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Tort Law

Big PI Lawyer a ‘Sexual Predator’ Who Cheated Clients, Ex-Staffer Says

Posted Jul 29, 2008, 02:44 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

A former paralegal for a well-known Texas plaintiffs lawyer has reportedly dropped a bombshell in the form of a wrongful termination suit.

Angela Robinson, who was fired in April, contends in the Harris County lawsuit (PDF) that Richard Laminack demanded sexual favors from employees of both sexes and once encouraged her to perform sex acts on a witness who wasn't doing well during a deposition, reports the American Lawyer.

"Laminack's trysts are both a well-known and established part of the firm's 'lore,' " the complaint says. It contends that two Houston law firms at which he was a partner and at which Robinson worked for him "simply adopted the expedient practice of enabling Laminack's tastes by handsomely compensating injured employees in exchange for their perpetual silence."

Plus, Robinson says, he didn't pay her overtime when she was working on Fen-Phen diet drug cases and allegedly fired her when she threatened to blow the whistle on him. She also contends that Laminack deducted from Fen-Phen client settlements the cost of "checks" on nonexistent medical records.

Laminack wasn't immediately available for comment, the magazine writes.

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