4th Circuit: Law firm partner not protected by antidiscrimination statute

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal statute that provides antidiscrimination protections for workers. The protections, however, apply only to "employees." Recently, the 4th Circuit (which covers North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia employers) weighed in on what makes a worker an "employee" in the Title VII context. Ultimately, the court concluded a law firm partner wasn't an employee and therefore couldn't file a claim under the statute.

Facts

In 2001, Shawna Lemon, an African-American lawyer, joined Myers Bigel, a North Carolina law firm, as an associate attorney with an employment agreement. In 2007, she became a partner, signed a shareholder agreement, and purchased 5,000 shares of the firm.

Like all other partners, Lemon was compensated according to a formula largely dependent on the firm's profits and losses. She also was subject to the firm's shareholder quality control policy and eligible to serve on the management committee (which she did in 2011) and in officer positions (which she did in 2016). Although the shareholder agreement never formally superseded the employment agreement, the board of directors voted, while Lemon was a partner, to strip all references to shareholders as "employees" from the shareholder agreement.