Davis Polk says Black associate deserved firing: ‘race played no part’

The logo of the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell in their legal offices in New York City, New York, U.S., June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

(Reuters) – Wall Street law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell is hoping to knock out a two-year-old lawsuit filed by Kaloma Cardwell, a Black former associate who says he was fired in 2018 because of his race.

Davis Polk, in a 70-page memorandum filed in Manhattan federal court late Friday evening, asserted that the facts produced so far show that Cardwell was fired because he “was not able to perform at the level expected of a Davis Polk associate.”

“Race played no part in that decision,” the firm said. The firm – and the group of current and former Davis Polk partners Cardwell also sued – is asking U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods to award it summary judgment on Cardwell’s lawsuit.

Davis Polk said Cardwell missed deadlines and failed to research articles and client documents he was tasked with writing when he was an associate in the firm’s corporate department. During one fast-moving deal he was assigned to work on in 2017, Cardwell could not be found for more than 10 hours, forcing the M&A group to find replacement staffing, the firm said.

The firm highlighted the amount of discovery that’s been produced so far in the litigation disproves Cardwell’s claims that he was the victim of a campaign of racial discrimination during his four-year tenure there.

Cardwell said his complaints about discrimination led to negative performance evaluations and being stiffed on billable hours and professional development opportunities. But Davis Polk said Cardwell never billed any of his time in one of the cases he worked on.

Davis Polk’s motion for summary judgment comes more than two months after Woods threw out parts of Cardwell’s lawsuit against the law firm, and sanctioned Cardwell’s attorney, New York-based solo practitioner David Jeffries, $4,000 after Cardwell failed to answer Davis Polk’s interrogatories and produce documents.

That sanction was on top of a separate one Woods issued in 2020 – Woods ordered Jeffries to pay $2,500 in attorneys’ fees for missing a key discovery deadline.

Jeffries did not respond to a request for comment. Davis Polk is represented by a team of attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; representatives for Davis Polk did not respond to requests for comment.

The case is Cardwell v. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 1:19-cv-10256.

For Cardwell: David Jeffries

For the defendants: Bruce Birenboim, Jeh Johnson, Susanna Buergel and Marissa Doran of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

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