The head tennis between lawyers for WPP/JWT and JWT communications boss Erin Johnson (left) who’s suing the agency in l’affaire Martinez has taken another (rather predictable) twist.
WPP’s lawyers now say they’re happy for the video including some of the Martinez’s allegedly offensive remarks to be seen in court provided that details of JWT’s ‘Pioneer’ management programme are removed and faces of JWT staff are blanked for privacy reasons.
They say:
In light of the Declarations from women, minorities and others in the room that show that the comments on the Video were, in context, not offensive, the Video actually demonstrates the misleading nature of the allegations in the Amended Complaint. Accordingly, if the Court orders that Plaintiff edit out the faces of the people in the Video (other than Martinez), Defendants have no objection to the filing of the Video since they have argued from the outset that the words Martinez spoke on the Video are already in the Amended Complaint and they did not create a hostile work environment.
Wonder what the judge makes of all this? Is it viewed as standard lawyerly procedure or time wasting?
As for the rest of us we’ll have to wait until the video surfaces on social media.
