Revenge served ice cold? Top L.A. law firm outs former partners' racist, sexist emails

[Not My Real Name]

I had a buddy who focused on HR and employment issues. The shit people would say on their company email and the things that they would pay for with their company cards was mind boggling (things like putting fetish clubs on their corporate cards).

Back when I worked for an investment bank, we had a few...interesting...expense report items.

 

[Blue Crab]

So those were the ONLY lawyers acting that way at that firm

Yeah but. My read is the the surviving partners were obviously aware all along and ousting the offending partners was equal to or worse than putting up with it. I'd guess there were many discussions about how to get rid of the two haters.

Leaving voluntarily and taking favored associates offered an opportunity that was taken, that might not have been if just the two misogynist Nazis had left on their own.

I luvs me a happy ending. And lets not cry about the fates of assholish millionaires.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I have to believe the law firm knew of their tendency to use such language/labels.

One could safely assume an awful lot of bad acting when it comes to every biglaw partner in the world and rarely be wrong.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I had a buddy who focused on HR and employment issues. The shit people would say on their company email and the things that they would pay for with their company cards was mind boggling (things like putting fetish clubs on their corporate cards).

Arrogance breeds carelessness.

I will say that this kind of stupidity is much more rare with lawyers than with other professions.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Shysters being shysters.... who wouldda thunk

Was that one of the emails?

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Was that one of the emails?

At least he didn't use shylock

 

[Sisyphus]

At least he didn't use shylock

I had never heard anyone associate shyster with anti-semitism before. Is there entomological support that it has anti-Semitic origins? Or is this a case of enough people believing a false entomology so that the word has taken on a different connotation, at least to some?

Is 'Shyster' Anti-Semitic? | New York Law Journal

Breaking news and trends with an emphasis on banking and financial litigation and regulations providing New York attorneys and legal pros the insight to run their firms and practices

www.law.com

World Wide Words: Shyster

Several strange tales have been told about the origin of 'Shyster' but the truth is stranger than the fiction.

www.worldwidewords.org

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I had never heard anyone associate shyster with anti-semitism before. Is there entomological support that it has anti-Semitic origins? Or is this a case of enough people believing a false entomology so that the word has taken on a different connotation, at least to some?

Is 'Shyster' Anti-Semitic? | New York Law Journal

Breaking news and trends with an emphasis on banking and financial litigation and regulations providing New York attorneys and legal pros the insight to run their firms and practices

www.law.com

World Wide Words: Shyster

Several strange tales have been told about the origin of 'Shyster' but the truth is stranger than the fiction.

www.worldwidewords.org

yep. in other words stupid racists confused the two for long enough that shyster is used in place of 'dirty jew lawyer' widely these days.

a high school near here just changed their mascot from the Colonels despite being named for the patriotic residents who went to fight for the union during the civil war. At some point in the 80s the parents turned it into a confederate rebel symbol, flags and all.

 

[Sisyphus]

yep. in other words stupid racists confused the two for long enough that shyster is used in place of 'dirty jew lawyer' widely these days.

a high school near here just changed their mascot from the Colonels despite being named for the patriotic residents who went to fight for the union during the civil war. At some point in the 80s the parents turned it into a confederate rebel symbol, flags and all.

Well, that is a shame.

I guess I’ll have to revert to pettifogger, it has too many syllables for the racists to claim it.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

thanks for the new word

 

[Steam Flyer]

...
I guess I’ll have to revert to pettifogger, it has too many syllables for the racists to claim it.

Our vocabulary is changing whether we want it to, or not.

I see the word "shyster" and wonder if it has anything to do with the gangster term "shy" which is basically a protection racket, shaking down businesses.

IMHO "shyster" means an outright crook, "pettifogger" more small-time (hence 'petti')

 

[Olsonist]

If you read, then you had better know what shyster and niggardly mean. That's what dictionaries are for. But in modern usage, there are better words to choose. If you use these words and then run+hide behind your mother's apron of being anti-PC then you're just being a dick.

 

[Sisyphus]

If you read, then you had better know what shyster and niggardly mean. That's what dictionaries are for. But in modern usage, there are better words to choose. If you use these words and then run+hide behind your mother's apron of being anti-PC then you're just being a dick.

I’m not really sure to whom you are directing this.

It is the connotation, not the denotation, of shyster that is issue. The dictionary doesn’t really help with that.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I see the word "shyster" and wonder if it has anything to do with the gangster term "shy"

nope

 

[kent_island_sailor]

At least he didn't use shylock

Isn't a shylock a loan shark? I never heard that one for lawyers.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Isn't a shylock a loan shark? I never heard that one for lawyers.

Shylock was a jewish character in the Merchant of Venice. He was a moneylender, which was (and still is in many places) used interchangeably as an anti-jew trope for 400 years or so.

‘Is it antisemitic? Yes’: how Jewish actors and directors tackle The Merchant of Venice

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Shylock, who has been relocated to 1930s Britain, is inspired by her tough great grandma – while Henry Goodman felt shame after losing himself in Shakespeare’s most notorious character

www.theguardian.com

 

[Voyageur]

Shylock​

Shylock was a character in one of Shakespear's plays (The Merchant of Venice). He was a Jewish usurer, so saying that a person is a Shylock means he's a loan shark.
You really shouldn't mess with the guys down on 57th, they're real shylocks and the interest rates will kill you.
by Isis January 2, 2005

 

[kent_island_sailor]

Shylock was a jewish character in the Merchant of Venice. He was a moneylender, which was (and still is in many places) used interchangeably as an anti-jew trope for 400 years or so.

‘Is it antisemitic? Yes’: how Jewish actors and directors tackle The Merchant of Venice

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Shylock, who has been relocated to 1930s Britain, is inspired by her tough great grandma – while Henry Goodman felt shame after losing himself in Shakespeare’s most notorious character

www.theguardian.com

I am aware of the character in the play, but also am pretty sure it was or still is slang on the street for a loan shark.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

it was or still is slang on the street for a loan shark.

has been, on and off, for four centuries, almost always with a Jewish connotation. Also meant 'white haired' back in olde england.

 

[Slowboat]

yep. in other words stupid racists confused the two for long enough that shyster is used in place of 'dirty jew lawyer' widely these days.

a high school near here just changed their mascot from the Colonels despite being named for the patriotic residents who went to fight for the union during the civil war. At some point in the 80s the parents turned it into a confederate rebel symbol, flags and all.

I was a Colonel during some of those years. “I’m not a racist, but…” was heard more than once.