Law firm sued after holiday party ends at bikini bar
The holiday season at many law firms means year-end bonuses and a nice dinner for employees at an upscale restaurant.
But things were a little different last year at the Century City law firm of Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, according to a recent lawsuit. At the conclusion of the law firm’s 2009 holiday party, founding partner Lionel Z. Glancy took staffers to a Los Angeles bikini bar named Fantasy Island, paid for their admissions and bought a lap dance for at least one employee, a former employee alleges in the sexual harassment and wrongful-termination lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that female employees at the firm were subjected to a hostile work environment that included “partners’ obsession with discussing sex in the workplace and derogatory comments about women.”
Plaintiff Ashlee Ilewicz worked as an investigator at the firm for 14 months before she was fired in December 2009. Her lawsuit, filed this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said she was fired for complaining about the performance of an attorney and was subjected to a hostile work environment while employed at the firm.
A lawyer representing Glancy told the legal newspaper the Daily Journal that the allegations were false and the firm intended to defend the lawsuit.
The firm, founded 16 years ago, represents investors in securities class-action lawsuits and also has offices in New York and San Francisco.
