It’s
not
me.
It’s
you.
Pregnancy
can
come
with
some
pretty
big
surprises
—
one
of
them
being
getting
fired
before
you
could
take
maternity
leave.
Anisha
Mehta,
is
suing
Biglaw
firm
DLA
Piper
for
firing
her
6
days
after
she
made
her
request.
Bloomberg
Law
has
coverage:
DLA
Piper
LLP
says
a
former
senior
associate
was
fired
for
“a
series
of
increasingly
catastrophic
blunders”
and
her
lawsuit
should
be
dismissed
because
she
can’t
prove
her
pregnancy
bias,
leave
interference,
and
retaliation
claims.The
intellectual
property
attorney
also
shouldn’t
get
a
trial
because
she
“regularly
turned
in
sloppy
work
product”
even
though
she
was
a
seventh-year
associate,
the
international
law
firm
said
Tuesday
in
seeking
summary
judgment
in
the
case.
The
two
Intellectual
Property
and
Trademark
Group
partners
with
whom
she
most
regularly
worked
quickly
grew
disappointed
with
her
abilities
and
concluded
that
she
wasn’t
capable
of
meeting
the
firm’s
expectations
for
an
associate
of
her
seniority
level,
DLA
Piper
said.
Quite
the
bombshell
to
drop
before
a
pregnancy
leave!
It
is
worth
recalling
that
DLA
Piper
has
a
history
of
making
baffling
employee
calls
when
it
comes
to
raising
children
—
they
did
slash
their
parental
leave
benefits
by
6
weeks
for
no
clear
reason
earlier
this
year.
After
Mehta
disclosed
her
pregnancy,
she
noted
that
the
partner
that
ultimately
fired
her
said
that
she
should
take
full
advantage
of
her
leave
before
transitioning
back
to
work.
That
seems
like
advice
to
ease
someone
in
their
recovery
and
return,
not
a
polite
way
to
direct
them
toward
LinkedIn.
A
couple
of
the
errors
the
firm
noted
were
typos
Mehta
made
in
internal
documents
like
using
the
wrong
company
name
or
country,
but
those
hardly
seem
to
be
that
catastrophic
considering
that
the
mistakes
were
caught
before
they
left
the
firm.
DLA
Piper
Says
Associate
Fired
Over
Performance,
Not
Pregnancy
[Bloomberg
Law]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.