetown Law Grad Sues Foley & Lardner For Rescinding Job Offer Due To Her Pro-Palestine Views (May 31, 2024)
- Georgetown Law Grad Can’t Sue Foley & Lardner For Rescinding Job Offer Due To Her Anti-Israel Views (Dec, 5, 2024)
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