Law firm that dropped trans man agrees to pay damages and costs

The law firm Morrison Foerster (MoFo) has agreed to pay damages to Good Law Project and the trans man who sued it for discrimination, together with their legal costs. The settlement brings to an end litigation issued after MoFo reversed its earlier decision to take the man on as a client.

Good Law Project had claimed, following a leak to it from a source in MoFo, that the reversal had been precipitated by concern expressed by a US partner expressing concern about how Donald Trump might respond to the firm acting for a trans person given his hostility to EDI causes.

The claim sought damages of £25,000 and a declaration that MoFo had engaged in unlawful discrimination. MoFo agreed to pay the full £25,000 – and the claimants’ legal costs – but without admitting liability. The offer made it extremely risky for Good Law Project to continue, because civil procedure rules would put it at risk of having to meet both its own costs and MoFo’s, even if it won. This is the same problem Hugh Grant faced in his phone hacking case against the Murdoch press.

Earlier, in ‘open’ correspondence, MoFo had admitted that “the potentially controversial nature of issues raised by the litigation” had been among its reasons for not taking the man on as a client. When asked what was “potentially controversial about the issues raised by the litigation”, solicitors acting for MoFo refused to answer. However, they continued to assert that the decision was “in no sense tainted by discrimination” and denied it had “anything to do with political events in the US”.

Of the £25,000, £5,000 is payable to the trans man in question and £20,000 to Good Law Project. Good Law Project will donate the £20,000 in four equal sums of £5,000 to Trans+ Solidarity Alliance; Equality for Trans Families; Trans Legal Clinic; and the Gender Identity Research & Education Society.