Jones Day Says Parental Leave Memo Off Limits in Couple’s Suit

Jones Day told a federal judge that married former associates claiming bias against new fathers in the firm’s parental leave policy aren’t entitled to review an in-house memorandum regarding a decades-old policy change.

The firm says the change was prompted by the Family and Medical Leave Act and led to the adoption of a presumptive period of eight weeks of disability leave for new mothers, which Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff say in their 2019 lawsuit discriminates based on sex. The memo was sent in 1993 by Jones Day’s then-human resources director to its then-managing partner and the firm has ...