| In the midst of finals, I missed this story about a Paul Hastings associate laid off mere days after suffering a miscarriage. According to a parting e-mail she sent out to members of the firm, she had an excellent track record with the firm until she got married and then pregnant and, in hard economic times, PH found a way to get rid of her. Who knows what the real story is, but I applaud her for having the guts to stand up to the firm and refuse to sign the non-disclosure agreement.
I alluded to a legal staff friend being “asked to resign” from a BigLaw firm a few months ago after she got on the wrong side of a partner (I swear she didn’t do anything wrong, just pissed him off and he decide to exact revenge). Like Shinyung, my friend had excellent performance reviews until she made the partner mad, at which point all the things she’d apparently done wrong came out of the woodwork from everyone she worked for in a coordinated blackballing effort. Since then, she has been interviewing all over town and can’t find work. One of the firms she interviewed at was THISCLOSE to making her an offer and then suddenly backed off. When she confronted the firm administrator, she found out that someone at the firm had been talking negatively about her at a party attended by one of the new firm’s attorneys. She called old firm to ask them to put a stop to the blackballing and was told they would do nothing. So they can get away with basically ruining the career of a $60k legal staff member? Nice. My friend may never work in this town again. 
Have I mentioned how happy I am NOT to be working for a law firm anymore? Vengeful bastards. I could share story after story after story about the way female and minority associates are treated by large firms but instead, because I don’t underestimate The Firm, I will just cheer for Shinyung Oh’s courage in the face of discrimination and wrongful termination. Good for her for sharing her story with the masses. The more women that stay away from these black holes after reading cautionary tales such as Shinyung’s, the better.
