Ex-White & Case lawyer says he faced discrimination due to anxiety and depression
A former White & Case partner has accused the firm of being a “toxic” workplace after claiming he was pushed out of his position at White & Case’s London office after developing depression due to his wife’s cancer diagnosis.
Michael Wistow, the former co-head of White & Case’s EMEA tax practice, has said he was fired from the firm after developing anxiety and depression in response to his wife’s cancer diagnosis.
The lawyer is now suing the New York firm after claiming he was discriminated against due to his mental health issues – which his lawyers are arguing amount to a disability.
The case comes after Wistow left White & Case after he was expelled from the firm’s partnership in 2020, following his decision to join the firm in 2016.
In arguing against their former partner, White & Case claimed that Wistow’s “sadness and grief” do not count as disabilities under the Equality Act.
“The natural reaction to the loss of a loved one is not, without more, a mental impairment,” White & Case’s lawyers said.
Prior to joining White & Case, Wistow undertook a traineeship at Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance before joining Berwin Leighton Peisner in 2007.