SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A female attorney and nonequity shareholder in a law firm is seeking declaratory judgment regarding her discrimination suit.
Dawn Knepper, on behalf of herself and all other similarly situated, filed a complaint on Jan. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division against Ogletree, Deakins, Nask, Smoak & Stewart PC seeking declaratory judgment.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff is a nonequity shareholder in the defendant's law firm. The suit states she has been employed by the defendant since 2005 and is a shareholder in its Orange County office.
"Plaintiff alleges that Ogletree practices a pattern of discrimination against female non-equity shareholders in pay, promotion, and other terms and conditions of their employment," the suit states.
The suit states the defendant claims the parties are bound by an arbitration agreement, which the plaintiff denies.
The plaintiff is seeking declaratory judgment that no agreement between the parties was ever formed to arbitrate her gender discrimination claims and that the court as the authority to issue judgment on all the plaintiff's claims.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks declaratory relief that the parties never formed an agreement to arbitrate disputes and any further relief to which the class may be entitled. She is represented by Jill Sanford and others of Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP in San Francisco, California.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division case number 3:18-cv-00304-EDL