Sometimes—but only sometimes, and certainly not all the time – we lawyers can be just a little uptight and get into nasty disputes with each other. Not that we at S-by-S have any firsthand knowledge of that. But we are intrigued by this mushrooming case filed in Pennsylvania by Jeffrey First, a former contract attorney with the legal staffing firm of Special Counsel. First started off by suing two colleagues who he claimed had hacked into his bank account and email. Then, he says, the staffing company retaliated against him and “constructively discharged” him – so he’s suing it in a separate action. He’s also suing a partner in the firm, Pepper Hamilton, that had hired him as part of a Special Counsel team.
Speaking of lawyers, here’s a hint for any in-house counsel out there: it’s not a good idea to steal $9 million from your employer, like this in-house lawyer did by using phony invoices from phony law firms that he set up with his wife. Come to think of it, that’s good advice for any executive.
Naughty, and not nice: Fry’s Electronics, a West Coast chain, is to pay the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission $2.3 million to settle a case stemming from a male manager’s sexually inappropriate texts to a female subordinate, and repeated requests that she join him for a drink. Elevating the amount of the settlement, according to this report, is Fry’s scorched-earth litigation tactics. EEOC settlements seem to make a frequent appearance in The Inbox; prior ones are here, here and here.
And from the “Uh, Thanks, I Guess” Department, defense contractor Lockheed Martin says it “won’t ask the Pentagon to reimburse part of the $3.5 million it is paying the chief operating officer who left last month after it was disclosed he had an extramarital affair with a subordinate.” Diligent colleague Andrew Torrez wrote about the case of Lockheed COO Christopher Kubasik here. Presumably, Andrew will not be asking the Pentagon to reimburse him for his time to write about the Lockheed Martin COO leaving Lockheed Martin, either. But, we’ll see.
With only two weeks to go until the Mayans’ end of days, what better way to spend your time than reading this week’s latest in Suits by Suits:
Sex – or allegations of sex – and breakfast food seemed to dominate the world of employment disputes involving executives this week. There’s more than one joke there, but at Suits-by-Suits we’re lawyers and not comedians, so we’ll let the news speak for itself:
All we need is some toast and bacon. But instead we have these two notes, both relating to Morgan Stanley:
And finally two news notes on employment issues that can affect executives and their companies, and that we cover regularly:
Our hurricane-proof edition of the latest in Suits by Suits news:
It's been a busy week in suits by suits:
Via Law360 (subscription required), we learn of this interesting ruling from a California court, limiting Home Depot’s discovery requests seeking a former employee’s Facebook and LinkedIn posts. The court held Home Depot is only entitled to certain social media posts between the employee and other Home Depot employees, not posts with other people or that go to the former employee’s state of mind. Social media raise many unique and interesting challenges for employment relationships -- we’ve dug deeper into these issues here, here, here, and here.
Those of us who write for Suits-by-Suits have had some contentious depositions (where a witness is asked questions in a pre-trial proceeding) in our day, but nothing like this one reported in the American Lawyer. Two Manhattan lawyers were arguing at a deposition when one allegedly “accidently” spit on the other, and the spittee-lawyer then slapped the alleged spitter-lawyer. Of course, one of them sued the other for slander and assault, seeking $1 million. A New York judge has now dismissed the case.
Litigation as a way to settle disputes between companies and executives may at times get hot enough to boil away spit, but it sure beats at least one of the other alternatives. From our “How Not To Settle Executive Disputes” department, the lead sentence in this Courthouse News story says it all: “A disgruntled former partner in a law firm fire-bombed his former partners' house, the husband-and-wife legal managers claim in court.”
This week in suits by suits:
As the regulatory and business environments in which our clients operate grow increasingly complex, we identify and offer perspectives on significant legal developments affecting businesses, organizations, and individuals. Each post aims to address timely issues and trends by evaluating impactful decisions, sharing observations of key enforcement changes, or distilling best practices drawn from experience. InsightZS also features personal interest pieces about the impact of our legal work in our communities and about associate life at Zuckerman Spaeder.
Information provided on InsightZS should not be considered legal advice and expressed views are those of the authors alone. Readers should seek specific legal guidance before acting in any particular circumstance.
John J. Connolly
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