In re Filosa

976 F. Supp. 2d 460, 2013 WL 433347, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35450
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 5, 2013
DocketNo. M-2-238
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 976 F. Supp. 2d 460 (In re Filosa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Filosa, 976 F. Supp. 2d 460, 2013 WL 433347, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35450 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

[461]*461OPINION AND ORDER

RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, District Judge.

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GRIEVANCES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK1

This matter comes before the Committee on Grievances for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Committee”) to consider the imposition of discipline upon Respondent Gregory N. Filosa, a member of the bar of this Court, based on his conduct before the Honorable William H. Pauley, III, United States District Judge, in Fryer v. Omnicom Media Group, 09 Civ. 9514(WHP). In Fryer, Judge Pauley imposed a $15,000 sanction on the law firm Thompson Wigdor & Gilly and a $2,500 sanction on its client, plaintiff Violet Fryer, based on false testimony by Fryer at her deposition and efforts by Respondent and Scott B. Gilly to conceal Fryer’s new employment and to leverage a false expert report in order to extract a favorable settlement.

For the reasons set forth below, the Committee finds that Respondent engaged in conduct that violates Rules 3.3 (conduct before a tribunal); 3.4 (fairness to opposing party and counsel); 4.1 (truthfulness in statements to others); and 8.4 (misconduct) of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct.

[462]*462 BACKGROUND

In June of 2009, plaintiff Violet Fryer retained the law firm of Thompson Wigdor & Gilly (“TWG”) to represent her in the prosecution of her employment discrimination claim against OMD (a subsidiary of Omnicom Media Group). Fryer alleged that, while she was employed at OMD, she was subjected to employment discrimination and retaliatory termination, in violation of the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Respondent was assigned as the associate on the Fryer litigation in June of 2009, and remained the associate on the matter until the end of his employment with TWG. Respondent worked on the case under the supervision of partner Andrew Goodstadt until Goodstadt left the firm in August 2010. Thereafter, Respondent was supervised by partner Scott B. Gilly.

The Expert Report and Settlement Negotiations

In July of 2010, TWG retained an economist to prepare a calculation of Fryer’s potential damages resulting from the termination of her employment, and provided him with the information necessary to make that calculation. Fryer had remained unemployed since her termination from OMD. The economist prepared an expert report that contained a damages analysis based, in part, on the assumption that Fryer would remain unemployed through the end of 2010 and also calculated future earnings for a period of one to six years into the future.

Prior to service of the expert report, however, Fryer received, and accepted, two job offers. On September 10, 2010, she received an offer of employment from Universal McCann (“UM”), which she initially accepted. She then withdrew her acceptance of the UM offer when she received and accepted a job offer from Kraft Foods (“Kraft”) on September 17, 2010 at a salary greater than what she had been paid by OMD. Fryer was scheduled to begin her employment with Kraft on October 11, 2010. Fryer advised Respondent of the foregoing on the date she received each offer, September 10th and September 17th, respectively. On September 10th, Respondent and Gilly discussed the fact that Fryer had received a job offer at a higher salary than she had earned at OMD, and that it was likely she would accept the offer. Respondent and Gilly also discussed the desirability of settling the case as soon as possible. On September 17th, Respondent advised Gilly that Fryer had decided to accept a job offer and had authorized him to renew settlement discussions with OMD.

The expert report was provided to TWG on September 22, 2010. On September 24, 2010, Respondent forwarded the report to Gilly in an email, stating:

I received the economic damages report in Fryer. A copy is attached. We have to provide to opposing counsel by next Wednesday, but I wanted to discuss with you how we could leverage this into trying to settle it before they know about her new job. I will come by Monday to discuss, but I wanted to give you a heads up.

Gilly responded, “[sjounds good. I just read the report and have some ideas.” Following further discussions with Gilly, Respondent served the expert report upon defendants’ counsel on September 27, 2010.

On September 28, 2010, Respondent engaged in a settlement discussion with opposing counsel. Respondent renewed the settlement demand of $350,000 that had originally been made during the parties’ Rule 26(f) conference. In this discussion and in subsequent correspondence, Re[463]*463spondent referenced the expert report to support the reasonableness of the settlement demand. Respondent had discussed this settlement strategy with Gilly. On September 29, 2010, Respondent sent opposing counsel a settlement demand letter, dated September 28, 2010, summarizing the previous settlement discussion, and noting that the renewed settlement offer of $350,000 was “at the bottom end of the range [of economic damages] provided in the expert report which we recently forwarded to you.” Gilly reviewed and revised the September 28th letter before it was sent. There were no further settlement discussions until after the first day of Fryer’s deposition.

Deposition and Continued Settlement Negotiations

On October 7, 2010, Fryer was deposed by OMD. Respondent represented Fryer at the deposition. Counsel for OMD asked Fryer about her efforts to retain new employment. Specifically, he asked Fryer whether she had worked since she left OMD, to which Fryer replied “no.” (Fryer Oct. 7, 2010 Dep. Transcript at 249: 11-12.) Counsel for OMD then inquired what Fryer “had done in the past 60 days to find work.” (Id. at 253:4-5.) Fryer responded that she had “been on interviews,” had submitted her resume to various job boards as well as directly to specific companies’ websites, and had “been working with several headhunters.” (Id. at 253:6-9.) In response to further questioning from counsel for OMD, Fryer gave the names of two specific headhunters she had been communicating with, and lamented that the positions the headhunters presented to her always required “a different type of background than me, than I have, or it’s again too senior or junior.” (Id. at 253:15-255:11.) Counsel for OMD asked Fryer about how many interviews she had been on and with what companies. (Id. at 255:12-13, 15, 18.) Fryer stated that she “probably met with ten companies,” specifically “MRI, MTV, Source Marketing, ... Mediacom, Universal McCann, Kraft,” and the “CafeMom web site.” (Id. at 255:16-17, 19-21.) When asked if she had second interviews with any companies, Fryer responded as follows: “With a few of them. And after I — I didn’t — either I didn’t hear back or I didn’t get the job.” (Id. at 256:18-20.) When asked about the “emotional impact” of the loss of her job, Fryer cited the “financial stress of everything, not knowing when is the next job going to come along,” commenting that “[i]t’s frustrating to keep trying and not getting anywhere.” (Id. at 266:12-16.) Respondent was aware at the time of the deposition that Fryer had in fact accepted and then rejected a job offer from UM, and that she was scheduled to begin working at Kraft on October 11, 2010.

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Related

In re Filosa
112 A.D.3d 162 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2013)
In re Gilly
976 F. Supp. 2d 471 (S.D. New York, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
976 F. Supp. 2d 460, 2013 WL 433347, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-filosa-nysd-2013.