McClelland v. Dechert LLP

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CELIENA MCCLELLAND, Plaintiff, v. DECHERT, LLP, et al, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 21-2702

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania

June 10, 2022

MEMORANDUM

CHAD F. KENNEY, JUDGE

Before the Court is Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment against Plaintiff Celiena McClelland. ECF No. 24.

I. BACKGROUND

Ms McClelland brings this civil suit against her former employer Dechert, LLP, and supervisor Elaine Wry alleging employment discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation. ECF No. 2. Ms. McClelland is an African-American woman, who worked in the billing department at Dechert. Id. Ms Wry is an employee at Dechert who, at all times relevant to this matter, held supervisory authority over Ms. McClelland as Director of Financial Operation. ECF No. 2 ¶¶ 1-5. Ms. McClelland describes Ms. Wry as Asian. ECF No. 2 ¶ 5.

Ms McClelland began her employment with Dechert's billing department in or around 2000 and submitted her resignation in December 2020 but Ms. McClelland claims that she was constructively discharged due to racial discrimination and harassment. ECF No. 2 ¶¶ 1-2. Ms. McClelland alleges that the issues began in February 2019. Id. ¶ 3. Ms. McClelland describes Ms. Wry as an “extreme micromanager” who gave her “unrealistic deadlines and an excessive workload.” Id. ¶¶ 3-4, 19. Ms. McClelland alleges that Ms. Wry contacted employees in the billing department to ask them questions about her. Id. ¶ 5. Ms. Wry also allegedly requested years of exit interviews from the billing department to analyze. Id. ¶ 6. On May 16, 2019, Ms. McClelland claims that she was accused by Ms. Wry and an employee in Human Resources for the high turnover rate in the billing department and that others had complained of Ms. McClelland's communication skills. Id. Ms. McClelland claims this was “an effort to undermine her credibility and performance” at Dechert. Id.

On April 1, 2019, Ms. McClelland claims that she was involved in a conference call with a client, where most individuals were announced on the call except for herself and one other employee. Id. ¶ 10. Ms. McClelland admits to being visibly upset after the call. Id. When Ms. Wry wished to discuss it, Ms. McClelland told her that another employee improperly introduced someone as the e-billing manager even though that is her role. Id. ¶ 12. When that employee met with Ms. McClelland to discuss the conference call, he allegedly “refused to apologize for humiliating her in a public forum” and told her she “needed to humble herself.” Id. ¶ 14. She also claims that she was reprimanded for leaving for a funeral that day, though she had notified Ms. Wry of it in advance. Id. ¶¶ 11, 13.

According to Ms. McClelland, at some point in the Spring of 2019, Ms. Wry and Dechert's CFO, Mr. Senter, informed Ms. McClelland that she would no longer be managing the e-billing department and that Ms. Wry would take over the role. Id. ¶ 16. Ms. McClelland called the decision “very embarrassing[.]” Id. ¶ 16. Later in June 2019, Ms. Wry invited Ms. McClelland to attend a conference in Orlando, Florida but she had to buy her registration, flight and hotel then seek reimbursement from Dechert. Id. ¶ 17. Ms. McClelland declined due to the expense and Ms. Wry offered to have the firm pay for the registration and flight, though Ms. McClelland would still need to advance the payment for her hotel stay. Id. Ms. McClelland then agreed to attend. Id. She alleges that she was the only African American employee from Dechert attending and the only employee required to advance the payment. Id.

In her December 2019 performance review, Ms. McClelland claims that Ms. Wry said she “meets expectation, ” even though Ms. McClelland believes that her efforts were above and beyond. Id. ¶ 20. In January 2020, Ms. McClelland complained to Ms. Wry that third-party vendor consultants would mention only Ms. Wry and another co-worker, which ignored her as the billing manager. Id. ¶ 21. In March 2020, Ms. McClelland and her team switched to remote work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Id. ¶ 22. Ms. McClelland claims she was “overwhelmed with work” and that Ms. Wry made “excessive requests” that made Ms. McClelland work late nights. Id. Ms. McClelland alleges that no other similarly situated person at Dechert was “required to be overworked” like her. Id. Ms. Wry also allegedly requested to be included in team meetings. Id. ¶ 23.

In or around July 2020, Ms. Wry allegedly hired a billing coordinator against Ms. McClelland's advice and then blamed Ms. McClelland when he resigned from the position. Id. ¶ 27. Ms. McClelland lists a number of other complaints, including staffing disagreements in ebilling, training of new billers, being “cut off” during meetings, being forced to share training session responsibilities with a co-worker, and being forced to share hiring responsibilities with Ms. Wry. Id. ¶¶ 8-9, 15, 18, 25, 26.

In August 2020, Ms. McClelland reported Ms. Wry's behavior to the Director of Human Resources. Id. ¶ 28.^[1] Ms. McClelland claims that the Director of Human Resources was not impartial and showed bias against her. Id. Human Resources referred her to the Director of Diversity and Inclusion, who Ms. McClelland met with and she claims never followed up. Id. ¶ 29. At her mid-year review in October 2020, Ms. McClelland alleges that her evaluation was filled with inaccurate and false information, though she does not elaborate on what information was inaccurate or false. Id. ¶ 30. In December 2020, Ms. McClelland resigned from her employment at Dechert. Id. ¶ 31.

Based on the evidence on the record, Defendants submitted a Statement of Stipulated Material Facts for the purposes of summary judgment. ECF No. 25. Ms. Wry, an Asian-American woman employed by Dechert, was promoted to Director of Financial Operations in January 2019. ECF No. 25 ¶ 5. Shortly thereafter, Ms. McClelland was promoted to Billing Manager in February 2019. ECF No. 25 ¶ 1. Ms. Wry informed Ms. McClelland of the promotion and increased salary of $92, 000. ECF No. 25 ¶ 9. Ms. McClelland requested an increase in the starting salary to $96, 000, which Ms. Wry secured for her. ECF No. 25 ¶¶ 10-11.

In March 2019, half of the billing assistants in the Philadelphia office resigned. ECF No. 25 ¶ 17. Dechert's CFO and Ms. Wry collected five years of exit interviews from Human Resources for everyone who left the billing department. ECF No. 25 ¶ 19. In May 2019, Ms. McClelland, Ms. Wry and a Manager from Human Resources met to discuss attrition in the billing department. ECF No. 25 ¶ 22. Ms. McClelland testified in her deposition that she felt discriminated against during that meeting but race never came up during the conversation, nor did Ms. McClelland report this discrimination to Ms. Wry or anyone at Dechert at that time. ECF No. 25 ¶¶ 22-23.

During a conference call with a client in April 2019, the CFO referred to another employee as the e-Billing “Manager.” ECF No. 25 ¶ 24. Ms. Wry, noticing that Ms. McClelland was upset after the call, helped arrange a meeting between Ms. McClelland and Dechert's CFO, where the CFO told Ms. McClelland it was unintentional if he misspoke. ECF No. 25 ¶ 26.

Regarding Ms. McClelland's issues with travel expenses related to the June conference, Dechert's Travel and Entertainment Expense Policy specifies that “[t]he firm will reimburse [employees] for business related transportation and entertainment expenses.” ECF No. 25 ¶ 15. Ms. McClelland admits that Ms. Wry was able to get approval for an exception of that policy when Ms. McClelland stated an inability to afford the expenses. ECF No. 25 ¶ 16.

As Billing Manager, Ms. McClelland expressed that she “felt as though [she] was drowning.” ECF No. 25 ¶ 29. To alleviate the burden, Ms. Wry hired a billing supervisor in August 2019. ECF No. 25 ¶ 32. Ms. Wry also restructured the chain of command in the billing/e-billing department and Ms. McClelland was not consulted about these changes. ECF No. 25 ¶ 33.

In Ms. McClelland's 2019 performance review, Ms. Wry gave her ratings of either “exceeds expectations” or “meets expectations” and included statements like “I commend Celiena for her efforts” and “I look forward to seeing Celiena continue to grow and develop further in her position as Billing Manager.” ECF No. 25 ¶¶ 37, 41. Ms. McClelland's selfevaluation did not include any accusations of harassment or racial discrimination. ECF No. 25 ¶ 40. Following the 2019 performance review, Dechert gave Ms. McClelland a salary increase to $99, 000. ECF No. 25 ¶ 42.

At the beginning of 2020, Dechert began preparing for a switch from their current billing system to Aderant and assigned the Manager of Accounts Payable as the full-time staff member overseeing the project. ECF No. 25 ¶ 44. The Manager of Accounts Payable fulfilled this role on the project for all departments, not just billing. ECF No. 29 at 47. Ms. McClelland expressed concern that another employee only referred to Ms. Wry and this other manager while discussing the transition, which “demeans” her position, and that her “presence as manager [was] not being recognized.” ECF No. 25 ¶ 45. Ms. McClelland admits she did not think those communications were racially-biased. ECF No. 25 ¶ 46. Ms. Wry responded that she would discuss the issue and make sure Ms. McClelland was being addressed in future communications. ECF No. 25 ¶ 45. In additional correspondence, Ms. Wry states that Ms. McClelland is “the only one who constantly pushes back” on this Manager's involvement in the project. ECF No. 29 at 47.

In January 2020, Ms. McClelland expressed concerns regarding Ms Wry having bias against her and not being supportive. ECF No. 29 at 51. Human Resources attempted to schedule a meeting with Ms. Wry and Ms....