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A former Paramount lawyer was fired and replaced by a black former intern because he was a middle-aged white man, a new lawsuit alleges. Joseph Jerome alleged in a bombshell lawsuit filed Friday in California that he was a victim of the network's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that have since been scrapped after Donald Trump re-took the White House. The top lawyer had worked at Paramount from 1994 to 2024, and when he was fired he was serving as senior vice president of business and legal affairs and production counsel to Entertainment Tonight. In his lawsuit obtained by the Daily Mail, Jerome alleges that he was one of three white male middle-aged attorneys with CBS Media Ventures (CMV) - which owns Paramount - who were terminated and replaced by younger colleagues from minority groups last year. The lawsuit, which seeks damages for age and race discrimination, claims that CMV unfairly forced him out of his role to comply with DEI quotas pushed by then-CBS News president Wendy McMahon. He details a meeting held by McMahon in November 2023 where she allegedly berated executives over how 'old' the demographics of Paramount shows were, and ordered staff to hire younger employees to attract younger viewers. Following this meeting, Jerome says he was criticized for 'thinking old' when he flagged a legal term that was being misused. Jerome's lawsuit follows a drastic reshaping of DEI initiatives in top networks since Trump issued an executive order in January banning all 'illegal DEI' practices in the federal government, which many in the private sector followed. When Jerome was still employed at CMV, he says in his lawsuit that it had a roughly even split between white and minority lawyers. But after the company pushed ahead with DEI quotas, every attorney fired from the division in 2024 was white and over 50, the filing says. He alleged that he was replaced by a 25-year-old law school graduate and a former intern at CMV, and that two other colleagues were replaced by younger, Asian attorneys. Jerome says that the firings were handed down from CBS Legal's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion chief Nicole Harris Johnson. Johnson allegedly kept two other minority lawyers on the books after their roles were eliminated in corporate restructuring, and replaced two older white lawyers with them soon after. In his suit, Jerome said he was let go 'despite his qualifications and extensive experience', and alleges that his firing was blamed on 'the false pretext of a reduction in force.' 'In fact, Plaintiff and others were terminated and replaced with less experienced, younger employees and/or employees of other races,' the lawsuit says. Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit comes as CBS Studios recently settled a lawsuit with a script coordinator from the show SEAL team, which accused Paramount of illegal DEI quotas and discrimination against straight white male staffers. Paramount also recently acquired Skydance in August, and part of the $8 billion deal was an agreement to eliminate all DEI policies to secure regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Jerome's lawsuit's chances of success may also have been boosted by the Supreme Court in June after it ruled in favor of Marlean Ames, who alleged discrimination at work. Ames' lawsuit was seen as a landmark ruling as she alleged she was passed over for jobs that went to her gay colleagues. While not based on race, Ames' victory could prove significant as it set a precedent for discrimination cases. In a rare unanimous ruling, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said a longstanding statute used in almost half the nation's federal circuits that forced people who are not white, male or gay to meet a higher bar to prove workplace discrimination was unconstitutional. Brown wrote it was wrong for courts to have different standards for different groups, which legal experts said could trigger a wave of legal battles brought by non-minorities as a result.
