Would-be client says Baker Botts revealed his unsolicited email, resulting in his firing
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A would-be client of Baker Botts claims in a lawsuit that he was fired after the law firm apparently forwarded his unsolicited email to his employer.
The suit (PDF) by fired environmental investigator Kent Langerlan says he wanted Baker Botts to represent his girlfriend in a whistleblower claim against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Lawyer (sub. req.) and the Texas Tribune report. At the time, Langerlan was still employed at the commission, but the girlfriend had been fired.
The suit says Langerlan contacted the lawyer, Shira Yoshor, after he found her online profile on the Baker Botts website. He typed her email address into his email, rather than clicking on the link. As a result, he never saw a disclosure statement warning potential clients that unsolicited communications are not privileged, according to the complaint.
Langerlan’s email said the girlfriend was told she was fired for poor performance, though she was a “heralded employee,” according to the Texas Tribune, which obtained a copy from Langerlan’s lawyer. His email claimed he had information showing the girlfriend was fired for “adamantly following” procedures and regulations.
He added that the information would help Baker Botts, saying it could “lead you to directly affect clients that Baker Botts represent who have received TCEQ enforcement action.”
Langerlan sent the email April 30, 2014, and Yoshor declined representation that same day. On May 6 he received a notice of the commission’s intent to fire him based on his contact with a “Houston law firm.” The notice had language mimicking his email to Yoshor, the suit says.
Baker Botts spokesman Stephen Hastings said in a statement to both publications that the firm “took the appropriate and ethical action” after receiving the email, which “proposed to provide confidential TCEQ information to us—for use on behalf of clients having matters before the commission” if the firm represented the girlfriend.
The suit says Baker Botts has asserted that Langerlan had no expectation or privilege when sending the unsolicited email, and that the communication could be revealed under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. The suit says the arguments are unfounded.
Yoshor was a partner in the firm’s Houston office, but she is no longer with the firm, according to Texas Lawyer. She did not return Texas Lawyer’s messages seeking comment.
