After Paying Orrick Nearly $1M to Defend Claims by 2 Fired Workers, Oakland Opts to Settle a Case
Firing two at-will employees has cost the city of Oakland nearly $1 million in legal fees, so far, as the two filed sex discrimination suits and made whistle-blower arguments. One also contended that she’d been promised a severance package as a condition of employment.
So a divided city council decided to settle with one of the two, former assistant city administrator Cheryl Thompson, for $500,000, even though they were advised the city might well have won the case, because future defense costs would be about the same, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
The case initially could have been settled for less than $100,000, one council member says, but a former city attorney turned the offer down, the newspaper reports.
Former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly’s fight against the city over her termination is still ongoing.
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been defending Oakland in both suits, the Chronicle reports. So far, the law firm has billed the city $571,000 in Thompson’s case and $368,000 in Edgerly’s.
