'Resolved' With Prejudice
So the lawsuit against a law firm by a female lawyer claiming prejudice is resolved -- with prejudice. Sounds about right. So does that mean if they weren't prejudiced against her before, they are now? Well, we'll never know, since part of "resolved with prejudice" is no doubt an agreement between the parties to keep the terms confidential.
Philadelphia's Legal Intelligencer reports, in Discrimination Lawsuit Against Cozen O'Connor Is Quietly 'Resolved':
I wrote about the Biswanger case last year, see Legal Tales and Nobody Does It Better. Patricia Biswanger, a junior partner at Cozen O'Connor, claimed that Cozen fired her for her political activities because of her sex, since it permitted male attorneys to be politically active at the firm. Of course, as much as I love legal intrigue and lawyers squabbling against each other, the fact that she got involved in some nasty politics involving the President Judge on the bench in Delaware County no doubt factored into it. However, we'll never know the details of their legal truce. As the article provides:The sex discrimination suit against Cozen O'Connor by a female partner who claimed she was ousted because of a political double standard has been quietly settled.
Court records in Biswanger v. Cozen O'Connor show that just one month after the firm filed its formal answer to Patricia Biswanger's suit, lawyers on both sides filed a stipulation of dismissal.
Only lawyers could parse the distinction between the words "resolved" and "settled" so that they could possibly mean something other than the commonly understood definitions of the words. Isn't a settlement a resolution (and vice-versa)?Ordinarily, such one-page court filings note that the case is being dismissed under Local Rule 41.1(b), indicating that the case has "settled."
But in Biswanger's case, the filing made no mention of the local rule, and the two lawyers who signed it -- Michael J. Salmanson of Salmanson Goldshaw for the plaintiff and Howard R. Flaxman of Fox Rothschild for the defense -- said only that the case "has been resolved."
And while Rule 41.1(b) provides for cases to be dismissed "without prejudice," the filing in Biswanger's case said the agreed-upon dismissal was "with prejudice."
In interviews, both Salmanson and Flaxman made it clear that they would not use the word "settlement." Both repeatedly stated that the only comment they would have was that "the matter has been resolved."
Leave it to lawyers to obfuscate and confuse to the end, including the ending of the lawsuit.
2 comments:
Something else not mentioned that the "political activities" by male colleagues included a certain Patrick Murphy who was actively running for State Rep...and who was permitted to use his office and staff towards that effort...
I believe the earlier article from the Legal mentioned that Murphy (and others) ran their campaigns & were able to engage in political activities without any problem.
I hope you're right that she made out OK with them. However, I can just envision them as the type that would hold out to the bitter end before conceding a dime.
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