Biglaw Firm Tries To Force Summer Associates To Arbitrate Sexual Harassment Claims
This is absurd. Time's up, Biglaw.
Which Biglaw firm was trying to get its incoming summer associates to sign mandatory arbitration agreements — agreements that would have required them to arbitrate all employment-related claims, including sexual harassment claims?
That would be Munger Tolles & Olson, a preeminent Am Law 200 firm that we’ve likened to the Wachtell of the West for attracting top talent. Munger’s proposed arbitration agreement for summer associates — meant to cover all Title VII claims, including sex and race discrimination — was leaked on Twitter this weekend by Harvard Law lecturer Ian Samuel, whose tweets racked up hundreds of likes and retweets amid much criticism of the firm.
“You would have to be willfully ignorant not to get what this is about,” Samuel said. Summers who signed this agreement would not only have to arbitrate sexual harassment claims, but they’d also be held to a confidentiality clause, wrapping their allegations in the shroud of privacy. Mandatory arbitration and nondisclosure simply don’t mix anymore when it comes to sexual harassment claims. We’ve combined the separate parts of the agreement Samuel posted on Twitter after receiving it from an anonymous friend. Take a look:
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As noted on Twitter by Amanda Whiting of the Washingtonian, Munger hires the most summer associates in its Los Angeles office, a place where the #MeToo movement has had the biggest impact in the post-Weinstein world.
Following the mass outrage that was lodged against the firm on social media, Munger was pretty quick to backtrack on its proposed arbitration agreement for summers:
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Thanks to social media, no employees at Munger Tolles — from summers to staffers to associates to partners — will be forced to arbitrate sexual harassment claims. But what about those at the firm who previously signed agreements like this? Time may be up, but those who did will still be bound to the firm’s ways of the past.
How many other Biglaw firms are forcing law students to sign agreements like this, sending disputes into private tribunals beyond the prying eyes of the media or courts? How many law students have been bound to suffer in silence in the face of sexual harassment? If you know of any other law firms that require their summers to submit to antiquated agreements like this, please email us at or text us at (646) 820-8477.
Munger Tolles Backtracks on Summer Associate Arbitration [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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