Black female attorney brings racial discrimination claims against White and Williams; Firm defends its practices

Black female attorney brings racial discrimination claims against White and Williams; Firm defends its practices: 

PHILADELPHIA – A trial attorney alleges in a federal lawsuit that local law firm White and Williams LLP harassed and discriminated against her because she is an African-American woman.

In the 27-page suit filed on May 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Linda Perkins asserted that “she has been marginalized, mocked, deprived of opportunities to develop her career and otherwise treated as a second-class attorney not deserving of the same opportunities as her white counterparts.”

Perkins is reportedly among the few African-Americans employed by White and Williams, which the plaintiff labeled “a homogenous, almost exclusively white, male-dominated law firm.”

The plaintiff - whom the defendant hired two years ago to its Commercial Litigation Department and the General Commercial Litigation, Cyber Law and Data Protection Practice groups - claimed that she “was not being assigned enough work to allow her to meet her annual billable hours requirement, to meet expectations of a lawyer of her capabilities, or to permit her to cultivate a book of business and develop professionally,” the suit states.

According to Perkins, the firm was not adhering to its parts of a written employment agreement it entered with her on Dec. 28, 2016.

“As a result of White and Williams’ refusal to assign Ms. Perkins any significant amount of work despite her stellar qualifications, she was forced to seek out any work that was available and essentially beg to be assigned work in order to attempt to meet her billable hours requirement,” the original petition said.

Perkins further alleged that the defendant “routinely” promoted white male attorneys and touted them “as subject matter experts, being introduced to important client contacts, invited to attend or speak on panels, and otherwise assisted in their professional development at the firm.”  read more here