Company logo of law firm Polsinelli is seen in their legal offices in Manhattan, New York, April 27, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
A Dallas-based bankruptcy partner at Fox Rothschild is withdrawing a federal bias lawsuit against his ex-firm Polsinelli and will instead take his discrimination claims to arbitration.
Plaintiff Trey Monsour’s Tuesday concession represents a victory for Polsinelli, which denied Monsour’s claims that he was forced out of the firm due to his sexual orientation and his age and argued that he was required to arbitrate any claims against the firm. Monsour, who is gay, was 58 years old when he filed the lawsuit in March.
In conjunction with its bid to compel arbitration, Polsinelli asserted that Monsour, now a partner in Fox Rothschild’s Dallas office, was terminated in March 2020 because he misrepresented the size of his book of business and that mistreated two of his female colleagues.
Monsour sued Polsinelli in Houston federal court in March. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller had not made any substantive rulings in the case before Tuesday’s withdrawal.
Monsour joined Polsinelli in June 2017 as an equity partner in its bankruptcy and financial restructuring group in Houston. While other attorneys received the “red carpet treatment,” Monsour alleged he did not.
His lawsuit alleged that he was isolated and deprived of professional support for years. He called Polsinelli’s commitment to diversity a “marketing ploy,” and alleged he heard the firm’s former chair making derogatory comments about how two other gay Polsinelli attorneys at the firm should be paid cumulatively, rather individually, because they were domestic partners.
In late 2019, Polsinelli began to nudge Monsour out of the firm by hiring a younger, straight, female bankruptcy attorney who introduced herself as “the Texas bankruptcy partner to whom other attorneys, as well as clients, should direct their communications,” the lawsuit alleged. Monsour claimed the attorney also tried to dig up dirt on him in an effort to get him fired.
Monsour alleged that when Polsinelli terminated him in March 2020, the firm was vague and unclear about its reasons. But Polsinelli countered in an April 27 filing that Monsour was terminated, in part, because of his “poor treatment” of a second-year female associate who asked to be transferred and a female shareholder.
Monsour also misrepresented the size of his book of business, Polsinelli alleged. He became an equity partner at the firm because he said his book of business was valued between $1.2 million and $2.3 million, when in fact he raked in less than $135,000 in fiscal year 2018, the firm said.
As a result, he lost his equity and saw his compensation shrink, Polsinelli asserted. Monsour in his lawsuit said he “performed at a high level, scoring legal victories and adding value to the firm.”
Monsour’s attorney, William Brewer III, a founding partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors, said in a statement last month that Polsinelli’s filing was “a transparent attempt… to deflect attention away from its treatment of members of the LGBTQ community by disparaging its former partner.”
A representative for Polsinelli did not respond to a request for comment.
The case is Trey Monsour v. Polsinelli PC, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 4:21-cv-01046.
For Trey Monsour: Robert Millimet, William Brewer III and William Brewer IV, of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors
For Polsinelli: Laura DeSantos and Mercedes Colwin, of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani
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