A Lebanese-American attorney accused a national law firm of discrimination in a recently filed lawsuit, alleging she was fired the day before she was hired at the firm’s Chicago office in late October because of her Muslim and Arab identity.
Jinan Chehade alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court that Foley & Lardner discriminated against her because of her Arab-Muslim background and political statements she made on social media and during public meetings about the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
According to the complaint, Chehade, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, was interning at Foley & Lardner in July 2022 when they offered her a full-time position to start in fall 2023. Then, 15 hours before Before she started working, she was fired, according to the complaint.
On the Sunday before her first scheduled day of work, Foley & Lardner asked her to come to the office where, she said, they questioned her for two hours “in a very hostile manner,” Chehade alleged in the complaint.
“As soon as we all sat down, they brought out a package of about 15 to 20 pages with screenshots of my social media posts, speeches I’ve given, my background, my identity ” said Chehade. “When I really started to feel anxiety and panic was when they asked me questions about my father and where he worked – and obviously, as the child of immigrants, a big law firm was asking you about your father…alarm bells just started ringing. my head,” Chehade told the Tribune in an interview Thursday.
Chehade’s father, she said, works at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview.
The company also asked her about her associations with Students for Justice in Palestine and about public comments she made regarding a proposed ceasefire resolution at a Chicago City Council meeting, said Chehade, who is Lebanese but whose family lives in Gaza.
“It was devastating when they turned on me and vilified me in that way when I really lived up to their so-called commitment to diversity,” Chehade said.
In an emailed statement, a representative for Foley & Lardner said he believed Chehade’s complaint was “meritless.”
“We stand by our decision to rescind Ms. Chehade’s job offer following the statements she made regarding the horrific Hamas attacks on October 7,” a cabinet representative said.
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