McElroy Deutsch Faces Gender Bias, Sexual Harassment Suit - Law360

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McElroy Deutsch Faces Gender Bias, Sexual

Harassment Suit
By John Kennedy

Law360, Jersey City (April 03, 2015, 10:04 PM ET) -- A former McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney
& Carpenter LLP associate has sued the New Jersey-based firm for gender discrimination
and sexual harassment, saying that despite her eagerness to work, she struggled to find it
while her male peers were given preferential treatment.
Elina Chechelnitsky, who worked for the nationwide firm for about three years, claimed she
was sexually harassed as a summer associate, only given work so a partner could set her
up with his favorite associate, given far more nonbillable work than male associates, and
eventually fired in retaliation for her constant requests that the firm address its inequality
issues.
She said when she expressed her concerns on multiple occasions, she was told the firm
wouldn't change overnight and she seemed to be looking for a systemic change that
would not happen.
According to the complaint, which was filed March 5, she is seeking at least $7 million in
damages and an injunction ordering the firm stop gender discrimination, address pervasive
and blatant sexual harassment, and not retaliate against employees who object to either.
Chechelnitsky was hired as an associate at the firm's bankruptcy group in September 2010
after a clerkship in Wilmington's federal bankruptcy court. She said she and the two other
women hired in Newark with her were given smaller offices in an area that was notoriously
loud and which other lawyers had complained about, while the one male hire was given a
larger office in a more desirable area.
She said she quickly mastered the simple bankruptcy work she was initially given and
was continually proactive about volunteering for assignments. A month after she was
hired, she met Lou Modugno, a partner in the firm's Morristown, New Jersey, office.
Modugno assigned her work on a challenging case and she eagerly worked on it from
Newark. A month later, Greg Trif, a fourth-year attorney from the Morristown office, came
to her office and said he wanted to introduce himself in person because they were both
working for Modugno. He soon began sending her flirtatious emails and repeatedly stopped
by her office.
In December 2010, she attended the firm's holiday party with Trif, after which Trif invited
her to join him, Modugno and others at a firm afterparty. At this event, Trif told her some
lawyers were going to get sushi and that she should join them.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Trif informed Chechelnitsky that no one else would be

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McElroy Deutsch Faces Gender Bias, Sexual Harassment Suit - Law360

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coming because he wanted to have dinner with only her. During dinner, he told her that
she'd moved to the firm's inner circle because he's close to Modugno and she was with
him.
Trif and Chechelnitsky soon began to date, and he began assigning her work. He regularly
bragged about his relationship with Modugno and managing partner James Mulvaney, and
said if she stuck with them, she'd go far in the firm. He also bragged that he had
vacationed with Modugno and was making $150,000 annually, far more than she had been
led to believe was possible for a fourth-year associate.
One day, Trif told her that when Modugno met her, he thought she was hot and that Trif
should meet her. He swore her to secrecy and said Modugno had given her work for the
sole purpose of giving Trif an opportunity to meet her.
Disturbed that she had only been assigned a case because a partner had found her
attractive and wanted to set her up with a favored associate and determined to prove that
her work was exceptional regardless of her appearance, she stopped seeing Trif and
subsequently stopped getting assignments from Morristown.
She continually sought work and, as a first-year, brought in a sizable client, the complaint
said. She was publicly lauded, but her bonus was the same or less than male associates
who had not brought in clients.
When a new bankruptcy group office opened in Wilmington, she was surprised that no one
had mentioned it to her considering her clerkship and familiarity with the city's court
system and legal community. She also learned that Aaron Applebaum, an associate who
had been hired with her, had been assigned to work there.
She volunteered to work at the new office and introduce the bankruptcy group to the
judicial community, but said she was completely excluded. She was also assigned a
substantial amount of nonbillable work, which led to her concern about not meeting the
firm's minimum billing requirements.
She approached partner Jeffrey Bernstein and expressed her concerns in 2012, but was
told that everyone in the group was getting the same amount of nonbillable work. She
checked billing records and found that while she had almost 65 nonbillable hours of work,
Applebaum had been given only 30 minutes for the same time period.
When another major case came to Newark, she learned it had been assigned to
Applebaum, who was two hours away in Delaware. She asked to work on the case and was
given insignificant, first-year projects.
Chechelnitsky was fired in July 2013 for insufficient work, though she claimed her pleas
for more work went unheeded while male associates were showered with it.
The complaint said that between January and June 2013, each female bankruptcy
associate billed between 110 to 142 hours per month on average, while Applebaum billed
an average of 189 hours per month.
Chechelnitsky also claimed she was harassed in 2008 when she worked as a summer
associate in the firm's Newark bankruptcy group. She said she reported directly to a male
associate but also had a female mentor who warned her to watch out for her supervisor
because he was known for sexually harassing his female co-workers.
When the man, who was later fired by another firm for sexually harassing his co-workers,
immediately began harassing her, she reported it to her mentor and was told to avoid
him as much as possible. The mentor was allegedly frustrated that the firm had placed the

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man in a position from which he could easily harass female attorneys.

Neither party could be reached for comment Friday.
Chechelnitsky is represented by Megan S. Goddard of Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP.
Counsel information for McElroy Deutsch was unavailable Friday.
The case is Chechelnitsky v. McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP, case number
1:15-cv-01777 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Chris Yates.
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