A former associate in Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office named Zafar Hasan is suing the firm for employment discrimination. Hasan, a Muslim of Indian descent stated that in 2004, his partners at the firm were pushed to fire him based on his race, religion, color and national origin right after the September 11 attacks.

Allegedly, the firm said that Hasan was getting the boot because of his poor work performance. However, positive work evaluations were later discovered, making the firm’s accusation false. The firm came back claiming that they didn’t have enough to keep him busy.

When the suit was presented to the U.S. District Court, they granted summary judgment to the law firm, saying that Hasan didn’t have “convincing mosaic” of evidence of the discrimination that could permit a jury to agree that Foley had discriminated against him. However, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision and gave Hasan the OK to proceed.

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