BigLaw firm took several pages from 'Retaliating Employer's Handbook,' suit alleges
A counsel at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle has filed a retaliation lawsuit against the law firm and several partners, including one defendant who moved into the plaintiff’s Seattle apartment building—allegedly on the firm’s dime. (Image from Shutterstock)
Updated: A counsel at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle has filed a retaliation lawsuit against the law firm and several partners, including one defendant who moved into the plaintiff’s Seattle apartment building—allegedly on the firm’s dime.
Lawyer Arthur A. Simpson alleges in his pro se Jan. 9 suit that Davis Wright and several partners “have taken numerous pages straight from the time-tested Retaliating Employer’s Handbook.”
Law360 has the story and provides a link to the complaint, filed in state court in King County, Washington.
The retaliation began, the suit says, after Simpson complained about one partner in 2022 for allegedly asking him to perform actions that he opposed. The partner later moved into Simpson’s apartment building while he was on medical leave to recover from the stress that she had caused, resulting in additional “stress, anxiety, depression, fear and upset” for Simpson.
Simpson’s complaints about the partner were “summarily” rejected, and he was told that he had the option of resigning with a “paltry severance package” or working only remotely, according to the suit. The ultimatum was based on the “utterly false and defamatory” proposition that Simpson posed a safety threat to his colleagues, the suit says.
The firm’s demands were dropped, but “as a matter of practical reality, Simpson’s prospects at DWT were cooked,” the suit says.
Simpson agreed to a “truce” that included a medical leave of absence and returned to work in November 2022. But the firm “never intended to let bygones be bygones” and began to manipulate his performance reviews, the suit says. He was told in his 2023 performance review that he should leave the firm—and soon.
But Simpson “was determined he would not be unlawfully bullied out of the firm,” and he “made his best efforts on behalf of the firm’s clients every day.”
More recently, the suit says, Simpson experienced post-traumatic stress disorder after he was chased by a homeless person with a crowbar while he was walking his dog. Simpson drew a licensed handgun but did not shoot. He reported the attack to the firm, but his colleagues refused to discuss the issue with him.
“As anybody who has been to junior high school knows, it is emotionally painful to receive the ‘cold shoulder’ from one’s peer group,” Simpson wrote. “And the experience is not much better as an adult.”
Rather than checking in with Simpson, the suit says, Davis Wright managers “cranked up his responsibilities until he was suddenly billing more hours than at any prior time in his career.” At the same time, the managers were conducting a behind-the-scenes investigation into “whether he was sending grumpy emails to his opposing counsel,” the suit says.
“After two-and-a-half years of sustained retaliation against Simpson, he finally ran out of steam and had to take another medical leave of absence” starting in November 2024, the suit says.
The suit alleges retaliation, disability discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation failure to pay a bonus for which he qualified and civil conspiracy.
Davis Wright provided a statement to Law360 that called Simpson’s allegations “baseless.”
A spokesperson for the firm provided this statement to the ABA Journal: “We have worked extensively to support Mr. Simpson over his tenure with the firm. We regret that he has chosen to engage in this litigation and now attempt to try his case in the press. We will vigorously defend against his baseless allegations.”
Updated Jan. 23 at 1:59 p.m. to add the statement from the Davis Wright Tremaine spokesperson.
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