Senior manager says firm ignored her diabetes, mocked her accent and fired her over one email
A former Dallas-based senior manager is suing Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, alleging more than two years of discrimination, retaliation and brushed-aside medical accommodation requests.
Flor Gonzalez, who worked as Senior Manager of Client Development-Litigation in the firm's Dallas office from February 2023 until her termination in April 2025, filed the complaint on May 18, 2026 in the Northern District of Texas. The suit brings claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Gonzalez, who is Hispanic/Latino and of Guatemalan national origin, says she was passed over for promotion while less-tenured white colleagues moved up. The complaint alleges that one white male teammate with less time at the firm and documented performance issues was promoted ahead of her, while she was told she had not been at the firm long enough.
In January 2025, the filing says, the firm hired a white woman, Rachel Hoffman, as Associate Director - Litigation at a level above Gonzalez and a Black female senior manager on the team. When Gonzalez asked why neither was considered, she alleges the incoming Chief Marketing Officer told her the role had been created specifically for Hoffman.
The accommodation claims trace back to summer 2023. Gonzalez says she shared a pre-diabetes diagnosis with her then-Co-Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, Kate Ruggieri, and asked for short breaks during the day to eat smaller meals and walk - a request she says her physician directed. According to the complaint, Ruggieri discouraged her from taking "too many" breaks given "the flurry of incoming requests on a regular and constant basis," and told her she herself does not always eat and that it is "the nature of the beast." Gonzalez says she was diagnosed as diabetic that October, after the firm declined to begin the interactive process required under the ADA.
The complaint also alleges accent-based mocking. Gonzalez says her then-director repeatedly mocked her accent or pretended not to understand her in front of colleagues. The filing separately alleges that around January 2024, Ruggieri told Gonzalez she should take "speaking classes."
On FMLA, Gonzalez says she gave her team advance notice in December 2024 that she planned to take leave to care for her mother around a medical procedure. The complaint alleges Ruggieri told her she did not need to take FMLA and pointed her to caretaker services instead, and that the discouragement continued through January 2025.
The filing also describes a November 2024 hiring incident. Gonzalez alleges she was told to halt an offer letter because the candidate "had a baby that needed to be taken care of." She says she reported it to HR, after which the supervisor was demoted - a demotion HR told her was related to the report, according to the complaint. The filing alleges the firm then created a special "Head of Strategic Projects" role in which the same supervisor continued to exercise formal control over Gonzalez's employment until January 2025, with informal influence continuing thereafter through her relationship with the incoming CMO.
According to the complaint, the new CMO traveled to Dallas in January 2025 and told Gonzalez she was ready to be a CMO, but suggested that opportunity would not exist for her at Gibson Dunn. Gonzalez alleges the executive said that if she stayed for partner feedback "it was going to get ugly," and that she might want to leave before that feedback was provided. Gonzalez says the meeting ended after the executive grew visibly frustrated and hit the table with her hands.
Gibson Dunn fired Gonzalez on April 10, 2025. The stated reason, according to the filing, was an April 4 email she had sent to partners in the Antitrust & Competition group about transition responsibilities under a recent team reorganization - an email Gonzalez says she had discussed in advance with her director. The complaint adds that on the afternoon of her termination, HR responded to a coordinator's earlier discrimination report by disclosing that additional employees of color on the team were also part of a simultaneous investigation.
For HR leaders, the case is a map of where employment suits begin: informal pushback on accommodation requests instead of a documented interactive process, FMLA inquiries redirected to other resources, internal complaints that allegedly go without investigation, and a termination tied to a single email after months of friction. Each of those moments is the kind of decision an HR function is expected to document and defend.
Gibson Dunn has not yet filed a response. The allegations have not been tested in court, and no court has ruled on the merits.
