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A lawyer was suspended from her firm after writing a racist tweet about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's baby name

Jun 9, 2021, 20:03 IST
Insider
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.MICHELE SPATARI/Getty Images
  • Joanna Toch was suspended from her own law firm over a racist tweet about Meghan Markle's baby.
  • Toch replied to a tweet that said the baby's name could have been "Georgina Floydina," The Independent reported.
  • "No Doria? Don't black lives matter?" Toch wrote in response, according to The Independent.
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A lawyer has been suspended from the firm she founded after she engaged in a racist Twitter exchange about the name of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's new daughter.

Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital on Friday, and named after her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name is a tribute to Prince Harry's mother, the late Princess of Wales.

According to The Independent, Joanna Toch, a lawyer and founder of UK-based firm Family Law Cafe, responded to a tweet about the name choice from The Telegraph contributor Julie Burchill on Sunday that said: "What a missed opportunity. They could have called it Georgina Floydina."

The tweet was a reference to George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 and whose death sparked racial injustice protests around the world.

Screenshots of Burchill's tweet were shared by HuffPost reporter Carly Ledbetter, who wrote in a tweet on Monday that the journalist's Twitter account has been deleted. In the same tweet, Ledbetter said that Burchill's author page remained on The Telegraph's website; at the time of writing, this is still the case.

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Royal author Omid Scobie reported on Tuesday that Burchill was fired from the newspaper.

However, a source close to The Telegraph told Insider that Burchill was not fired because she was never a member of staff. She was a contributor to the publication, and the publication hasn't ruled out the possibility of using Burchill's writing again in the future.

According to The Independent, Toch responded to the tweet: "No Doria? Don't black lives matter?"

The tweet appears to reference Markle's mother Doria Ragland, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Independent reports that Toch later apologized, writing: "I am very sorry for the comment and what I saw as a joke. I've fought during my professional life against racism which is abhorrent. I'm not a judge and I have children of colour and I apologise unreservedly."

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Toch's Twitter account appears to have since been deleted.

Representatives for Family Law Cafe did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but the firm's board of directors confirmed in a statement shared on Twitter on Tuesday that Toch had been suspended "with immediate effect pending an internal review into her recent comments on Twitter."

"FLC considers her comments as offensive, unacceptable and highly contradictory to the inclusive manner in which FLC has always and will continue to work with members of all communities in managing the challenges of matrimonial and family disputes," the statement added.

Toch founded the firm four years ago and has more than 25 years of experience in family law, according to the company's website.

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