Troutman Pepper has settled the racial discrimination lawsuit brought by former associate Gita Sankano, who alleged she was the firm’s only Black female attorney in its D.C. office, subjected to a “dehumanizing” email from a partner, and then fired after she complained about it. Trial had been scheduled to begin next month. Terms were not disclosed.
“Both we and Ms. Sankano are pleased that a settlement of this matter has been reached,” said Michael Willemin, a partner at Wigdor LLP who represented Sankano.
Sankano had sought at least $35 million in economic and punitive damages.
To recap the background, because it is worth recapping — Sankano filed suit in January 2024, alleging that after a senior partner retired and she was reassigned to work under partner Matthew Bowsher, things went sideways fast. The complaint describes “aggressive emails questioning her cognitive ability,” culminating in one that the filing characterized as “outrageously demeaning, dehumanizing, and demoralizing.” The email itself, included in the complaint, features Bowsher, ahem, generously donating 20 minutes of his morning to inform Sankano that her communication skills were “elementary” and that he simply did not know “what more I can say here.” (He had more to say. It went on.)
When Sankano complained to HR, the firm’s response was interesting. According to the complaint, it took the firm 77 days to investigate. The conclusion of that investigation? Bowsher’s email was “inappropriate” but not racist because, the firm argued, he treated people at his prior job the same way. As I noted at the time, arguing your partner is a generalized equal-opportunity menace is certainly one defense.
This case has been percolating since early 2024, and it reaches its conclusion in a legal landscape where Biglaw firms have spent the past year dismantling DEI programs — cutting affinity groups, scrubbing websites, and signing executive order deals — under pressure from an administration that has made DEI its favorite piñata. The optics of settling a $35 million racial discrimination suit in that environment says enough (even though Troutman Pepper has not commented on the settlement).
Sankano, for her part, gets to move on while the firm gets to avoid a trial. The partner whose emails apparently needed 77 days of investigation to be deemed merely “inappropriate” presumably continues his career uninterrupted.
Earlier: Former Associate Hits Biglaw Firm With Racial Discrimination Case After ‘Dehumanizing’ Email
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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