It was a different time (2018).
A partner at O’Melveny & Myers was depicted by the US firm as an Orthodox Jew because he 'circumcised' clients' bills by giving them discounts.
Brian Boyle, who works at the firm’s Washington, DC office, was given a fake beard and peyos to transform him from a partner specialising in defending US healthcare providers into “Boyle the Mohel”.
A mohel is a person who performs ritual Jewish circumcisions, which O’Melveny deemed a fitting analogy for Boyle giving clients a good deal on their matters. The caricature was projected at the firm's offsite partner conference in California in 2018.
Boyle is pictured testing the sharpness of a pair of scissors alongside the tagline, “Arizona’s best for just a snippet of the price”.
“Call now and we’ll take a another [sic] piece off the top!” promised the mocking advert, illustrating the firm's pitiless attitude to billing.
Oy vay! Brian by day.
O’Melveny’s conference antics came to light courtesy of the event photographer who diligently maintained publicly accessible galleries on his website.
The most eye-catching routine saw O’Melveny mocking Allen & Overy following the firms’ aborted merger plans, along with outgoing A&O senior partner Wim Dejonghe and the UK’s “warm" beer.
When the photos gained traction the photographer’s archive suddenly disappeared. But the internet never forgets, and as well as Boyle’s disturbing alter ego, more pics have emerged which suggest that A&O really got under O'Melveny's skin.
One slide depicts Dejonghe and O’Melveny chair Bradley J Butwin in crowns with the picture ripped in half, while the other shows them shouting at each other through megaphones across a -sob- unbridgeable chasm.
Going by the reactions to last week’s story, the majority of readers agreed with the comment that O’Melveny had “achieved the unthinkable, which is to make me feel sympathetic towards A&O”.
Neither Boyle nor O’Melveny responded to requests for comment.
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Comments
46
6
Just Americans being Americans.
Utterly tactless.
41
7
Tasteless yanks, what do you expect?
34
5
Bunch of muppets. Who comes up with this tosh?
18
40
Will anyone on RoF find this offensive? ...will anyone have a problem with caricatures of Settle-Down Solly the Solicitor? We know where we stand with the City law firms. Jews don’t count.
35
11
Is this anti-semitic?
9
2
Why are all these coming out the week the A&O Shearman merger is being finalized?!
71
10
This is almost unbelievable. How can ANYONE ever have thought that this was a good idea? Its grossly offensive and anti-Semitic. When the firm's clients in the US wake up to this all hell is going to break loose.
32
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The timing of these embarrassing pictures is sus. Why are they being sent to ROF the month before the A&O Shearman merger is finalized? Has Wim Dejonghe been saving these for the right time, to definitively quash the A&O partners who wanted to merge with O'Melveny?
Well played Wim. Well played.
22
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"Has Wim Dejonghe been saving these for the right time, to definitively quash the A&O partners who wanted to merge with O'Melveny?" -
That's why he gets the big bucks...
27
49
How is this anti-Semetic? It is just a bad joke.
People need to stop acting as if any reference to Jews/Israelis is immediately anti-Semetic. Before you start, the same applies to Muslims, Christians etc. etc.
18
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This is hilarious. I'm a sucker for this kind of Jewish dad humour. (I am Jewish myself)
10
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"Oh, I'm so offended".
34
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There are two funny things here. Firstly that the folks at OMM.COM were dumb enough not to have noticed that all these photos were in the public domain for years. Secondly, just how awful the firm's sense of humour is, which is in itself amusing.
28
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London Life - do you think that the firm would have made a similar gag about an imam? And what do you thin the reaction would be if they did?
2
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"That's why he gets the big bucks..."
I'm serious I want to know if it was Wim who sent ROF the pics
12
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"London Life - do you think that the firm would have made a similar gag about an imam? And what do you thin the reaction would be if they did?"
You are talking to one of Rof's most well known Just An Anti-Zionists, LondonLife.
His reaction to a gag about an Imam would almost certainly be to tell you that Israel was behind it.
23
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insert GIF of Wim doing WWE-style ring walk, having bided his time for years, before KA-POW!
0
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Who is LondonLife? I don't see his name as an author in the comments above
5
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It's a joke at Boyle's expense rather than against anyone, ffs.
16
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@09:44
The fact that they wouldn't have made the gag about an imam doesn't mean it would have been anti-Muslim if they had. It just means that some people are more likely to make a ruckus than others, so it's better just to not go there. As a Jew myself, I cringe when people cry wolf at the drop of a hat, as it allows their reactions to real anti-semites to be dismissed as over-sensitive.
FAOD, I think the gag here was crass and not exactly the apogee of humour, and maybe even disrespectful, but it's not anti-semitic.
6
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I suspect the reason they didn't use an Imam is:
- An imam leads prayers. That is not the term used for someone who undertakes circumcisions in Islam.
- Imam does not rhyme with Boyle, whereby a strong Yiddish pronounciation of mohel does ("moy-el").
My guess is that it is the second reason that led to this dumb idea.
16
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1. not offensive (it's quite funny actually)
2. not anti-Semitic (you morons)
22
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"1. not offensive (it's quite funny actually)
2. not anti-Semitic (you morons)"
^Brian Boyle
11
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@9:44 - Again, how is this anti-semetic?
@9:50 - When have I said anything anti-zionist? Never mind be the biggest anti-zionist on ROF. I even posted on the discussion board this morning how I love Israeli food...
12
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@LondonLife - "I even posted on the discussion board this morning how I love Israeli food..."
I mean, you did that sarcastically in a post where you compared Israelis to the Nazis. Again. But sure, you've convinced me.
No race hatred here, you're Just An Anti-Zionist.
11
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LondonLife - it saddens me greatly that, as a fellow Londoner, I need to share oxygen with rabid anti-semites like you. Anyway.
I wonder, if you genuinely don’t think there’s anything wrong with your position or comments, if you’ll share your actual name and where you work with us? No? Thought not.
6
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I believe Israel has a right to exist and I don't have any issue with any religion. So how am I anti either?
@13:39 - Sure. Send me an email address and a mobile number - always happy to discuss my views in person.
15
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@Forced to share oxygen with LondonLife 13:39
cringe, and grow a pair. he is entitled to his opinion although I know fascists like you would rather put a muzzle on anyone that doesn't agree with you - do you work for the Scottish govt by any chance?
8
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I can't see anything that Londonlife has posted which is bad. What did they say that made you so mad?
20
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That is anti-Semitic. If you can’t see that, then you too are anti-Semetic.
This behaviour should be strongly condemned in the strongest of terms.
16
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O'melveny is a massivel failing firm - figures, culture, future... the London office is filled with over paid ex-white & case loosers with no business. Its a small group of partners who have no clients. Hopefully the firm will go bust and take its disgusting culture down the drain with it.
20
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The simplest way to understand why this is anti-Semitic is replaced Jew with black or Asian or Muslim or some other group. Imagine a partner dressing is one of those groups and saying that he has the stereotypical quality of one of those groups.
7
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When you think you're funnier than you are.
4
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Lots of City law firms have Jewish managing partners and equity partners. Those without US offices may not instruct this firm.
2
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It's probably a Jew who came up with this not very funny image. It comes from the same stream of internalised prejudice as David Baddiel's deeply racist tweet during covid "stupid f*ing frummers".
Have some respect, fellow Jewish folks, even to Jews who don't look like you.
0
3
It's offensive but also kind of funny
5
0
Not newsworthy at all. If you have ever worked in a US firm, you would know that distasteful behaviour like this are pretty much a daily occurrence.
1
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"If you have ever worked in a US firm, you would know that distasteful behaviour like this are pretty much a daily occurrence."
wtaf?