Aaron Charney, a fourth-year associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, has filed a lawsuit against his employer accusing the firm of discrimination and retaliation.

Mr. Charney, who joined the firm in the fall of 2003 after graduating from Columbia University Law School, contends that hostility toward him because of his sexual orientation began in the fall of 2005.

In his complaint, Mr. Charney claims that a partner in the mergers practice, Eric M. Krautheimer, began to make lewd sexual remarks to him based on his sexual orientation.

The next month, he said, James C. Morphy, the managing partner of the merger group, gave Mr. Charney his semiannual review, in which he conveyed outstanding work evaluations that had been written by several partners and clients on Mr. Charney’s behalf.

At the conclusion of the evaluation, however, Mr. Charney asserts that Mr. Morphy said that several partners had complained about seeing Mr. Charney and another male associate in the group “walking the halls together” and “eating lunch together” and that this “needs to stop.” In his complaint, Mr. Charney said it was a thinly veiled and false accusation that the two were engaged in a gay relationship.

In May 2006, Mr. Charney lodged a formal complaint with David B. Harms, a co-managing partner of the firm’s general practice. A few days later, Mr. Harms said that Mr. Krauthemier and another partner whom Mr. Charney asserted had made inappropriate remarks denied doing so.

Mr. Harms assured Mr. Charney that making the complaint would not result in any change to his employment status at the firm.

But a few hours later, Mr. Charney said he learned he was not included on a mentoring list for the 2006 summer associate program. Messages left with Mr. Krautheimer, Mr. Morphy and Mr. Harms were not immediately answered.

Charney, who was told not to return to the office until an internal investigation is complete, says that he is repsesenting himself because he cannot find an attorney who wants to challenge Sullivan & Cromwell.

Looking for law firms that are known for exactly the opposite type of environment? The Human Right Campaign recently listed these firms “as companies that have made a commitment to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace.”: Alston & Bird LLP, Arnold & Porter, Dorsey & Whitney, Faegre & Benson, Heller Ehrman LLP, Jenner & Block LLP, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Nixon Peabody LLP, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Powell Goldstein LLP.