Ex-Jones Day Couple Gets Bias Trial on Parental Leave Claims (1)

Married lawyers suing former employer Jones Day will get a trial on claims that the firm’s parental leave policy for newborns discriminates against biological fathers and that they faced retaliation for complaining about it.

Marc Savignac and Julia Sheketoff survived the law firm’s bid to end the case, said Judge Randolph D. Moss in a sealed ruling Wednesday over opposing motions for summary judgment.

Savignac can go forward with a claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that Jones Day’s policy discriminates because of sex by giving eight more weeks to female associates compared to their male peers to care for and bond with a new child, and on a similar claim under the Equal Pay Act. The couple also raised triable evidence on their sex discrimination claim against Jones Day challenging the policy under the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, Moss said.

According to the 2019 suit, the policy imposes and reinforces harmful stereotypes and archaic gender roles.

Savignac and Sheketoff further alleged that Savignac was fired two weeks after their son was born and three business days after he and Sheketoff sent the firm an email complaining about the policy’s gender inequity. Their retaliation claims against Jones Day under Title VII and against the firm and some of its partners under the Equal Pay Act and the DCHRA based on the firing decision also warrant a trial, according to the sealed ruling.

Those claims assert that Jones Day was spurred by the couple’s complaints to prohibit other lawyers in the firm from providing job references for Savignac after he was fired, in contrast to its usual practice.

Sheketoff, who had left the firm prior to the child’s birth, and Savignac said they planned to share child-care duties equally, in contrast to the stereotypes underlying Jones Day’s parental leave policy. Sheketoff had to take more parental leave than she would have liked from her new job as an appellate public defender because of the policy, the suit alleged.

Savignac’s claim that Jones Day interfered with his rights under D.C.'s Family and Medical Leave Act by firing while he was on newborn leave also fell short, the court said in granting summary judgment against the couple on all other claims in the case.

Read More: Jones Day Ruling Unsealed in Lawyer Parental Leave Bias Suit (1)

The court granted summary judgment against Sheketoff on her claims that she was paid less because she’s a woman based on a male partner’s discriminatory performance rating.

Savignac’s and Sheketoff’s summary judgment motions were denied, the court said.

Savignac and Sheketoff represent themselves. Jones Day represents itself and the individual defendants.

The case is Savignac v. Jones Day, D.D.C., No. 1:19-cv-02443, 9/25/24.