Personal Injury Firm Says Departed Attorney’s Discrimination Claims Are Barred
A New Jersey law firm has resorted to litigation in hopes of heading off a lawsuit by one of its former attorneys.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon filed suit against Lisa A. Lehrer on Nov. 20 in Bergen County Superior Court, seeking a judicial declaration that a release and waiver of claims she previously signed is enforceable, and that an arbitration agreement precludes her from suing the firm for alleged discrimination.
Lehrer, who represents plaintiffs in personal injury suits, resigned from the Teaneck-based firm in September 2022 and joined Brandon J. Broderick Personal Injury in River Edge, the suit said.
But nearly a year later, Davis Saperstein received a letter from New York attorney Martin Shell, on behalf of Lehrer, seeking a presuit settlement for claims under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, according to the suit.
Davis Saperstein’s suit seeks a judgment declaring that the severance agreement with Lehrer is binding and bars further discrimination related to her employment at the firm.
“Davis Saperstein believes that with respect to her claims, if she were to file in any form, whether it be arbitration, court or otherwise, they would be frivolous because she knowingly released them,” Keith McDonald of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden in Hackensack, who represents Davis Saperstein along with Michael Stein of the same firm, said in an interview. ”And, as set forth in the complaint, she’s a lawyer who has advised hundreds, if not thousands, of clients as to the meaning of releases over time, as representing plaintiffs in personal injury matters, and certainly knows the legal implications of a release.”
Davis Saperstein also seeks leave to file under seal an assortment of documents related to the case, including the severance agreement and Lehrer’s litigation demand letter.
But it doesn’t end there—on Sept. 1, the same date it received the demand letter concerning Lehrer, it also received seven other settlement demand letters from Shell, sent on behalf of other former employees of Davis Saperstein, the firm said in court papers. Those letters include references to corroborating knowledge possessed by Lehrer, suggesting that she “has cooperated and coordinated with attorney Shell in the formulation of its alleged claims with regard to these other former employees,” the Davis Saperstein suit said.
Lehrer’s demand letter contains “meritless legal and factual claims,” McDonald said. “However, those claims, even if they had merit. were released by way of a mutually agreeable release agreement signed by Ms. Lehrer, who’s a lawyer.”
Although Lehrer’s demand letter says it will bring claims under the LAD, no details about such claims are provided, McDonald said.
Lehrer’s demand letter raises claims of a financial nature, but such claims are precluded by the release she signed when she left Davis Saperstein, which was accompanied by severance pay, McDonald added.
McDonald said Davis Saperstein’s suit against Lehrer “is narrow, in that it only seeks to enforce two agreements that were mutually agreed upon by the parties.”
The seven other demand letters were written on behalf of nonattorney staff members from Davis Saperstein who were recruited to the Broderick firm, McDonald said. Those letters also focus largely on wage-and-hour type claims, McDonald said. Those individuals agreed to arbitration of claims with Davis Saperstein when they were hired, although none of them signed releases, McDonald said.
Shell didn’t respond to requests for comment about the case. In a court filing, he wrote that Davis Saperstein’s suit was “somewhat disingenuous” and “disconcerting,” because the firm failed to notify the court that it had scheduled a mediation of its dispute with Lehrer with a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Terry Paul Bottinelli, who is now with DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Giblin.
Lehrer, in an email, added that she found it “curious” that Davis Saperstein filed public pleadings while asking the court “to have my side of the events under seal.” Lehrer also wrote that the “alleged release that I signed” is unenforceable. LAD claims are “not bound [by] confidentiality in instances like [this] one,” she wrote in her email.
“By filing their public action, which was supported by managing partner Garry Salomon’s certification, I have no other option but to seek my day in court. Since I am being forced to litigate this in the public eye, I, along with the other female employees, will have no other option but a day in court,” Lehrer wrote.
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