HUD lawyer is awarded $800K in 'melodrama' retaliation case
A government lawyer who claims her supervisors retaliated against her after she complained about preferential treatment given to young, male lawyers has been awarded $800,000 in her federal lawsuit.
In an Oct. 24 verdict (PDF), jurors found that lawyer Terri Roman was subjected to a retaliatory work environment while working in the general counsel’s office at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had allowed the retaliation claim in a March 1 opinion that deemed the case a “melodrama.”
Roman had claimed her supervisors retaliated by passing her over for a position that she had already filled on an interim basis; giving her cases to junior, male lawyers; downgrading her job ratings; wrongly accusing her of baking a nail in a cupcake served at an office party; wrongly accusing her of hacking into office computers after she discovered memos about her on office printers; and moving her to a new position in a remote office.
One of the lawyers representing Roman, Robert Seldon, tells the ABA Journal the verdict sent a message that Roman was subjected to “inexcusable, awful and unjustifiable harassment by the general counsel’s office” at HUD. Roman’s supervisors “broke all the rules in the world trying to fire her,” Seldon said.
Asked if he was surprised by the size of the verdict, Seldon replied, “I’d hate to say I was surprised by it. It’s at the edges of the bell curve.”
Ashley Lough, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, which defended the case, said prosecutors have not yet decided whether to appeal.
