Emails Reveal Shocking Behavior by Lawyers Leads to Resignations | 567

Warning: This story is terrible on many levels. It's terrible because of the horrible behavior but it is also terrible that the behavior only surfaced after two rainmakers left and their former firm mysteriously "found" the emails that unearthed the behavior.

Summary:

The named partners at a U.S. law firm called Barber Ranen have quit their jobs. Their old law firm, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, found many emails where these lawyers used racist, homophobic, and antisemitic language.

John Barber and Jeffrey Ranen were forced to resign. Barber, who was a top partner at Barber Ranen, and Ranen, who was in charge of the firm's finances, issues an apology.

"The last three days have been the toughest in our lives. We've had to face those emails," they said. "They don't show our real feelings or our true values."

Barber and Ranen started the new firm with over 100 lawyers from Lewis Brisbois. Ranen worked in Los Angeles and Barber worked in Newport Beach, California.

Lewis Brisbois stated that they didn't know about the emails and started looking into them after an anonymous complaint about the lawyers. Many of their emails, some from as long ago as 2008, were first reported by the New York Post.

Chapters
00:00 Emails Reveal Shocking Behavior by Lawyers
00:30 The Story
01:13 The "Toughest Day???!!"
01:29 The Implications of This Scandal
02:20 Anonymous Complaint Lead to Email Discovery
04:30 Dave Reveals the Firm that Tolerated This Behavior for Years


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