Zafar Hasan, a former associate in Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office, can proceed with an employment discrimination suit against the law firm, the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals today said.
The ruling today overturned a decision by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Hasan, an Indian and a Muslim, alleges in the 2004 lawsuit that certain partners at the law firm pushed to fire him on the basis of his race, religion, color and national origin after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The US District Court granted summary judgment to the law firm, saying that Hasan hadn’t created a “convincing mosaic” of evidence of the discrimination. The appellate court disagreed and said there was sufficient evidence.
Hasan had been an associate in the business law department until he was asked, in December 2002, to leave within six months because of “deficiencies in his performance.”
Hasan’s attorney, Tom Crooks, said he was “very pleased” with the decision that expressed “exactly the theory we had put forth in our summary judgment response.”
