Chirayu Rana’s lawyer withdraws from case, informs court that Rana will represent herself against Lorna Hajdini

At the first hearing in the case of former Nepali JPMorgan banker Chirayu Rana, who has accused colleague Lorna Hajdini of sexual harassment, Chirayu Rana’s lawyer informed the court that he will withdraw from the case. Daniel Kaiser, who has represented Jeffrey Epstein accusers, filed a consent decree agreeing to remove Rana as his attorney just hours before their court appearance. However, Kaiser represented Rana at the May 26 hearing and informed the court that in the future Rana would represent himself pro se, unti; he had found new advice.The case made headlines when Chirayu Rana made serious accusations against Hajdini that she had made him a sex slave, but Hajdini and the company dismissed the accusations. Some details of the case show that the company was willing to settle internally with Chirayu Rana and provide him with money, but he demanded more money and then eventually filed a lawsuit against Hajdini.Hajdini has also changed attorneys and is now represented by Samuel S Shaulson of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. Shoolson represented Morgan Stanley in a case in 2018 in which a male employee accused the bank and seven named employees, four of them women, of discriminating against him.In that case, Mahmoud Latif, a gay Muslim colleague at Morgan Stanley, argued that the bank discriminated against and harassed him because of his sexual orientation, religious beliefs and other protected characteristics. Shortly after joining the job in 2017, Latif argued that a female executive at Morgan Stanley sexually assaulted him and made inappropriate touching and sexual advances toward him. Morgan Stanley settled Latif’s case in 2021 for an unknown amount.Rana’s attorney, Kaiser, has defended Rana and refuted many of the accusations since the case was filed. One of the allegations is that Chirayu Rana took bereavement leave from JPMorgan Chase following the death of his father, who was still alive at the time. Caesar argued that it was for the death of a father figure.