[ad_1]
Yesterday, I reported right here on a lawsuit filed March 20 in U.S. District Courtroom in Manhattan by a authorized tech government who alleges her former firm owes her over $1 million in inventory and that her former boss sexually harassed her.
Because it seems, only a week earlier than she filed her lawsuit, her former firm had sued her in federal court docket in Texas, looking for a declaratory judgment that it had terminated her for trigger, and that, in consequence, her inventory choice was additionally terminated.
As I reported yesterday, the plaintiff within the New York case, Silvia Diaz-Roa, filed the lawsuit in opposition to Hermes Legislation, a Texas legislation agency, and ClaimDeck, a litigation administration system for insurers and insurance-defense corporations that spun out of Hermes Legislation. The lawsuit additionally names Dwayne Hermes, the founder and CEO of each the legislation agency and the corporate, and Andrea Hermes, the cofounder of the corporate and authorized compliance specialist on the legislation agency.
Diaz-Roa alleged that when she sought to train inventory choices price over $1 million, the corporate terminated as a way to deprive her of that compensation. She additionally alleged that she had been subjected to sexual harassment, together with having been urged by superiors to flirt and turn into romantically concerned with clients.
Defendants Sued Her First
On the time I wrote that, I had not heard again from my request to the defendants for a response to Diaz-Roa’s allegations. Subsequently, I obtained an electronic mail from Stefanie Shah, an Austin lawyer with the agency Vela Wooden, who represents the defendants.
Though her purchasers had not been served with the criticism within the New York matter, she stated, they deny the allegations.
“It’s my understanding Ms. Diaz-Roa filed swimsuit in response to the declaratory judgment motion my purchasers filed the week prior within the Northern District of Texas,” Shah stated.
Of their Texas lawsuit, ClaimDeck and Hermes don’t deny Diaz-Roa’s declare that they granted her a inventory choice in 2020, however they are saying that, by the phrases of that choice, it could be forfeited within the occasion of a termination for trigger. They are saying she by no means sought to train the choice till after they terminated her.
Learn the total textual content of the Texas criticism.
(ClaimDeck is a d/b/a of the corporate Syzygy Authorized Tech Inc. For ease of reference, I’m referring to the group of events as Hermes and ClaimDeck.)
Termination Forfeited Choices, They Say
As for why they terminated her, the ClaimDeck and Hermes cite quite a few causes, together with that she took actions to hurt the businesses’ reputations, demonstrated an growing lack of respect for her coworkers and administration, and lacked the talents essential to carry out her job.
Each the New York and Texas complaints agree that after Diaz-Roa first began working for Hermes in 2017, she started to pursue a graduate diploma at Yale, whereas persevering with to work half time for Hermes. ClaimDeck and Hermes say they paid the price of her graduate training, in a complete quantity of some $170,000.
However after finishing her diploma and returning to full time work at Hermes, she refused to return to the agency’s workplace in Dallas, as had been deliberate, and as an alternative moved to New York. The Texas lawsuit alleges that this violated the businesses’ distant work coverage, which permits just one distant work day per week.
The Texas lawsuit describes quite a few alleged incidents that it says gave the businesses ample trigger to terminate Diaz-Roa. As a result of they terminated her for trigger, they allege, her choices to buy inventory terminated and the shares have been forfeited again to the corporate.
Within the Texas lawsuit, ClaimDeck and Hermes are asking that the court docket problem declaratory judgments that they terminated Diaz-Roa for trigger, that her inventory choice terminated, and that she has no fairness within the authorized tech firm.
“We count on that the New York and Texas courts will rule in favor of our purchasers,” lawyer Shah stated in her electronic mail.
[ad_2]
Source link
