Lewis Brisbois Seeks Arbitration in Pay Spat With Ex-Partner

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith is trying to force arbitration with a former partner who sued the firm in part over its efforts to claw back compensation she earned during her employment there.

The firm on June 5 filed a motion to compel arbitration with Julie O’Dell in its dispute over a “significant six-figure amount of money” she owes, Lewis Brisbois general counsel Jana Lubert said.

O’Dell left Lewis Brisbois in 2023 and is now a California-based partner in Armstrong Teasdale’s labor and employment practice. She is one of two former partners who have in recent months sued the firm over alleged bias. Each lawsuit references racist and sexist emails by the former leaders of Lewis Brisbois’ labor and employment practice.

O’Dell also claimed the firm tried to seize some of her compensation in retaliation over her continued complaints about the firm’s accounting and billing practices.

Lubert in a Thursday statement said the clawback effort stemmed from a firm policy that allows new equity partners to earn monthly draws “well in excess” of their partner shares as they transition to a role with a stake in the firm’s profits. That arrangement led to some newer partners being “over distributed” when the legal industry faced tougher “market conditions” in 2022, Lubert said.

Lewis Brisbois that year reported $703 million in gross revenue and just over $1 million in profits per equity partner, which marked a 17% dip in profits from the prior year, according to American Lawyer data.
“We have already reached amicable agreements with the vast majority of those affected, including those who chose to leave the firm, and continue to work tirelessly to reach an amicable resolution with the remaining equity partners,” Lubert said.

Counsel for O’Dell did not respond to a request for comment.

O’Dell’s April lawsuit said she became an equity partner in 2022 but left just a year later because of consistent issues with the firm’s accounting and billing practices. She said mismanagement in billing caused the firm to miss its revenue target in 2022 but that she was originally told it would not affect her compensation.

Lewis Brisbois later informed her that it would seek to “attempt to claw back her earned compensation,” she said. The complaint also claims that O’Dell was paid significantly less than her male counterparts despite generating more revenue and billing more hours.

Lewis Brisbois has held that O’Dell owed the firm a six-figure sum at the time of her departure and that it “has worked tirelessly to reach an amicable resolution.”

“To that end—and in keeping with the Partnership Agreement Ms. O’Dell signed—we hired outside counsel to file a Demand for Arbitration even as we made repeated attempts to mediate on our own,” Lubert said. “As is true for every equity partner at Lewis Brisbois, Ms. O’Dell was clearly informed of her rights and responsibilities in that role, as well as the compensation of each partner at the firm.”

The dispute with O’Dell comes amid a chaotic stretch for the Los Angeles-founded firm. The heads of the labor and employment group left with more than 100 lawyers last spring, prompting the longtime chair to step down and the executive committee to disband. Two top managers later left in February as part of a back-office shakeup.

In 2023, the firm reported $720 million in revenue and $1.1 million in profits per equity partner, according to AmLaw data. “2023 was one of our firm’s best years ever,” Lubert said.

The case is O’Dell v. Lewis Brisbois, Cal. Super. Ct., 24STCV09778, 6/5/24