James Tanenbaum, a well-known capital markets specialist, resigned from his position as a partner at Mayer Brown this week after allegations that he engaged in inappropriate conduct at his former firm surfaced recently.
Tanenbaum began working at Mayer Brown just over a week ago, but resigned Thursday after several legal industry publications published articles detailing Tanenbaum’s allegedly inappropriate conduct while working at Morrison & Foerster.
Above The Law reported earlier this week that Tanenbaum was “fired from Morrison & Foerster’s New York office after allegations of sexual harassment there were supported by an internal investigation.”
From the Above the Law article:
Sources report that Tanenbaum had a history of allegations of “sexual harassment” and “inappropriate behavior” at the firm.
A source tells us that management at the firm was first made aware of Tanenbaum’s behavior a little over two years ago. That source says that Tanenbaum was reprimanded, at that time, and told to never do it again.
But… two years ago was a different lifetime when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace. At least, let’s hope it was a different lifetime ago. Allegations against Tanenbaum resurfaced last year. One source, a partner at Morrison & Foerster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, said that the allegations against Tanenbaum were squarely in the sexual harassment category, “not assault.”
After leaving Morrison & Foerster, Tanenbaum moved to Mayer Brown, where he served as a partner in the firm’s corporate and securities practice.
According to his Mayer Brown bio (which is now deleted but was accessed via a Google cached version), Tanenbaum’s practice focused on “corporate finance and the structuring of complex domestic and international capital markets transactions.”
In that role, Tanenbaum would have represented “issuers, underwriters, agents and other financial intermediaries, in public and private offerings of securities, as well as issuers, investment banks and purchasers in hybrid, mortgage-related and derivative securities transactions.”
Earlier in his career, Tanenbaum helped write the Covered Bonds Handbook, which argued for covered bonds to be brought to the U.S. financial markets.
But, Tanenbaum resigned from Mayer Brown this week after the allegations about his behavior came to light.
In a statement provided to HousingWire by Mayer Brown, the firm said Tanenbaum denies the allegations against him, but chose to resign in the “best interest” of the firm.
“Today, Mayer Brown accepted the resignation of James Tanenbaum, who recently joined the firm. His resignation follows assertions that Mr. Tanenbaum may have engaged in inappropriate conduct at his former firm,” Mayer Brown said in its statement.
“Mr. Tanenbaum has informed Mayer Brown that he forcefully denies these assertions, but that he has determined that resigning is in the best interest of Mayer Brown, its clients and the capital markets group,” the firm’s statement continued. “We wish Mr. Tanenbaum well.”
