Clifford Chance is being sued by one of its former New York associates, who is alleging that she was discriminated against when she was laid off back in 2007.

Karen Ramdhanie - who joined the firm in 2006 - claims that while she was promised she'd be given transactional work, she was in fact enslaved as a document drone on projects for Standard & Poor's. When the economy nosedived in 2007 the firm decided to lay staff off, and - according to a report in the American Law Daily - Ramdhanie claims that CC first transferred two white men out of her group, leaving just black and female lawyers to face the chop. The firm then laid off Ramdhanie, three black lawyers and two white women.

Three years later and Ramdhanie, who has been unemployed ever since, has decided to sue. She's claiming compensation under New York City's Human Rights Law for the heady quartet of race, gender, national origin and age discrimination. And she's also making a claim on behalf of her sons, whom she alleges suffered mental anguish, humiliation and emotional distress as a result. Finally she's demanded a written apology from the firm and a change to its hiring and firing policies in relation to black lawyers.

Some light bedtime reading for CC partners?

A spokesman for Clifford Chance said that the firm had a policy of not commenting on on-going litigation.