Legal Slice

Jones Day will have to defend its family leave policy at trial against claims from married ex-associates who say it is discriminatory and violates District of Columbia law, a federal court has said. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia modified the docket in the suit by Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff. It said that Jones Day’s bid for summary judgment was denied on the husband's interference claim under D.C.'s Family and Medical Leave Act. The original order issued last month, and a related docket entry for the court's temporarily sealed opinion, had indicated that the leave interference claim couldn't advance to trial. Savignac and Sheketoff sued Jones Day in 2019, alleging that the firm's parental leave policy for newborns discriminated against biological fathers by affording male employees eight weeks less time off for the birth of a child than female employees could use. They couple also said Jones Day retaliated for complaining about the gender inequity, including by dismissing Savignac two weeks after the birth of their son and three business days after the couple emailed the firm to  complain about its policy.