Several years ago, when the courts began to recognize “same-sex” sexual harassment claims, I predicted here that many claims would involve attractive, openly gay men suing other (perhaps closeted) gay men for sexual harassment in the workplace.

In the professions, this has gone on for years. Normally, the perpetrators work in senior posts, are closeted, and are often married with children. They see the newbie (gay or straight) male as bait.

One of those cases made the headlines of the Daily Journal, the leading legal daily newspaper. Blair Clarkson reports that Christopher Meekins is a gay associate in the Los Angeles office of White & Case, which employs hundreds of lawyers in 40 offices throughout the world. It’s a biggie.

Just a few weeks ago, Meekins filed a sexual harassment and discrimination claim against the firm and two partners.

He claims that when he started at the firm, around May 2002, two partners, his bosses, “made repeated sexual advances, including remarks on his physique and graphic inquiries about sex.”

Meekins, who moved from the prestigious D.C. firm of Covington & Burling, alleged that a senior partner, James Cairns, began a practice of commenting about Meekins’ body, which was apparently quite good when Meekins started at the firm.

And right after he started, he claims that the night when the Supreme Court handed down Lawrence v. Texas, the case legalizing consensual sodomy, one partner told Christopher Meekins, “I want you to go out and screw as many guys as you can tonight – it’s legal.”

Meekins was not only openly gay, but he had submitted an amici brief in the case. That’s a “friend of the court brief,” which can be influential to the court.

An associate attorney, like Meekins, works for the partners, who are his superiors. In most firms, the associates make a salary. But associates expect that the partners will, in a few years, vote them into the partnership, where they stand to make millions a year.

But that never materialized for Meekins.

Cairns apparently had the hots for Meekins because he allegedly requested numerous non work-related lunch dates. He inquired about Meekins’ personal life and sexual orientation. Meekins also claims that Cairns leered at him in the men’s room, and also when he was undressing in gym locker rooms, according to the complaint filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles.

Apparently partner Jerry Bloom also had the hots for Meekins, but, initially, he was trying to help Cairns hook up with the boy-toy lawyer. Meekins says that Bloom “suggested that Meekins have sex with Cairns to boost his career.”

When that didn’t work, Bloom, Meekins’ immediate supervisor, tried to force him to share a hotel room on a work-related trip to Palm Springs. Once he invited him to his house and answered the door in his underwear. But the heart of the case rests on the claims that Bloom tried to kiss Meekins on the mouth; and that Bloom grabbed Meekins’ boyfriend’s penis at a party. He also claims Bloom “stalked” Meekins at various bars and restaurants around Los Angeles.

In November 2002, Bloom, perhaps frustrated that Meekins was rebuffing his attempts to get into Meekins’ briefs, allegedly told Meekins that he had gained weight and “would not succeed at White & Case unless [he] was able to work long hours and maintain a great body,” the complaint said.

Throughout the fall, Meekins requested more work, which was not forthcoming. Associates in a firm depend upon the partners to give them work. The lawyers “bill their time.” So if a lawyer has no work to do, he or she has no hours to bill. The lawyer gets a salary but no billable hours. So, not surprisingly, when Meekins applied to become a partner last fall, the firm turned him down.

Generally, federal and state law require victims of sexual abuse on the job to let the supervisors know of the abuse. It’s a bit different when the abuser is the supervisor.

Nevertheless, Meekins complained and the firm investigated Meekins’ claims, but took no action.

Amy Fleishman and co-counsel Michael Bononi, both of Los Angeles’ Bononi Law Group, told the Daily Journal that Meekins has received virtually no billable work and has been isolated within the office since making formal complaints in early 2005.

Neither Cairns nor Bloom would comment on their sexual orientation or claims made in the complaint. In litigation, that’s normal. What’s not normal is for a new lawyer to sue a major law firm for a practice that has gone on (unchallenged) for a long time.