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By Nathalie Tadena 

J. Walter Thompson and its parent company WPP have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses the agency's former chief executive of a pattern of sexist and racist behavior that created a hostile work environment.

In a court filing on Friday, lawyers for JWT and WPP at Davis & Gilbert LLP said that JWT Chief Communications Officer Erin Johnson's claims are "baseless" and that she doesn't have enough evidence to support her discrimination case. They said Ms. Johnson "has twisted the facts and distorted the context to contrive gender-based hostile work environment and retaliation claims."

Ms. Johnson filed a lawsuit against former JWT CEO Gustavo Martinez, JWT and WPP in March, accusing Mr. Martinez of sexist comments, offensive remarks about African-Americans and people of Jewish faith, and unwanted touching, including grabbing her by the throat and back of her neck. She also said that Mr. Martinez, who became JWT's CEO in 2015, made jokes about rape and "publicly asked questions about which female staff member he should rape."

Ms. Johnson's lawsuit claims she complained repeatedly to JWT and WPP executives about Mr. Martinez's behavior. Mr. Martinez, who has denied the allegations, resigned as the agency's CEO shortly after the suit was filed. A lawyer for Mr. Martinez couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The lawyers for WPP and JWT, one of the oldest and biggest ad agencies in the world, argued that Ms. Johnson's allegations about Mr. Martinez's "unending stream" of racist comments and anti-Semitic remarks are irrelevant to her gender discrimination claims because she isn't a minority or Jewish.

"It is clear that she included those remarks to sensationalize the case, " JWT's and WPP's lawyers said.

Anne Vladeck, a lawyer for Ms. Johnson, said her initial reaction to the opposition's motion to dismiss is that this is a tactic to avoid going to trial because "they don't want certain people under oath." She also said that JWT and WPP's "attack" on Ms. Johnson in the filing is "inconsistent" with the company's claim that it is focused on diversity and inclusion.

Last month, Ms. Johnson's lawyers entered into evidence a video clip of Mr. Martinez making a rape joke at an agency meeting in Miami a year ago. A version of the video, with the faces of the meeting's attendees blurred out, was released to the public on Vimeo.

In the filing Friday, JWT and WPP's lawyers said that Mr. Martinez's use of the word "rape" at the Miami conference "was not directed at Johnson and therefore precludes any causal connection" to her complaints that her bonus was lowered for 2014. In Ms. Johnson's suit, she says she complained about her bonus several times to Mr. Martinez and alleges he didn't answer her question about whether all the men who reported to him also received significantly lower bonuses for the year.

The JWT lawsuit has garnered much attention on Madison Avenue and sparked heated discussions about the state of diversity and inclusion across the advertising industry.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 20, 2016 15:00 ET (19:00 GMT)

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