US law firm caught up in race storm - 23 January 2005

"" US law firm caught up in race storm
By Katherine Griffiths
23 January 2005


One of New York's longest-established law firms helped a corporate client
fend off discrimination suits from "nigs, spicks and Jews", according to
that client.

Proskauer Rose was allegedly "masterful" in its blocking of complaints from
black, Jewish and Hispanic workers at Marubeni America (MA), a US subsidiary
of the Japanese trading conglomerate Marubeni.

An email from Joe Van Dorn, the former head of human resources at MA, said
Allen Fagin, a partner at Proskauer Rose, "is always available to help
protect Mac [MA] from, among others, these Bs, Js and Hs. He's done a
masterful job in this arena."

The email has come to light in a separate discrimination case brought
against MA by Kevin Long, a senior HR employee, and Ludvic Presto, the
company's top internal auditor, who were placed on paid administrative leave
in December. Together they are pushing for $55m (£30m) in damages plus $4m
each in severance payments.

In documents filed in a Manhattan court last week, the two claim MA
discriminated against blacks, non-Oriental minorities and women. The suit
alleges that non-Orientals are paid less and hired and promoted less often
than Orientals. The 200-worker company has no blacks or females and just one
Hispanic among its top officers and managers, the suit says, plus only three
black staff.

Proskauer Rose, which is representing the company in its defence against Mr
Long and Mr Presto, said: "Any suggestion [the law firm] encouraged or
condoned employment discrimination of any kind is completely false and
utterly outrageous."

It added that the case of Mr Long and Mr Presto was an "outrageous attempt"
to gain severance payments.

Douglas Wigdor, a partner at Thompson Wigdor & Gilly, which represents the
two men, said: "There were blatant violations of a host of laws." He added
that "other government agencies" might look at MA, which allegedly violated
immigration laws, committed accounting fraud and allowed executives to abuse
expense accounts. The Japanese parent is not involved in the case. ""

Looks Like Proskauer Rose has been blocking Complaints and flat out Stopping Due Process for Quite some time now. The Question is Why is YOUR United States Court System Allowing Proskauer Rose to Behave this Way?