As Chadbourne & Parke fights a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by three women in Manhattan federal court, part of its defense strategy is taking shape and shining a light on the challenges the plaintiffs face.

In the firm’s motion to oppose certifying the case as a collective action, its lawyers argued the three named plaintiffs — current partner Kerrie Campbell and former partners Jaroslawa Johnson and Mary Yelenick — were each paid differently because of their “unique experiences and roles” at the firm, but not because they were women.

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After Ellen Pao, a former junior partner at the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, lost at trial in March 2015 on claims of gender discrimination against the firm, Stanford Law professor Deborah Rhode remarked upon how the complex nature of contemporary discrimination makes it difficult to prove.

“Much of it is what social scientists call micro-indignities — small incidents that viewed individually may seem trivial, but when viewed cumulatively point to a practice of insensitivity and devaluation that can get in the way of work performance,” Rhode told The New Yorker.