Fired Paul Hastings Associate Talks to Law Blog

[WSJ Law Blog]

The BigLaw story of the week has without a doubt been about a mass email sent by an associate at Paul Hastings in San Francisco who was fired on April 30 — six days after having a miscarriage — allegedly for poor work performance. (See earlier LB post here, the ATL post that started it all here.)

We caught up with the former associate, Shinyung Oh (University of Chicago ’93, Georgetown Law ’98), a commercial litigation lawyer, who says she sent the now-infamous email because she didn’t want other associates who may be laid off because of downsizing by the firm – but told it is because of their performance – to doubt their own abilities.

“I want them to feel like they’re not completely alone and not to worry about their own performance when it’s the firm doing something for economic reasons” and because of a “desire to increase partner profits,” she said.

Oh said two other associates who were widely believed to have been fired recently from her office had “left the firm with their tails under their legs,” and that she didn’t “want to walk out under the guise that I’d done something wrong.”

She said if a supervising partner hadn’t told her that she was succeeding in her work just a week before her last performance review, in which she was told she was doing poorly, “I would have seriously doubted myself.” (To see her 2006 performance review, click here.)

She added that she knew that the email, which was sent to associates firm-wide, litigation partners in her office and the top management of Paul Hastings, could ruin her chances of landing another big-firm job. She said she isn’t considering suing the firm, and said she doesn’t feel she was discriminated against because of her pregnancy.

“I understand it’s a business, but I had personal relationships,” she said. “I was shocked by the lack of human understanding and their inability to be honest with me, even on confidential basis,” about the firing.

As for what’s next, Oh, who immigrated from South Korea when she was eight and grew up in New York and Houston, said she’s not sure. But she said that since the email was posted online, she’s received an outpouring of support from lawyers in the Bay Area and across the country. Several are trying to help her find a new job.

To see her bio on the Paul Hastings web site, while it lasts, click here. The firm, which declined comment earlier this week, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the interview.