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By Nathalie Tadena 

Lawyers for WPP said they no longer object to a video of J. Walter Thompson's former chief executive at a company meeting being made public in a discrimination lawsuit -- under one condition.

The lawyers for JWT and JWT's parent company WPP said the faces of audience members at a meeting in Miami must be edited out to protect the privacy of the employees in attendance.

The video has become a point of contention in a lawsuit filed last month by JWT Chief Communications Officer Erin Johnson that accused JWT CEO Gustavo Martinez of a pattern of sexist and racist behavior that created a hostile work environment. Mr. Martinez, who has since resigned, has denied the accusations.

Lawyers for the defendants had originally sought to keep the video, which allegedly shows Mr. Gustavo making offensive remarks, out of court and sealed from public view.

The video footage from a May 2015 agency retreat allegedly shows Mr. Martinez talking about "different and strange characters in the elevator" and saying that he thought he was "going to be raped in the elevator" but "not in a nice way." The remarks were made in reference to another group at the same hotel that held a rowdy party attended mostly by African-Americans.

Ms. Johnson's lawyers asked to enter the video into evidence after the original lawsuit was filed and have said the video is integral to showing Mr. Martinez's alleged bias. A lawyer for Ms. Johnson wasn't immediately available for comment on Monday.

Davis & Gilbert LLP, which is representing JWT and WPP, had initially sought to seal the video, keeping it from public view, regardless of whether it was entered into evidence because it included confidential information. In a new court filing Monday, WPP's lawyers said they no longer object to the filing of the video because Ms. Johnson said she didn't intend to make public the part of the meeting that contained information proprietary to JWT.

After reviewing the video, WPP's lawyers also said that they now believe the footage "demonstrates the misleading nature of the allegations" in the suit.

WPP's lawyers have said the comments made by Mr. Martinez that were caught on tape were taken out of context and meant to alleviate tension in the room. They previously filed affidavits of individuals who attended the meeting who said they didn't find the remarks offensive.

Lawyers for Ms. Johnson from Vladeck, Raskin & Clark PC said in a filing last week that "this after-the-fact-attempt to cover up unlawful conduct is a blatant rewrite of history."

Ms. Johnson's lawsuit alleges several instances in which Mr. Martinez made offensive remarks about African-Americans and individuals of Jewish faith, as well as jokes about rape.

On Monday, WPP's lawyers also filed a joint declaration from executives who attended a dinner in Miami. The executives dispute Ms. Johnson's allegations that Mr. Martinez made comments about a customs agent who had a "Guatemalan monkey face" and referred to airport personnel as "blank moneys" and "apes" because they didn't know how to use computers.

The high-profile lawsuit has sparked heated debate about the prevalence of racism and sexism in the ad industry and about the number of women and minorities in positions of powers at agencies.

Write to Nathalie Tadena at nathalie.tadena@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 11, 2016 15:17 ET (19:17 GMT)

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