Bernabei & Wachtel, PLLC

Whistleblower Client Profiled in LA Monitor

bandw — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:52:05 +0000

The Los Alamos Monitor (New Mexico) recently published three articles about Charles Montano, a former client of Bernabei & Wachtel. We represented him in his whistleblower case against the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and run by the University of California. While an auditor at the Lab, Chuck reported and protested numerous financial irregularities and related problems that led to the cover-up and wasting of large amounts of taxpayer funds. He also remains active in helping other whistleblowers at Los Alamos, including those who reported problems about radiation safety, the physical security of the lab, and environmental pollution issues, and he had worked on the successful class action lawsuits against Los Alamos in the 1990s.

Washingtonian Again Recognizes Lynne Bernabei and Dave Wachtel Among the Top Employment and Civil Rights Lawyers

bandw — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:55:11 +0000

The December 2011 issue of Washingtonian, in its survey of the top lawyers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, listed Lynne Bernabei and Dave Wachtel among the top 17 lawyers who represent employees in employment discrimination cases (“Suing the Boss: Unjustly fired or the victim of harassment at work?”), and also recognized them among the top 16 civil rights lawyers (“Fight for your rights: gender, racial, religious, and other forms of discrimination are battled by these stars of the civil-rights bar”).

Indeed, only 3 other attorneys were listed in both categories. The Washingtonian has previously listed Lynne and Dave as top employment and civil rights lawyers in its earlier surveys.

David Wachtel Says PSU Coach McQueary Covered as Whistleblower

bandw — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:09:28 +0000

The York Daily Record recently interviewed David Wachtel for comment on the Jerry Sandusky quagmire at Penn State and how it relates to assistant coach of the football team, Mike McQueary. McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time, says he witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the shower in 2002. He reported the incident to his supervisor, head coach Joe Paterno.

“Pennsylvania has a whistleblower law for all its state employees and coach McQueary would certainly be covered,” Wachtel says in the article. “He made a good-faith effort to report the wrongdoing, so he would be a whistleblower.”

However, he is only protected under the whistleblower law if he did not accept anything in exchange for his silence on the matter. Penn State can not fire him for simply testifying before a grand jury, but they can fire him for poor handling of the incident in 2002.

McQueary is currently on administrative leave and it is said to be “indefinite”.

Lynne Bernabei Quoted on Herman Cain Harassment Controversy

bandw — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:15:37 +0000

Reuters recently quoted Lynne Bernabei on the controversy over the sexual harassment complaints against Herman Cain, a presidential candidate. Cain had denied knowing anything about settlements with former female employees.

Lynne explained that ordinarily someone in a position as prominent as Cain’s, who is head of the National Restaurant Association, would have known about the settlement of the claims, so it was unlikely that he would not have known. After this article was published, Herman Cain then admitted that he did know about the existence of the settlement agreements.

Lynne was also quoted on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” where she explained that the most recent allegations, if true, do “show a very upsetting view of women in the workplace,” in light of Mr. Cain’s statements that the allegations were false. Similarly, she was quoted in “GOOD,” a magazine devoted to social causes, in which she explained that a hostile work environment has to be both severe and pervasive to be illegal, and that a single incident of harassment was seldom illegal unless it was extremely serious, such as a rape or attempted rape.

Lynne Bernabei Interviewed for “Equality Matters” on White House Protests

bandw — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:53:32 +0000

The “Equality Matters” blog recently interviewed Lynne Bernabei as part of its investigation, “The Government Cracks Down on White House Protests – But Is It Legal?” The article discussed the allegation that the government engaged in selective prosecution of several protesters based on the content of their speech. Lynne explained that the White House emails showed that the White House and the prosecutors were trying to suppress the speech of those protesters, who were punished more harshly than other protesters. Lynne emphasized that security concerns alone should determine prosecutions of protesters, and not the content of their speech.

Ninth Circuit Decision Is Partial Victory For Oregon Non-Profit Group And Its Supporters

bandw — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:27:08 +0000

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently issued a decision in a long-running challenge to the designation of an Oregon non-profit organization by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of Treasury. This designation shut down the organization and prevented other groups from advocating on its behalf. Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat, along with co-counsel, represented this group in the district court and on appeal.

The Court agreed with us that the government could not prevent other groups, such as the Multicultural Association of Southern Oregon (MCASO), from engaging in advocacy on behalf of the designated group, as that was an illegal content-based prohibition on their speech. The Medford Mail-Tribune quoted MCASO as praising this decision in allowing its members to exercise their constitutional rights to associate with others.

The Court also agreed with us that the freezing of the group’s assets for over six years violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of warrantless seizures. The Court remanded the case to the U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon for further proceedings on what to do with the frozen assets.

The Court also agreed with us that the government violated due process by not providing the group with constitutionally required notice and an opportunity to respond, or an unclassified summary of the classified information. However, the court upheld the designation of the group based on the classified information to which we had no access or ability to rebut. This decision has been widely covered by news outlets including The Recorder (San Francisco), Export Law Blog, and Courthouse News Services.

Lynne was subsequently interviewed by the Mail Tribune and KSKQ Radio of Ashland, along with Jim Bauermeister, the past president of the Multicultural Association of Southern Oregon, who discussed the important First Amendment consequences of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.

Lynne Bernabei Responds to Comment by Sean Hannity on Unemployment Discrimination Bill

bandw — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:20:01 +0000

PolitiFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” recently quoted Lynne Bernabei in order to address Sean Hannity’s claim that the Administration’s proposed jobs bill would allow the unemployed to sue for discrimination if they were not hired because they were unemployed. Lynne confirmed that while the jobs bill would allow the unemployed to make that claim, it could be hard to prove that someone was not hired because of their status as an unemployed person.

Hannity, who made the claim on the September 13th, 2011 edition of his show on Fox News, had Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and Tucker Carlson on to discuss the new bill. Bowden claimed the country had gone “entitlement crazy” while Carlson added the bill was a “giveaway to trial lawyers.”

Firm Highlighted in “Super Lawyers” Magazine

bandw — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:17:59 +0000

	Look inside >

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Remedies in Employment Litigation

bandw — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:50:26 +0000

This chapter provides an overview of the key remedies available to employment discrimination plaintiffs under Section 1981 and Title VII. For further discussion of these issues, including the complex law governing the taxation of monetary remedies, see Seymour & Brown,
Equal Employment Law Update, Chapters 44-56 (Fall 1998). Read More…

Firm Client Discusses Inherent Discrimination In Law School Faculty Hiring

bandw — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:16:35 +0000

The National Law Journal published an opinion piece by Nicholas Spaeth, a firm client, discussing the inherent age discrimination and bias in law school faculty hiring.

“While the AALS and its members proudly boast of their nondiscriminatory policies — including those against age
discrimination — the truth of the matter is that they do discriminate, and pervasively so, on the basis of age,” says Mr. Spaeth in the article.

Mr. Spaeth explains that the legal profession needs law school graduates who can hit the ground running and are able to work on litigation or transactional matters, yet most law school courses do not adequately prepare students to do this legal work, largely because faculty members tend not to have extensive experience in a real-world legal setting. He argues that a better blend of faculty with extensive practical experience would significantly improve the training of law school students.