{"id":148809,"date":"2026-04-14T14:58:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/14\/35-million-racial-discrimination-suit-against-troutman-pepper-ends-in-settlement\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T14:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:58:52","slug":"35-million-racial-discrimination-suit-against-troutman-pepper-ends-in-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/14\/35-million-racial-discrimination-suit-against-troutman-pepper-ends-in-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"$35 Million Racial Discrimination Suit Against Troutman Pepper Ends In Settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troutman Pepper has settled<\/a> the racial discrimination lawsuit brought by former associate Gita Sankano, who alleged she was the firm\u2019s only Black female attorney in its D.C. office, subjected to a \u201cdehumanizing\u201d email from a partner, and then fired after she complained about it. Trial had been scheduled to begin next month. Terms were not disclosed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth we and Ms. Sankano are pleased that a settlement of this matter has been reached,\u201d said Michael Willemin, a partner at Wigdor LLP who represented Sankano.<\/p>\n

Sankano had sought at least $35 million in economic and punitive damages.<\/p>\n

To recap the background<\/a>, because it is worth recapping \u2014 Sankano filed suit in January 2024, alleging that after a senior partner retired and she was reassigned to work under partner Matthew Bowsher, things went sideways fast. The complaint describes \u201caggressive emails questioning her cognitive ability,\u201d culminating in one that the filing characterized as \u201coutrageously demeaning, dehumanizing, and demoralizing.\u201d The email itself, included in the complaint, features Bowsher, ahem, generously<\/em> donating 20 minutes of his morning to inform Sankano that her communication skills were \u201celementary\u201d and that he simply did not know \u201cwhat more I can say here.\u201d (He had more to say. It went on.)<\/p>\n

When Sankano complained to HR, the firm\u2019s response was interesting. According to the complaint, it took the firm 77 days to investigate. The conclusion of that investigation? Bowsher\u2019s email was \u201cinappropriate\u201d but not racist because, the firm argued, he treated people at his prior job the same way. As I noted at the time, arguing your partner is a generalized equal-opportunity menace is certainly one<\/em> defense.<\/p>\n

This case has been percolating since early 2024, and it reaches its conclusion in a legal landscape where Biglaw firms have spent the past year dismantling DEI programs \u2014 cutting affinity groups, scrubbing websites, and signing executive order deals<\/a> \u2014 under pressure from an administration that has made DEI its favorite pi\u00f1ata. The optics of settling a $35 million racial discrimination suit in that environment says enough (even though Troutman Pepper has not commented on the settlement).<\/p>\n

Sankano, for her part, gets to move on while the firm gets to avoid a trial. The partner whose emails apparently needed 77 days of investigation to be deemed merely \u201cinappropriate\u201d presumably continues his career <\/a>uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Former Associate Hits Biglaw Firm With Racial Discrimination Case After \u2018Dehumanizing\u2019 Email<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post $35 Million Racial Discrimination Suit Against Troutman Pepper Ends In Settlement<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Troutman Pepper has settled<\/a> the racial discrimination lawsuit brought by former associate Gita Sankano, who alleged she was the firm\u2019s only Black female attorney in its D.C. office, subjected to a \u201cdehumanizing\u201d email from a partner, and then fired after she complained about it. Trial had been scheduled to begin next month. Terms were not disclosed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth we and Ms. Sankano are pleased that a settlement of this matter has been reached,\u201d said Michael Willemin, a partner at Wigdor LLP who represented Sankano.<\/p>\n

Sankano had sought at least $35 million in economic and punitive damages.<\/p>\n

To recap the background<\/a>, because it is worth recapping \u2014 Sankano filed suit in January 2024, alleging that after a senior partner retired and she was reassigned to work under partner Matthew Bowsher, things went sideways fast. The complaint describes \u201caggressive emails questioning her cognitive ability,\u201d culminating in one that the filing characterized as \u201coutrageously demeaning, dehumanizing, and demoralizing.\u201d The email itself, included in the complaint, features Bowsher, ahem, generously<\/em> donating 20 minutes of his morning to inform Sankano that her communication skills were \u201celementary\u201d and that he simply did not know \u201cwhat more I can say here.\u201d (He had more to say. It went on.)<\/p>\n

When Sankano complained to HR, the firm\u2019s response was interesting. According to the complaint, it took the firm 77 days to investigate. The conclusion of that investigation? Bowsher\u2019s email was \u201cinappropriate\u201d but not racist because, the firm argued, he treated people at his prior job the same way. As I noted at the time, arguing your partner is a generalized equal-opportunity menace is certainly one<\/em> defense.<\/p>\n

This case has been percolating since early 2024, and it reaches its conclusion in a legal landscape where Biglaw firms have spent the past year dismantling DEI programs \u2014 cutting affinity groups, scrubbing websites, and signing executive order deals<\/a> \u2014 under pressure from an administration that has made DEI its favorite pi\u00f1ata. The optics of settling a $35 million racial discrimination suit in that environment says enough (even though Troutman Pepper has not commented on the settlement).<\/p>\n

Sankano, for her part, gets to move on while the firm gets to avoid a trial. The partner whose emails apparently needed 77 days of investigation to be deemed merely \u201cinappropriate\u201d presumably continues his career <\/a>uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Former Associate Hits Biglaw Firm With Racial Discrimination Case After \u2018Dehumanizing\u2019 Email<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Troutman Pepper has settled the racial discrimination lawsuit brought by former associate Gita Sankano, who alleged she was the firm\u2019s only Black female attorney in its D.C. office, subjected to a \u201cdehumanizing\u201d email from a partner, and then fired after she complained about it. Trial had been scheduled to begin next month. Terms were not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-zQtb9I.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}