City Bar Clarifies Rules on Discrimination Complaints Under Rule 8.4(g)
USA
December 24 2020
New York is no stranger to anti-discrimination laws. The value of treating individuals equitably is, of course, imbued in our state law (which establishes a formal Division of Human Rights to resolve discrimination claims) and much of our local law (NYC, for example, has its own body of Human Rights Law recognizing a unique set of protected characteristics that musn’t serve as a basis for discrimination). But that value is also enshrined within our Rules of Professional Conduct, and most directly through Rule 8.4(g)’s prohibition on “unlawful[] discriminat[ion] in the practice of law, including in hiring, promoting or otherwise determining conditions of employment on the basis of age, race, creed, color, national origin, sex, disability, marital status or sexual orientation.”