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OBABL Links & Resources
2010 January
Jan
28
From The National Law Journal:
Kamisha Menns, a black woman born in Jamaica, says in the complaint, filed in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday, that Howrey violated the D.C. Human Rights Act by retaliating against her, creating a hostile work environment, and inflicting emotional distress, both intentionally and negligently. Menns has asked for $30 million.
According the complaint, Menns was heavily recruited by Howrey only to be subjected to discriminatory treatment once staffed in their Brussels office.
At some point after moving to Brussels, Menns says in her complaint, she began being removed from projects despite receiving compliments on her work from several partners. She says her workplace was shifted to a different floor from that of other lawyers. When she reached out to the office’s managing partner, Trevor Soames, the complaint alleges, Menns was told “that because she was an ‘impressive woman’ Ms. Menns made Howrey’s white employees feel uncomfortable.” The complaint alleges that Soames also told her that because she was the first black associate to work in the office, the office staff’s treatment of her might be influenced by the fact that “they had never before been forced to be in a ’subordinate position’ to a black person.”
The complaint goes on to allege that the situation only got worse when she reached out to firm leaders, including the Washington-based diversity committee and CEO Robert Ruyak. In a June 2, 2009, meeting, a day after Menns sent an e-mail to Ruyak and eight members of the diversity committee outlining the allegedly discriminatory treatment, Menns was fired.
Jan
22
Hell Hath No Fury Like YaVaughnie Scorned!
Filed Under Defame • Leave a Comment
Oracle president Charles Phillips is worth over $100 million. The NYU New York Law School graduate may need every penny to smooth over the mess created by his mistress’ public chronicling of their 8-year affair.
A billboard displaying a picture of the executive and his mistress, YaVaughnie Wilkins, during happier times went up recently in Atlanta, New York and San Francisco.
Gawker broke the story:
The pair first come to light in a mysterious Times Square billboard we posted about on Tuesday. The billboards included the address of a romantic online photo album,CharlesPhillipsAndYaVaughnieWilkins.com, and a quote attributed to “C.E.P.:” “You are my soulmate forever!” Our readers quickly figured out that the man in the billboard was Oracle’s Charles Phillips, and we wondered if the co-president was emulating his attention-grubbing boss, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. But then came evidence of Phillips’ marriage to one Karen Phillips, who Charles Phillips called his wife in a 2006 interview and who appeared with him in the society pages recently. We wondered if Wilkins wasn’t out for revenge.
Ms. Wilkins also unveiled a website with post cards, photos–one of which is a man with painted toe nails and lingerie (might that be Mr. Phillips?)–and notes written on hotel stationary. The website has since been removed, but Gawker was kind enough to produce their own photo gallery of some especially touching touchy kodak moments.
In February 2009, Phillips was appointed as a member to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide President Barack Obama and his administration with advice and counsel regarding the economy.
This couldn’t get much worse for Mr. Phillips. Let’s just hope his wife doesn’t take to his head with a golf club…
Breaking: The billboard in Atlanta has been taken down. Perhaps none of this happened at all.
Jan
11
Moonlighting as NFL Cheerleader–New Trend?
Filed Under Something Else, The Profession • Leave a Comment
Last week in a story about the dearth of marriageable black men we brought you Nicole Marchand, a Prosecutor by day and Atlanta Falcons cheerleader by night (and weekends). We had assumed this was an anomaly; however, our friends over at Above The Law has found another one.
From ATL:
An ATL reader alerted us that Raven Akram, an attorney at Sandberg Phoenix, moonlights as an NFL cheerleader for the St. Louis Rams. Sandberg Phoenix is a 65-attorney trial firm with “seriously unbelievable client service.” Akram joined the firm’s St. Louis office in 2008.
Jan
11
With high law school debt and low attorney employment we are left to ponder whether the decrease in African American enrollment is indeed a bad thing. According to The American Lawyer, a study by Columbia Law School’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic noted the following:
Over the relevant 15-year period, the study — conducted in conjunction with the Society of American Law Teachers, found that the total number of African-Americans and Mexican-Americans entering law school dropped from 4,142 in 1993 to 4,060 in 2008. Combined with the increase in overall law school capacity (from 43,520 to 46,500), that translated into a 7.5 percent and 11.7 percent decrease of African-American and Mexican-American first-year law students, respectively.
“It’s like imagining Carnegie Hall, which seats almost 3,000 people, filled to capacity but no Mexican-Americans or African-Americans allowed in,” says Conrad Johnson, the Columbia professor who oversees the clinic, regarding the additional spots created over the past 15 years. “For many African-American and Mexican-American students, law school is an elusive goal.”
How elusive? Between 2003 and 2008, 61 percent of African-American and 46 Mexican-American applicants were rejected by every law school to which they applied, according to Law School Admissions Council data reviewed by the clinic’s researchers. The “shut-out” rate for white applicants was 34 percent.
Jan
4
Howard Law Grad, Kasim Reed, Takes Helm As Mayor of Atlanta
Filed Under Politics, Something Else, The Profession • Leave a Comment
Watch Kasim Reed take the oath of office as Mayor of Atlanta.
According to his campaign:
Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed was raised in the Cascade community. He was educated in Fulton County’s public schools where he graduated from Utoy Springs Elementary School and Westwood High School (now Westlake High School) and went to Howard University, where he received his undergraduate and law degrees.
Though Mayor-Elect Reed was the youngest Democratic State Senator, he had a well-established track record of legislative excellence. He was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1998 as State Representative for District 52. He was re-elected in 2000, winning seventy-seven percent (77%) of all votes cast. In the House, Mayor-Elect Reed served two terms as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Education Committee and Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee.
Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed served as campaign manager for Mayor Shirley Franklin’s first and second campaigns. Following her election in November 2001, Mayor Franklin selected him to serve as one of two Co-Chairs for the Shirley Franklin Transition Team.
Mayor-Elect Reed’s civic leadership and service has been nationally recognized in publications such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ebony and Black Enterprise. He was selected as one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “40 under 40 Rising Stars” in 2001, as one of the Fulton County Daily Report ’s “Lawyers on the Rise” and as one of “10 Outstanding Atlantans” in Outstanding Atlanta. Mayor-Elect Reed is a member of the Leadership Georgia Class of 2000 and is a Board Member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund.
Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed is a member of Cascade United Methodist Church, pastored by Reverend Marvin Moss.
Jan
4
Today Philadelphia gets its first ever African American District Attorney. From Philly 57:
A longtime assistant prosecutor has easily been elected Philadelphia’s first black district attorney.
Forty-two-year-old Seth Williams will be the city’s first new DA in nearly 20 years.
He will succeed longtime incumbent Lynne Abraham, who did not seek another term. She has served in the post since 1991.
In the May primary, Williams defeated four other Democrats to earn his party’s nomination. The little-known Untermeyer was unopposed.
According to his campaign:
Seth Williams grew up in a hard-working West Philadelphia neighborhood, the only child of Imelda Williams and the late Rufus O. Williams.
After graduating from Central High School in 1985, Seth attended Penn State University where he served as President of the Black Caucus and later as President of the Undergraduate Student Government, representing all 57,000 undergraduate students.
From Penn State, Seth was on to law school at Georgetown University, where he graduated with distinction as a Public Interest Law Scholar in 1992.
After graduation Seth’s dedication to public service brought him home to Philadelphia, where he joined the District Attorney’s Office.
In the ten years he served as an Assistant District Attorney, Seth was repeatedly promoted, including his appointment as the Assistant Chief of the Municipal Court, where he supervised the 30 newest prosecutors. He also created and led the Repeat Offenders Unit with the goal of reducing the high percentage of crimes committed by repeat offenders. His extensive trial experience includes 37 jury trials, more than 1,500 bench trials and more than 2,500 felony preliminary hearings.
In 2005, Seth challenged Lynn Abraham, Philadelphia’s longtime incumbent District Attorney, in the Democratic primary. While not victorious on Election Day, Seth won 46 percent of the vote and received endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5, the Transit Workers Union Local 234, District Council #47, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Tribune, thePhiladelphia Sunday Sun and the Westside Weekly.
