Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith is facing its second employment discrimination suit in the last month from a former partner, with the latest accuser asserting in a California state court suit on Thursday that the law firm paid her less than male colleagues and attempted to claw back her compensation in retaliation for her complaints about the firm’s “unethical billing practices.”
Julie O’Dell, who founded Armstrong Teasdale’s Orange County office after quitting Lewis Brisbois in January 2023, alleges the Am Law 100 firm has a history of retaliating against lawyers and staff for blowing the whistle on the firm’s allegedly unethical billing practices, as well as discriminating against female lawyers by paying them less than their male counterparts.