Partner demands website reveal identities of commenters who said they hated working at his firms
A name partner at California law firm Layfield & Barrett isn’t putting up with negative reviews of the firm posted by authors claiming to be current and former employees.
Lawyer Philip Layfield tells Above the Law that former employees who “spew false information” and “spit their venom” on websites such as Glassdoor.com should have to answer for their conduct. He and his law firm have filed a defamation claim and has subpoenaed the website for identifying information about the authors of 12 posts, according to Above the Law.
“People need to realize that just because you are sitting anonymously behind a keyboard, you can’t break the law,” Layfield told the blog.
Layfield is targeting reviews critical of his current firm as well as his former firm, Layfield & Wallace. The targeted posts include allegations that one firm or the other is “a horrible place to work” and working there “is psychological torture,” according to Above the Law, which posted the subpoena request.
“With respect to the lawsuit filed, here is the reality,” Layfield said in his statement to Above the Law. “Our law firm has approximately 150 employees and 35 attorneys. We demand the best of the best. Many people lie about their skills, their experience and their desire to be the best when they interview. We pay top dollar for candidates and many of our attorneys earn in excess of $1 million per year. When people are lazy or incompetent, they either quit because the writing is on the wall or they are terminated.
“Unfortunately, most of those people are unwilling to recognize their shortcomings and they turn to anonymous blogs to spit their venom. The reality is that they should be upset with their parents for raising lazy and incompetent young adults, but they choose to spew false information on blogs such as Glassdoor. The majority of these posts contain blatantly false information. We are going to obtain the identities of these cowards and bring them to justice.”
Layfield told the ABA Journal he has no further comment besides his statement to Above the Law, which is published in full here.
Glassdoor told Above the Law it doesn’t comment on the specifics of pending litigation, but its standard practice is to fight to protect the anonymity of its users.
