On August 19, 2009, the United States District Court in Los Angeles confirmed this arbitration award and rejected Countrywide's appeal to vacate the award as being contrary to the law. Countrywide did not appeal the breach of contract portion of the award ($2,149,750). In upholding the $2,430,600 portion of the award for wrongful termination, the federal court explicitly rejected Countrywide's position that an at-will employee cannot state a claim for wrongful termination on the ground that, where there is an arbitration agreement governing employment disputes, the employee may only be terminated for just cause. Instead, the district court found that the arbitrator (a former United States Magistrate Judge) was well within his authority to rule that the client had been wrongfully terminated because the termination of his employment was without just cause.
Lawyer(s):
Blaine H. Bortnick

Web Info(URL) www.liddlerobinson.com/pdf/3858_001.pdf

On February 28, 2007, an arbitration panel awarded our client, Nancy Thomas, $420,000 against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. for gender discrimination in compensation and retaliation. Ms. Thomas was a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch for almost 18 years. After 36 days of hearings and testimony from 22 witnesses, the arbitrators awarded Ms. Thomas $320,000 in lost compensation damages and interest for Merrill Lynch's gender discrimination in the distribution of client accounts in violation of Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, and the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws, based in part on statistical evidence. The arbitrators also awarded Ms. Thomas $100,000 in emotional distress damages for Merrill Lynch's retaliation against her for her complaints about gender discrimination, including her being one of the named class plaintiffs in the Cremin v. Merrill Lynch class action. The arbitrators also awarded attorneys' fees and costs, which the parties then agreed were $1,000,000.

Click here to read the arbitrators’ Decision And Award.

In 2004, Leigh Short, a former sales person on Deutsche Bank's Asian and Australian Equities Sales desks, filed a Charge of Discrimination with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging gender discrimination. On August 23, 2006, the EEOC issued a Letter of Determination finding that "there is reasonable cause to believe that Respondent discriminated against Charging Party and a class of similarly situated females on its Asian and Australian Sales desks, in violation of Title VII. This determination is final."
Lawyer(s):
David Marek
Blaine H. Bortnick

Ms. Leibowitz was a professor at Cornell's School of Industrial & Labor Relations. In 2002, Cornell terminated her employment. Ms. Leibowitz commenced an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging gender and age discrimination, violation of the Equal Pay Act, and breach of her tenure contract. The District Court dismissed all of Ms. Leibowitz's claims. We appealed the District Court's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. David Marek successfully argued the appeal, and on April 21, 2006, the Second Circuit reversed the Southern District's decision, reinstating all of Ms. Leibowitz's employment-related claims.
Lawyer(s):
David Marek

Web Info(URL) caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/2nd/050868p.pdf

In a November 22, 2005 Opinion and Order of Judge Richard F. Braun of the New York State Supreme Court, the Court denied The Salvation Army's motion to dismiss as to five of six discrimination and retaliation claims of our client, Zachary Logan. Mr. Logan, who counseled victims of the World Trade Center attack, was employed by The Salvation Army as a senior caseworker. His employment was terminated on January 11, 2002. He asserted claims of discrimination in connection with hostile treatment toward him due to his sexual orientation and religion. The Salvation Army sought to dismiss the claims on the grounds that as a religious organization it was exempt from liability for violations of anti-discrimination statutes. In a strongly worded rejection of The Salvation Army's position, the Court stated the " limited exemptions for religious organizations are a far cry from letting them harass their employees and treat the employees in an odiously discriminatory manner during employment . . . ." The Court concluded that Mr. Logan had set forth valid claims and the matter should proceed.
Lawyer(s):
Marc A. Susswein

Judge: Richard F. Braun

On October 26, 2005, a panel of three arbitrators from the New York Stock Exchange awarded $1,650,385.50 in compensatory damages and $290,000.00 in attorneys' fees to Robert J. Ostrowski, a former retail broker who had worked for over 41 years for Prudential Securities, Inc. in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In addition, the arbitrators ordered that Mr. Ostrowski's Form U-5 be amended to state that he was terminated "without cause on July 25, 2001." The panel also ordered Prudential to pay the hearing costs of $15,000.00 and Mr. Ostrowski's $1,000.00 filing fee. Mr. Ostrowski sued Prudential for wrongful termination and breach of contract by withholding the value of his deferred compensation -- principally Master Share benefits -- worth approximately $1,300,000 when the claim was filed. Mr. Ostrowski also filed claims for violation of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Act and for defamation regarding the reason for termination that Prudential originally placed on his Form U-5. This appears to be the first successful employee litigation against Prudential for wrongful withholding of an employee's MasterShare monies. Mr. Ostrowski worked for Prudential as a retail broker in its Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania office from 1960 until Prudential terminated his employment on July 25, 2001. In recognition of Mr. Ostrowski's outstanding performance and substantial client base, Prudential endowed Mr. Ostrowski with numerous awards. Most notably, Prudential appointed Mr. Ostrowski to its prestigious Chairman's Council for 25 consecutive years. Mr. Ostrowski was one of only eleven retail brokers in Prudential's history to accomplish this and he was honored for the achievement in Paris, France just weeks before Prudential notified him that his employment was being terminated "for cause" due to an alleged unauthorized trade. The hearings in this matter were held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lasted for seven days. James A. Batson of Liddle & Robinson, L.L.P. served as lead trial counsel for Mr. Ostrowski and was assisted by Stephen J. Steinlight, an associate with Liddle & Robinson, L.L.P. Read the official NYSE decision.
Lawyer(s):
James A. Batson

Web Info(URL) www.liddlerobinson.com/pdf/award102605.pdf

On April 6, 2005, a jury of six women and two men awarded $2,241,009 in back pay, $6,863,100 in front pay, and $20,169,081 in punitive damages to Laura Zubulake, a former institutional equities saleswoman at UBS. Ms. Zubulake sued UBS for discriminating against her on the basis of her sex, and for retaliating against her by firing her after she complained. Ms. Zubulake was employed by UBS from August 1999 through October 2001. For 2000, her last full year of employment, she earned total compensation of $650,000. Among the noteworthy aspects of the verdict is the apparent recognition by the jury - through its award of almost $7 million in front pay - that UBS's mistreatment of Ms. Zubulake significantly hindered her prospects for future employment. In awarding punitive damages of over $20 million, the jury determined that UBS acted with malice or reckless disregard of Ms. Zubulake's rights.

Click here to read the closing arguments presented by Ms. Zubulake's counsel to the jury.

Click here to read the presentation Ms. Zubulake's counsel made in which he asked the jury for a punitive damages verdict.
Lawyer(s):
James R. Hubbard
James A. Batson
Christine A. Palmieri

Judge: Shira A. Scheindlin

This sex discrimination and retaliation case has generated substantial attention in the general and legal press, particularly because of the groundbreaking rulings the United States District Court in New York has made regarding the discovery of e-mail evidence and the obligations companies have to preserve, in connection with lawsuits, electronically stored documents. The Federal Court has in fact issued five separate, highly significant decisions with respect to this case. The following are links to each of the five decisions:

Zubulake I
Zubulake II
Zubulake III
Zubulake IV
Zubulake V

The following are links to articles that have appeared in the New York Law Journal regarding this case:

• UBS Warburg Sanctioned for Destroying E-Mails in Discrimination Suit (July 21, 2004)
  Read it here
• Bank Negligent for Allowing Destruction of E-mail Evidence (October 24, 2003)
  Read it here
• Electronic Discovery: N.Y. Judge Juggles Cost Criteria (July 24, 2003)
  Read it here
• New Standards for Cost Shifting Proposed in Electronic Discovery (May 14, 2003)
  Read it here

On July 9, 2004, an arbitration panel awarded our client, Olga Emanuel, $906,719 against Prudential Insurance Co. of America for the wrongful discharge of her employment. Ms. Emanuel was a top performing portfolio manager of proprietary bond funds for Prudential from March 1987 until January 1997. She was widely respected both within and outside Prudential for her commitment to obtaining the best execution and, consistently a top quartile return, on behalf of Prudential. Ms. Emanuel's commitment to obtaining the best execution and best return resulted in consistent top quartile performance in managing in excess of $3 billion in assets. In May 1996, Ms. Emanuel provided information to an in-house Prudential attorney in support of an allegation of discrimination. In August 1996, Ms. Emanuel was improperly accused of wrongdoing. After conducting an investigation, Prudential terminated Ms. Emanuel's employment on January 13, 1997 at the age of 59. We filed claims on Ms. Emanuel's behalf for wrongful discharge, age discrimination, retaliation, defamation, failure to pay severance and a request that the Panel order an amendment of defamatory language appearing on Ms. Emanuel's Form U-5. After hearing testimony over 28 days, the panel awarded Ms. Emanuel $450,000 in compensatory damages, $306,469 in interest, $150,000 in attorneys fees and $250 toward repayment of the NASD filing fee. The arbitrators also directed Prudential to pay forum fees of $63,200 to the NASD constituting all of the arbitrators' fees in the arbitration. The panel also sought to restore Ms. Emanuel's professional reputation by recommending the amendment of her Form U-5 Uniform Termination Notice For Securities Industry Registration. Read the decision
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
Marc A. Susswein

The Court of Appeals vacated an order granting summary judgment on L&R's client s retaliation claim, which arose after she was fired for complaining of age discrimination.
Lawyer(s):
Ethan A. Brecher

James Alban-Davies was hired by Credit Lyonnais in August 1995 to build and head an emerging markets debt trading and sales group. Credit Lyonnais failed to pay Mr. Alban-Davies a bonus for 1999, yet each of his direct reports -- all of whom were younger than he was -- received bonus compensation. We filed claims of age discrimination on behalf of Mr. Alban-Davies under federal, state and city statutes in the District Court of the Southern District of New York. Shortly thereafter, Credit Lyonnais stripped Mr. Alban-Davies of his title and his reports as part of a "reorganization" of his department. We amended Mr. Alban-Davies's Complaint to add claims of retaliation, asserting that Credit Lyonnais had taken such adverse action against Mr. Alban-Davies because he had filed claims of age discrimination against the firm. Although Mr. Alban-Davies's age discrimination claims were dismissed on summary judgment, the retaliation claims based on Mr. Alban-Davies's demotion survived. Credit Lyonnais ultimately terminated Mr. Alban-Davies's employment, at which time we again amended his Complaint to include another retaliation claim. Credit Lyonnais again moved for summary judgment on all of the remaining claims, and again Mr. Alban-Davies's retaliation claims based on his demotion survived. When Credit Lyonnais filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court's decision, such motion was denied. Mr. Alban-Davies's claim settled shorlty before trial.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
Christine A. Palmieri

Web Info(URL) www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb
Judge: Denise Cote

Our client, Wayne Tappe, was fired from his position as a high yield portfolio manager on the day that year-end bonuses were to be paid. In addition to filing claims for Mr. Tappe's bonus and severance, we filed claims of reverse age, gender and race discrimination against Alliance. Alliance moved to dismiss Mr. Tappe's discrimination claims, contending in part that a reverse discrimination plaintiff had to meet a higher pleading standard. To the contrary, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin held that "although [Mr.] Tappe is a young white male, he is not required to allege any "special circumstances" to support his claims of discrimination." The Court dismissed Mr. Tappe's discrimination claims, however, holding that they were not pled with sufficient particularity. We filed an Amended Complaint, and Alliance again filed a motion to dismiss the discrimination claims. This time, Alliance's motion was denied. The Court held that Mr. Tappe was not required to plead direct evidence of discrimination and that he met his burden by pleading that he was the only portfolio manager terminated even though he performed his job better than did the other portfolio managers, all of whom were in protected classes for age, race and/or gender. Mr. Tappe has since settled his claims against Alliance.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
Christine A. Palmieri

Judge: Shira A. Scheindlin

Our client, Richard W. Kates, served as co-manager of the Deutsche Bank New World Fund, which was launched with approximately $30 million in January, 1997. Approximately one year later, the fund had $260 million under management, and was one of the most successful hedge funds anywhere that year. Nonetheless, due to internal politics, Deutsche Bank removed Kates’s trading authority on Christmas eve, 1997, and alerted all of the fund’s trading counterparties of this fact, based on false charges of impropriety by another less successful and jealous manager. Deutsche Bank then fired Kates in May, 1998, even while Kates was gathering evidence to clear his name. Indeed, although Deutsche Bank’s internal and external auditors cleared Kates of any wrongdoing, Deutsche Bank refused Kates’s requests that his trading authority be restored, primarily because the New World Fund’s less experienced co-manager wanted to manage the fund by himself. Kates sued Deutsche Bank for defamation and wrongful termination, and following a 19-day hearing, a NYSE panel agreed that Kates had been wrongfully terminated and defamed. The panel awarded Kates $150,000.00 in damages, and an additional $50,000.00 in attorneys’ fees, based on Deutsche Bank’s misconduct in withholding hundreds of pages of important and material documents until the middle of the case. The arbitration panel also assessed Deutsche Bank with all forum fees, totaling $36,000.00. This is arguably the first case where an arbitration panel in New York found a securities firm liable for wrongful termination under a common law doctrine prohibiting employers from terminating employees except for “just cause,” where the parties have agreed to arbitrate any disputes concerning employment issues.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
Ethan A. Brecher
Christine A. Palmieri

Web Info(URL) www.nyse.com/pdfs/1998-007498.pdf

Two weeks before trial in a sex discrimination case, Liddle & Robinson was asked by the plaintiff's primary attorneys to serve as trial counsel. The plaintiff was an executive secretary at Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan national airline. The airline's North American manager, her direct supervisor, terminated her employment in one of his last acts before being transferred out of the United States. During seven days of trial, the plaintiff proved that over the course of several years prior to her termination, she had been subjected to sexual advances and inappropriate touching by her supervisor, as well as having to endure literally hundreds of sexually-charged comments. Royal Air Maroc contended that the plaintiff was terminated due to an economic downsizing, but that claim was proved false through the cross-examination of a senior corporate official who was forced to admit that the plaintiff's termination was in no part based upon any economic circumstances. It was further proved that an economic study of the airline not only recommended keeping the plaintiff, but also recommended the termination of a male employee. That male employee was not terminated due to "social reasons." On May 7, 2001, a New York City jury awarded the plaintiff $900,000.00 in compensatory damages, including $500,000.00 for emotional distress. The emotional distress award is the second highest emotional distress award ever in New York in an employment case. Our client also recovered $626,638.68 in attorneys' fees and costs. On February 28, 2002, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, rejected the airline's appeal and affirmed the jury's verdict.
Lawyer(s):
Blaine H. Bortnick

Web Info(URL) www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/slips/01584.htm
Judge: Ira Gammerman

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated the age discrimination claim of our client, Charles Carlton. Mr. Carlton worked as director of marketing at Mystic, the New York City based oil and fuel transportation company, for almost seven years. Mystic fired Mr. Carlton at age 57, and replaced him with much younger employees. Mr. Carlton sued Mystic for age discrimination under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended and similar state and city laws. The federal appeals court believed that Mr. Carlton had alleged sufficient facts for a jury to conclude that he was fired because of his age, and thus reversed the lower court's dismissal of his claims. The United States Supreme Court denied Mystic's request that it hear the case on appeal. Mr. Carlton and Mystic settled his claims shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin.
Lawyer(s):
Ethan A. Brecher

Web Info(URL) caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=987973

Our client, Robert Engler, was employed as the Chief Financial Officer of Solco, a small Swiss-owned medical device manufacturing company based in Hingham, Massachusetts. In 1992, the national medical products company, C.R. Bard, and its subsidiary, Davol, sought to acquire Solco to complement an existing line of business. During the course of Bard's due diligence of Solco's business and the acquisition process, Davol and Bard executives made promises to Mr. Engler and other senior Solco executives concerning their job prospects following the acquisition. In reliance on these promises, Mr. Engler (then age 62) turned down another job opportunity. Bard terminated Mr. Engler's employment just two hours after the documents memorializing the sale were signed. Following a two week trial, a Boston-based jury, sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, rendered a verdict in Mr. Engler's favor, finding that Bard and Davol were liable to him for having made negligent misrepresentations concerning whether he would be employed following the acquisition. Mr. Engler obtained a judgment totaling $468,789.20, as well as court costs. The case settled after Bard and Davol filed an appeal.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
Ethan A. Brecher
Michael E. Grenert

Judge: Reginald C. Lindsay

Our clients, Charles Maley and Bradley Cimo, had over 30 years of experience of fixed income institutional sales and trading before joining Julius Baer Securities in 1993. Julius Baer promised them that after working in New York for a period of time, they could establish and co-manage a broker-dealer branch office for Julius Baer in Florida. Upon joining the firm, Messrs. Maley and Cimo slowly realized they had been deceived on a number of points that had induced them to join the bank in the first instance. It turned out that their primary contact at Julius Baer, who was going to help them build the business, had been transferred to Julius Baer s San Francisco office before they joined. After they joined the firm, Julius Baer informed them that contrary to its pre-hire promises, they could not open a Florida branch office. Julius Baer had represented that it was a market maker in foreign bonds, and thus they would have significant access to the foreign bond markets. In reality, Julius Baer was only a broker in the European and Asian bond markets. Contrary to the bank s promises, Messrs. Maley and Cimo were denied access to Julius Baer s money management division. Julius Baer terminated their employment approximately 11 months after they joined the bank. Following a two-day hearing, a NASD arbitration panel awarded Messrs. Maley and Cimo $680,969.00 in damages, plus interest on their claims.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle

Web Info(URL) www.liddlerobinson.com/pdf/9602080.pdf

Our client, Arlene Engelmann, sued NBC for sex-discrimination, including sexual harassment. Ms. Engelmann joined NBC in 1976 as a clerk-typist, and was promoted repeatedly throughout her career to a number of managerial positions. The last job she held was as a Director in its Operations and Technical Services Division, where she was responsible for on-air integration of commercials, i.e., making sure that they ran on time and in the proper region of the country. NBC asked the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss her claims. The federal court denied NBC's motion as to her claim that she had been sexually-harassed by her supervisor, who had propositioned her on at least two occasions and physically attacked her once and may have had a role in her termination. The Court determined that NBC contributed to a climate that was unfriendly towards women, by holding an important business function at a golf club that excluded women. NBC tried to deflect this fact by claiming that Ms. Engelmann did not play golf. The Court concluded that this "defense is a bogey." The Court decided that Ms. Engelmann had alleged sufficient facts to have her sexual harassment claim heard by a jury. The parties settled the case on a confidential basis.

Judge: Michael B. Mukasey

Darlene Livingston, a municipal bond liaison for Shearson Lehman Brothers, sued Shearson for sex discrimination, including on the grounds that the company permitted a sexually hostile environment to exist at work. This conduct exhibited itself through sexually oriented comments, insults, pranks, cartoons, pictures, devices and food items on the trading floor. After Ms. Livingston filed suit following her termination, Shearson served a subpoena on her current employer seeking records for any treatment she was undergoing for “substance abuse.” Ms. Livingston then filed an additional claim, alleging that Shearson had misused the subpoena process, because she was fired shortly after Shearson served the subpoena on her new employer. After a 25-day trial, a NASD arbitration panel awarded Ms. Livingston $130,000.00 on her hostile environment sexual harassment claim, $32,500.00 in attorneys’ fees, $10,000.00 on her claim that Shearson misused the subpoena process, and an additional $3,500.00 in legal fees based on Shearson’s misconduct in presenting its defense to her claims. The panel also assessed Shearson $24,800.00 in forum fees. A former L&R partner served as co-counsel in trying this case.
Lawyer(s):
Ethan A. Brecher

Web Info(URL) www.liddlerobinson.com/pdf/9300770.pdf

In the spring of 1995, Liddle & Robinson represented seven former Kidder Peabody employees with claims against the firm. Their claims included age, race and sex discrimination, as well as claims for unpaid compensation. During that time period, Kidder Peabody sold its assets to PaineWebber. Because Kidder Peabody was in the process of shutting down its business, and in order to ensure that there would be sufficient funds for our clients to collect in the event they won their cases, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of these seven individuals to enjoin Kidder Peabody from transferring up to $50 million of its assets and to set aside that amount in a separate account. Although the Court declined to force Kidder to do so at that point in time, Kidder Peabody promised to notify us if its assets fell below $50 million so that we could seek appropriate judicial relief. This extraordinary legal strategy succeeded in ensuring that Kidder Peabody could not overnight shut down and leave our clients, with legitimate and valuable claims, with no means to collect should they win their cases.
Lawyer(s):
Jeffrey L. Liddle
James A. Batson
Ethan A. Brecher

Judge: Elliot Wilk

Our client, George Thomas, worked in sales for the Arbitron Company, the nationally known media rating firm. He sued for age discrimination at the New York State Division of Human Rights, and prevailed. The Division of Human Rights awarded him a total of $389,041, including $318,232 in back pay, medical expenses of $20,809, and as modified by the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York (Arbitron v. NYSDHR, 648 N.Y.S.2d 577 (1st Dep’t 1996), $50,000 in compensatory damages.