Former Apple lawyer says in lawsuit she was fired after complaining about company culture and a colleague who sent her 'death threats'

• A former lawyer at Apple sued the tech company claiming she suffered harassment and discrimination.
• She said the company didn't protect her from a male colleague who she alleged sent her death threats.

A former lawyer at Apple is accusing the tech giant of doing little to protect her from a male colleague who she says sent her death threats, including a video of him with a "Glock to his head."

The lawyer, Jayna Richardson Whitt, alleged that Apple instead demoted her after she took on a part-time role, and eventually fired her after she'd repeatedly complained about domestic abuse by the colleague, while separately also raising concerns about being generally sidelined at work, according to her lawsuit filed this month in California state court.

Whitt alleged that the male colleague, whom she didn't name in the suit but said she'd had a "personal relationship" with, had inflicted "extreme domestic abuse" on her, and likely hacked her iPhone, according to the suit.

When she reported the colleague to Apple, the company conducted an internal investigation in 2021, but concluded it months later without offering her any recourse, she said in her complaint.

"Defendants left plaintiff defenseless, struggling in desperation to try to secure her devices, accounts, Wi-Fi, and her family's physical safety, without any assistance from anyone in Global Security, even after her manager told her that she was 'escalating' to try again to get the company to help her," Whitt's complaint said.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

Apple had written her up for allegedly "interfering" with its internal investigation into her complaint, and said that she hadn't conducted herself "in a professional and work appropriate manner" in bringing up the complaints, Whitt wrote in her suit.

Whitt had held the role of director of IP transactions before later being demoted to principal counsel, after about a year of working part-time and remotely, according to her complaint. She also said that taking medical leave due to personal challenges, including a divorce, had hurt her in performance reviews upon returning.

She said she felt increasingly iced out after returning from a leave in 2018, when she was told her work was "average" and began to get passed over for promotions, according to her complaint.

She sought to place those episodes within the context of what she described as a broader culture of discrimination at Apple, where she said non-white and female employees were often overlooked for promotions, and shut out of key meetings.

As an example, she pointed to a reorganization of Apple's in-house legal team in 2018, which she said had been decided without the input or knowledge of female and non-white employees, and argued that it had led to the promotions of white male peers.

She alleged that the reorganization decisions showed "discriminatory animus against non-Caucasian and female employees," according to her complaint.

Whitt also described herself as a ripe target for workplace discrimination on multiple fronts — as an Asian woman and single parent who experiences "severe anxiety," and as an employee who has needed additional time off to care for a parent with Parkinson's disease, according to her complaint.

Whitt is seeking unspecified damages for her allegations including "emotional distress" and "damage to her career," her complaint said.