Mayer Brown fires lateral partner over old social media posts - a warning to firms, says headhunter

Mayer Brown has parted ways with a recently hired New York partner after the firm became aware of inappropriate comments he had made on social media before joining.

The funds specialist joined Mayer Brown from DLA Piper in May. His exit follows the publication of a Medium blog post in June that included screenshots of posts made from a now-deactivated X (formerly Twitter) account in his name. The screenshots, which span from September 2024 to January 2025, show multiple lewd comments.

The blog post was published under an unverified name, with no profile photo and no other activity on the account.

In a statement to Non-Billable, Mayer Brown said: "As part of our lateral due diligence process, Mayer Brown engages reputable third-party screening providers to verify credentials and identify any potential concerns that may affect our firm’s culture. We learned about the posts after the article was published. We promptly terminated him as a partner once we became aware of the situation, and he is no longer affiliated with the firm."

The news of the dismissal was first reported by Law.com.

Partner due diligence under the spotlight

The situation naturally raises questions around the scope and rigour of due diligence processes in lateral hiring, particularly in relation to social media activity.

While most firms conduct comprehensive background checks through external providers, we understand it is not standard practice across the industry to review historic personal social media posts - and something that lateral partner questionnaires (LPQs) don't always cover.

Edward Parker, managing director of Fides Search, a London-based legal headhunter, told Non-Billable that processes tend to be robust in the US, and said it was "almost unheard of" for a newly arrived partner to be dismissed so soon after joining. Any such dismissal would need to result from a significant breach of the law firm’s standards.  

"When Fides Search does due diligence reporting for our clients outside of the US we’re not typically asked to check historic social media posts as part of the due diligence process - although it could be added on request", Parker said, adding the incident "should give firms real food for thought about how detailed their background checks need to be - when something slips through the cracks, the reputational damage can be serious."