A judge has stepped down from presiding over a former legal secretary’s wrongful termination lawsuit brought against the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP because the bench officer’s husband works for the firm.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allison Mackenzie’s decision on Wednesday that plaintiff Gigi Ruegsegger’s case will be sent to a supervising judge for reassignment.
The former MTO legal secretary alleges she was wrongfully laid off in June 2023 for requesting accommodations and taking time off to deal with her aging parents and in-laws. Ruegsegger’s mother is blind and requires full-time care.
Ruegsegger seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit brought May 23. She additionally alleges retaliation, discrimination and failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process.
Ruegsegger was hired in 1989, left in 1997 and returned in 2004. She took a leave in August 2018 to care for her elderly father, who died in November of that year.
Ruegsegger alleges that management told her that her termination was a layoff and that other MTO employees also lost their jobs in retaliation for seeking accommodations.