On Wednesday, a Muslim attorney from Illinois filed a discrimination lawsuit against Foley & Lardner. She claimed the American legal firm fired her the day before her career was supposed to start because she supported the Palestinian people in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Jinan Chehade filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago. She stated that 1,100-lawyer Foley began investigating her after she criticized Israel’s involvement in the conflict and posted on social media. Fifteen hours before her scheduled start date as an associate at the firm’s Chicago office, she claimed she was fired on October 22.
After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 2023, Chehade claimed that two senior Foley partners interrogated her about her past. They questioned her involvement with Students for Justice in Palestine and her father’s employment at a nearby mosque.
The lawsuit claimed that Foley discriminated against people based on their race and religion. Additionally, the company had “relied on stereotypes about Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians as inherently violent and anti-Jewish.” Chehade declared that she has never supported terrorism.
The complaint had no validity, according to a statement from Foley & Lardner. “We stand behind our decision to rescind Ms. Chehade’s employment offer as a result of the statements she made surrounding the horrendous attacks by Hamas on October 7,” the company stated.
Angry demonstrations against Israeli policy have broken out at numerous American institutions in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 bombings in Israel and Israel’s military response.
The conflicts have also impacted the American legal community. In November, at least 220 American law firms sent a letter urging the deans of the nation’s top-ranked law schools to oppose Islamophobia and antisemitism. Muslim organizations attacked the letter, saying it concentrated too much on prejudice against Jews.
American legal firms, such as Winston & Strawn and Davis Polk & Wardwell, withdrew employment offers from law students last year. These students were either blamed for attacking Israel or held leadership positions in organizations that publicly supported Palestine.
On Wednesday, twenty-five federal law clerks sent an anonymous letter attacking the court system. They claimed they were forced to watch “passively” as Israel attacked Gaza or risked termination for openly participating in political activities.
The case is U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1:24-cv-04414, Jinan Chehade v. Foley & Lardner.
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