Lawyer’s Defamation Suit Blames Wilmer Cutler for Loss of Temp Job
A temporary lawyer is blaming Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr for the loss of his job with an outsourcing company in a defamation lawsuit filed against the law firm.
James Zhang says legal staffing company Special Counsel Inc. wouldn’t employ him after a March 2009 stint at Wilmer’s Washington, D.C., office led to baseless accusations that he was stealing law firm documents, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., says Zhang was updating his resumé when staff lawyer Michael Layman asked if he was downloading firm documents onto his flash drive, the story says. Zhang denied it, but he was then asked to hand over the drive by partner Bruce Berman. Zhang says he refused, but he did show him the contents of the drive.
Zhang says someone informed Special Counsel about the baseless suspicions, and the company never employed him again.
