Working At Marc Jacobs Is Like Being On A Porn Set: Lawsuit

Patrice Lataillade, the former COO of Marc Jacobs International, in a wrongful termination lawsuit claims the company is little more than a blank check for its president Robert Duffy (seen here with Jacobs), who treats his underlings like porn set extras. Did you really think Marc Jacobs would headline a company that did business otherwise?

Duffy’s allegedly sins include “displaying gay pornography in the office and requiring employees to look at it; his production and dissemination of a book which includes photos of MJI staff in sexual positions or nude; [and] his requirement that an MJI store employee perform a pole dance for him.” Well how else are you going to know who deserves their annual bonus?

The suit says Lataillade went to work for MJI in as chief financial officer in 2002, and was promoted to COO in 2006. During that time, “there have been sexual harassment cases threatened or brought against defendants based on Duffy’s conduct. Because Duffy (correctly) believed that he would not be punished for his conduct, it grew increasingly worse,” the suit says. His conduct was so well-known, the filing says, that when the company’s human resources department drew up a sexual harassment policy last year, they didn’t actually disseminate it “because of a concern that it would anger Duffy,” who co-founded the company with Jacobs. Lataillade said he “complained about Duffy’s behavior and requested, on numerous occasions, that Duffy’s creation of a sexually charged workplace be stopped,” but “nothing was done,” the suit says.

And while sexual harassment in the workplace is certainly a serious matter, a sexualized environment is perhaps to be expected when this is the company’s idea of advertising.