Complaint alleges company replaced 30-year Emmy winner with 25-year-old under false restructuring
A 30-year Paramount attorney claims the company's DEI committee fired older White lawyers and replaced them with younger diverse hires under a false restructuring.
Joseph E. Jerome says his three-decade career at Paramount Global ended abruptly last August when the company terminated him at age 58, despite five Emmy Awards and two decades as production counsel for Entertainment Tonight.
In a lawsuit filed October 31 in federal court in California, Jerome alleges the media giant used diversity initiatives as cover to systematically push out experienced White attorneys over 50 and bring in younger replacements of different races.
Jerome worked at Paramount and its predecessor companies Viacom International and CBS Corporation from 1994 until his termination in August 2024. He remains the only attorney in CBS history to receive a producing credit on a show he was responsible for, according to the filing. His most recent Emmy win came in 2024, and he has a sixth nomination pending.
The allegations center on Nicole Harris Johnson, who heads Paramount Legal's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee while serving as Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs of CBS News, CBS Stations, and CBS Media Ventures. Jerome claims Johnson fired three CBS Media Ventures production attorneys in 2024, all of them White and over 50.
According to the filing, the trouble began at a November 2023 meeting where Wendy McMahon, then president of CBS News, Stations and CMV, reportedly complained about the older demographics of viewership and said she wanted younger staff to attract younger viewers. Shortly after, Johnson repeatedly criticized Jerome for thinking "old" during a discussion about a prospective deal, the lawsuit states.
Jerome says he was replaced by Katelyn Segrest, a 25-year-old Black recent law school graduate and former CMV intern.
The alleged pattern extended beyond Jerome. In February 2024, Johnson terminated David Andriole, 59 and White, who had served as production counsel for Hot Bench for four seasons. He was replaced by Jubine David Sadighi, 40 and Asian, whose previous role had been eliminated in a corporate restructuring but who Johnson retained anyway, according to the filing.
That same month, Johnson terminated Edith Walters, 50 and White, who had worked alongside Jerome at Entertainment Tonight for four years. She was replaced first by Thu Duong, 49 and Asian, then by Robin Dunlop, 54 and Black, who had no prior production experience. Like Sadighi, Dunlop's previous role had been cut in the restructuring but she was kept on, the lawsuit claims.
As of February 2024, the CMV lawyers' group was roughly evenly split between attorneys over and under 50, and between White attorneys and attorneys of other races. Yet throughout 2024, every single attorney Johnson terminated was White and over 50, according to the filing.
Jerome alleges Paramount had embedded its DEI policy into every aspect of the employee experience, with executive compensation tied to meeting diversity goals. Out of just four stated objectives for the entire Paramount Legal Department in 2023, one focused on "prioritizing our commitment to DE&I" by "maintaining or increasing SVP+ female representation and increasing VP+ Ethnically Diverse representation." Those goals reportedly continued through 2024.
The lawsuit also accuses Paramount of violating California's WARN Act by failing to give Jerome the required 60 days notice before terminating more than 50 employees on August 13, 2024.
Jerome filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which issued a right-to-sue notice on August 4, 2025. His lawsuit asserts violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, and California's WARN Act.
The case is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
