Los Angeles, CA – Two attorneys who until recently worked at big-name law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith have been exposed for making years’ worth of antisemitic comments in emails to one another.
In emails between the two that were obtained by Forward, attorneys John Barber and Jeff Ranen are seen to routinely mock Jews and, in one exchange, even said, “we will not hire Jews” in response to a letter of recommendation they had received.
The pair also used the word “Jew” as a verb to denote stinginess with money.
“I might be able to Jew them down,” wrote Ranen in one email where he discussed getting a hotel to lower its prices.
Other instances of blatant anti-Semitism include an email in which Barber mocked Ranen for bringing bagels into work by labeling him a “Jew c–t”; Ranen responding to a submitted invoice by saying, “This is the reason why people don’t like Jews”; and a complaint from Ranen about society frowning upon anti-Semitism by lamenting, “Since when can we not make Jew jokes?”
Lewis Brisbois tells Forward that they found the emails between the two lawyers after receiving a formal complaint leveled against them and that the firm is now conducting a formal review of their behavior.
“We are deeply troubled by their use of prejudiced language and racial and cultural slurs aimed at colleagues, clients, attorneys from other firms, and even Judges,” the firm said in a prepared statement.
