{"id":149744,"date":"2026-04-27T14:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/27\/biglaw-harassment-account-includes-maybe-the-most-insane-email-a-biglaw-partner-has-ever-sent-an-associate\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:43:05","slug":"biglaw-harassment-account-includes-maybe-the-most-insane-email-a-biglaw-partner-has-ever-sent-an-associate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/27\/biglaw-harassment-account-includes-maybe-the-most-insane-email-a-biglaw-partner-has-ever-sent-an-associate\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Harassment Account Includes Maybe The Most Insane Email A Biglaw Partner Has Ever Sent An Associate"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Perkins Coie and Ashurst advance toward their upcoming merger<\/a>, it provides both firms an opportunity to reflect on their own calcified practices and embrace change where needed. Like, for example, how the new firm might handle a hypothetical situation where a female associate is subjected to sexual rumors spread by partners. The sort of situation where the woman receives emails from her supervising partner\u2019s husband with subject lines like \u201cGreetings, sad people,\u201d that begin \u201cI don\u2019t know which of you two nitwits is more to blame\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this isn\u2019t as hypothetical as one would hope.<\/p>\n

On LinkedIn, Perkins Coie counsel Breanna Philips expressed her hope that the merger between her firm and Ashurst will bring some soul-searching and tangible change in managing hostile work environments. <\/p>\n

Per Philips\u2019s own account, here is the rough timeline. In September 2025, a female partner who was Philips\u2019s direct supervisor allegedly started a rumor that Philips had been sexually assaulted by a male partner in another group. That rumor resulted, Philips says, in a closed-door meeting \u2014 \u201cheld without notice,\u201d per the email Philips sent firm leadership in January \u2014 in which the male partner in question asked Philips about her sexual history. <\/p>\n

There is approximately no version of HR training that recommends that response. <\/p>\n

Philips reported both the rumor and<\/em> the closed-door meeting to HR. \u201cI was concerned that request might not be taken seriously, so I escalated to a more senior HR representative a few days later,\u201d Philips writes. \u201cAnd a third HR representative joined shortly after to lead the investigation.\u201d Despite this, Philips just waited. <\/p>\n

A month later, in October, the husband of the supervising partner \u2014 who was himself a former Perkins partner \u2014 sent the aforementioned \u201cgreetings, sad people\u201d email to Philips\u2019s work account. <\/p>\n

Quick housekeeping: the firm has noted that all the partners involved have left, though Philips\u2019s account makes clear that the female partner accused of starting the rumors was still her supervisor when this happened, and Bloomberg reports<\/a> the female partner left \u201cof her own accord due to an unrelated reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email itself \u2014 you can read it in full<\/a> (with names redacted) \u2014 accuses Philips and another Perkins lawyer of spreading the rumor that the husband was \u201chaving, or interested in having, an affair.\u201d The partner\u2019s husband insists that an affair with him would be \u201cabout as plausible as my being one of the people who robbed the Louvre,\u201d which is a bizarre tonal shift in such a confrontational email. He then suggests Philips and her colleague are \u201cneedy, gossipy vampires\u201d who \u201csuck the life out of\u201d his wife. He recommends that Philips read David Foster Wallace\u2019s \u201cThe Depressed Person\u201d \u2014 perhaps the most stuck-in-the-90s-Pacific-Northwest<\/em> advice ever \u2014 and \u201cstop emulating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The male senior lawyer also expresses his hope that the email humiliates the junior female lawyer \u2014 \u201cIf receiving this is humiliating or embarrassing for you, if it makes you scared or feel shame, that\u2019s good. It should.\u201d \u2014 and signs off \u201cSincerely (more sincere than you can possibly imagine).\u201d<\/p>\n

Where did this rumor come from? According to the Philips account:<\/p>\n

\n

I called the sender and the female partner immediately. He told me that during a marital spat, she accused him of having an affair\u2014an idea she later tried to blame on another associate, also copied on the email. When he asked her who the affair was supposedly with, she named me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As she explains \u201cmy direct supervisor had now sexualized me two times (first the assault rumor, second, the affair lie),\u201d which seems to be an accurate characterization of those alleged facts. This is why firms have HR departments. Philips claims HR told her to \u201cdo nothing\u201d and she took that as an indication that it was being handled by personnel. Apparently, it wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

By January, Philips had had enough and sent a January 21 email<\/a> to HR, employment counsel, and several firm leaders. The email listed seven specific items she expected the firm to address, including the September rumor, the closed-door meeting in which a partner asked her about her sexual history, and \u201cthe firm\u2019s decision to let [the husband partner] attend the Christmas party this year, despite knowing of his harassing messages.\u201d She requested a written response by January 28, but also WAIT, THEY LET THE GUY GO TO THE HOLIDAY PARTY! That seems\u2026 problematic.<\/p>\n

According to Philips, only after this email did the firm tell her a third-party investigator would be retained, and the outside investigator first contacted her on February 27 \u2014 roughly five months after she first reported the rumor.<\/p>\n

Perkins Coie provided a statement to Bloomberg: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPerkins Coie has long sought to foster an inclusive workplace that values a broad array of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences,\u201d the firm said Thursday. \u201cWhen an employee raises a concern with HR, it is fully investigated, including in some cases by a third party, and appropriate action taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sort of glosses over the five-month lag.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the assessment Philips makes in another LinkedIn post, noting her \u201cconcern is not whether outside investigators are ever used; it is that a prompt, neutral investigation did not happen here. That distinction matters.\u201d It does. <\/p>\n

Honestly, if there\u2019s a silver lining here, it\u2019s that Philips still works at Perkins Coie and was, in fact, promoted to counsel in January. That should not be remarkable, but unfortunately, corporate America is littered with stories of junior female employees getting tagged with some sort of previously undisclosed \u201cperformance issue\u201d and nudged out the door as companies move to shield managers. The response described in these posts is unacceptable, but it could have been much worse.<\/p>\n

The tie-up with Ashurst will produce a roughly $2.8 billion, 3,000-lawyer transatlantic operation. \u201cSeem reasonable to require accountability amongst partners and HR personnel?\u201d as Philips puts it to Ashurst. \u201cCertainly seems to be less monetary exposure in doing so.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for suggestions, she writes:<\/p>\n

\n

At a minimum, these questions should be asked: 1. Is there an internal SOP for investigating complaints, and will the firm commit to making a copy available? 2. What disciplinary action exists for misconduct, and is application discretionary or structured? 3. Will the firm commit to supplying partners with demographic data for recent firings?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She addressed these to her own future firm, but these should be questions every law firm takes a second to make sure they know how to answer. Because law firms are a lot closer to hosting a hostile work environment than they think.<\/p>\n

Perkins Coie Hires Investigator for Counsel\u2019s Harassment Claims<\/a> [Bloomberg Law News]<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> The Next Transatlantic Biglaw Heavyweight: Ashurst Ties The Knot With Perkins Coie<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw Harassment Account Includes Maybe The Most Insane Email A Biglaw Partner Has Ever Sent An Associate<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

As Perkins Coie and Ashurst advance toward their upcoming merger<\/a>, it provides both firms an opportunity to reflect on their own calcified practices and embrace change where needed. Like, for example, how the new firm might handle a hypothetical situation where a female associate is subjected to sexual rumors spread by partners. The sort of situation where the woman receives emails from her supervising partner\u2019s husband with subject lines like \u201cGreetings, sad people,\u201d that begin \u201cI don\u2019t know which of you two nitwits is more to blame\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this isn\u2019t as hypothetical as one would hope.<\/p>\n

On LinkedIn, Perkins Coie counsel Breanna Philips expressed her hope that the merger between her firm and Ashurst will bring some soul-searching and tangible change in managing hostile work environments. <\/p>\n

Per Philips\u2019s own account, here is the rough timeline. In September 2025, a female partner who was Philips\u2019s direct supervisor allegedly started a rumor that Philips had been sexually assaulted by a male partner in another group. That rumor resulted, Philips says, in a closed-door meeting \u2014 \u201cheld without notice,\u201d per the email Philips sent firm leadership in January \u2014 in which the male partner in question asked Philips about her sexual history. <\/p>\n

There is approximately no version of HR training that recommends that response. <\/p>\n

Philips reported both the rumor and<\/em> the closed-door meeting to HR. \u201cI was concerned that request might not be taken seriously, so I escalated to a more senior HR representative a few days later,\u201d Philips writes. \u201cAnd a third HR representative joined shortly after to lead the investigation.\u201d Despite this, Philips just waited. <\/p>\n

A month later, in October, the husband of the supervising partner \u2014 who was himself a former Perkins partner \u2014 sent the aforementioned \u201cgreetings, sad people\u201d email to Philips\u2019s work account. <\/p>\n

Quick housekeeping: the firm has noted that all the partners involved have left, though Philips\u2019s account makes clear that the female partner accused of starting the rumors was still her supervisor when this happened, and Bloomberg reports<\/a> the female partner left \u201cof her own accord due to an unrelated reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email itself \u2014 you can read it in full<\/a> (with names redacted) \u2014 accuses Philips and another Perkins lawyer of spreading the rumor that the husband was \u201chaving, or interested in having, an affair.\u201d The partner\u2019s husband insists that an affair with him would be \u201cabout as plausible as my being one of the people who robbed the Louvre,\u201d which is a bizarre tonal shift in such a confrontational email. He then suggests Philips and her colleague are \u201cneedy, gossipy vampires\u201d who \u201csuck the life out of\u201d his wife. He recommends that Philips read David Foster Wallace\u2019s \u201cThe Depressed Person\u201d \u2014 perhaps the most stuck-in-the-90s-Pacific-Northwest<\/em> advice ever \u2014 and \u201cstop emulating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The male senior lawyer also expresses his hope that the email humiliates the junior female lawyer \u2014 \u201cIf receiving this is humiliating or embarrassing for you, if it makes you scared or feel shame, that\u2019s good. It should.\u201d \u2014 and signs off \u201cSincerely (more sincere than you can possibly imagine).\u201d<\/p>\n

Where did this rumor come from? According to the Philips account:<\/p>\n

\n

I called the sender and the female partner immediately. He told me that during a marital spat, she accused him of having an affair\u2014an idea she later tried to blame on another associate, also copied on the email. When he asked her who the affair was supposedly with, she named me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As she explains \u201cmy direct supervisor had now sexualized me two times (first the assault rumor, second, the affair lie),\u201d which seems to be an accurate characterization of those alleged facts. This is why firms have HR departments. Philips claims HR told her to \u201cdo nothing\u201d and she took that as an indication that it was being handled by personnel. Apparently, it wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

By January, Philips had had enough and sent a January 21 email<\/a> to HR, employment counsel, and several firm leaders. The email listed seven specific items she expected the firm to address, including the September rumor, the closed-door meeting in which a partner asked her about her sexual history, and \u201cthe firm\u2019s decision to let [the husband partner] attend the Christmas party this year, despite knowing of his harassing messages.\u201d She requested a written response by January 28, but also WAIT, THEY LET THE GUY GO TO THE HOLIDAY PARTY! That seems\u2026 problematic.<\/p>\n

According to Philips, only after this email did the firm tell her a third-party investigator would be retained, and the outside investigator first contacted her on February 27 \u2014 roughly five months after she first reported the rumor.<\/p>\n

Perkins Coie provided a statement to Bloomberg: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPerkins Coie has long sought to foster an inclusive workplace that values a broad array of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences,\u201d the firm said Thursday. \u201cWhen an employee raises a concern with HR, it is fully investigated, including in some cases by a third party, and appropriate action taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sort of glosses over the five-month lag.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the assessment Philips makes in another LinkedIn post, noting her \u201cconcern is not whether outside investigators are ever used; it is that a prompt, neutral investigation did not happen here. That distinction matters.\u201d It does. <\/p>\n

Honestly, if there\u2019s a silver lining here, it\u2019s that Philips still works at Perkins Coie and was, in fact, promoted to counsel in January. That should not be remarkable, but unfortunately, corporate America is littered with stories of junior female employees getting tagged with some sort of previously undisclosed \u201cperformance issue\u201d and nudged out the door as companies move to shield managers. The response described in these posts is unacceptable, but it could have been much worse.<\/p>\n

The tie-up with Ashurst will produce a roughly $2.8 billion, 3,000-lawyer transatlantic operation. \u201cSeem reasonable to require accountability amongst partners and HR personnel?\u201d as Philips puts it to Ashurst. \u201cCertainly seems to be less monetary exposure in doing so.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for suggestions, she writes:<\/p>\n

\n

At a minimum, these questions should be asked: 1. Is there an internal SOP for investigating complaints, and will the firm commit to making a copy available? 2. What disciplinary action exists for misconduct, and is application discretionary or structured? 3. Will the firm commit to supplying partners with demographic data for recent firings?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She addressed these to her own future firm, but these should be questions every law firm takes a second to make sure they know how to answer. Because law firms are a lot closer to hosting a hostile work environment than they think.<\/p>\n

Perkins Coie Hires Investigator for Counsel\u2019s Harassment Claims<\/a> [Bloomberg Law News]<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> The Next Transatlantic Biglaw Heavyweight: Ashurst Ties The Knot With Perkins Coie<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Perkins Coie and Ashurst advance toward their upcoming merger, it provides both firms an opportunity to reflect on their own calcified practices and embrace change where needed. Like, for example, how the new firm might handle a hypothetical situation where a female associate is subjected to sexual rumors spread by partners. The sort of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-149744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149744","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=149744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}