Online 'gangsta rap' discussion wasn't real reason for McCarter associate's firing, suit alleges
A former McCarter & English staff associate alleges that the law firm subjected him to a hostile workplace based on his status as a military combat veteran and fired him on the pretext of violating the firm’s social media policy. (Image from Shutterstock)
A former McCarter & English staff associate alleges that the law firm subjected him to a hostile workplace based on his status as a military combat veteran and fired him on the pretext of violating the firm’s social media policy.
Lawyer William D. Brown Jr., a former Navy SEAL who served in the Iraq War, said he was actually fired for complaints about unequal pay and his push to include veterans in the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Law.com has coverage of the Dec. 24 lawsuit (previewed here), filed in Essex County, New Jersey, superior court.
Brown said he made $100,000 per year in 2023 after six years at the firm as a career bankruptcy associate, compared to $170,000 in base pay for newly hired regular associates. His bankruptcy work was trimmed after a new chairman took over, and he was assigned to child sexual-abuse defense work despite his distaste for the matters, the suit says.
The LinkedIn post that purportedly led to his firing discussed the glorification of violence and drugs in “gangsta rap” lyrics and “radical culture within the Islamic world” that glorifies violence, Law.com previously reported. The firm said the post promoted negative stereotypes of Muslim and Black Americans.
Brown claimed that there were separate standards of conduct at McCarter & English in its interaction with employees “who adhered to political left orthodoxy” and those “who happened to not endorse the same leftist worldview.”
Brown cited an incident in which a tax partner asked him how many people he had killed. The partner later apologized. But the question led Brown to think that rather being perceived as an honorable person who served his nation, he was “feared, loathed and discounted as a mere ‘killer,’” the suit says.
Brown also said a partner asked him “if he was mentally sound” after he asserted on LinkedIn that veterans are paid less than others for substantially the same work and denied opportunities when they speak up for themselves.
A McCarter & English spokesperson provided a statement to Law.com.
“As always with an initial complaint, it tells one side of the story,” the statement said. “Once the full history is brought to light, we are confident we will be fully vindicated. We intend to defend this case against the firm and clear the names of those individuals referenced within the complaint.”
