WPP's Lawyers Consent to Filing of Video in Former JWT CEO Lawsuit
April 11 2016 - 3:32PM
Dow Jones News
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)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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