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Sunday, April 3, 2011 | 3:45 p.m.
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The State Bar of Nevada, which regulates attorneys, is itself the target of a lawsuit filed by three former employees complaining they and others were subjected to abuse and intimidation by Bar Executive Director Kimberly Farmer.
The former employees are attorneys Patrice Eichman and Tiffany Breinig; as well as Georgia Taylor.
They filed suit last week in Clark County District Court against the State Bar, a public corporation; and against Farmer.
The State Bar promptly denied the accusations, saying they amount to "griping by former employees who could not, or would not, adapt to changing work requirements."
The lawsuit, filed by three attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Bailey Kennedy, said: "Farmer subjected the plaintiffs and other long-term employees of the State Bar to verbal and mental abuse, physical coercion and intimidation in a deranged effort to divert attention from her own incompetence."
"When Ms. Farmer's behavior was brought to the attention of the (Bar) Board of Governors, it pursued its pattern and practice of conducting a sham investigation and covering up the misdeeds of its executive director."
The suit said Taylor, the Bar's client security fund/fee dispute coordinator, took early retirement after 15 years because of the alleged verbal and mental abuse.
The suit said Eichman, the Bar's director of admissions, was forced to resign after 13 years because of the alleged abuse.
Breinig, an admissions investigator, was forced to resign after less than two years with the board due to the alleged abuse and "physical coercion at the hands of Ms. Farmer," the lawsuit says.
Breinig said this distress compelled her to seek medical treatment and that a member of the Bar Board of Governors told her "the State Bar would not respond to her complaints, would engage in a cover-up and that her only viable option was resignation."
The suit alleged Farmer was hired in about January 2007 "due to cronyism and not her ability to do the job."
The lawsuit said Taylor and Farmer had disagreements about the Clients' Security Fund, which reimburses clients for losses caused by the dishonest conduct of lawyers.
The suit says the American Bar Association had recommended, based on a 2005 site visit, that the fund be directly supervised by the Nevada Supreme Court and be removed from the Bar's supervision.
While Taylor advocated for implementation of the ABA recommendations to better serve the purpose of the fund, Farmer opposed this as did the previous executive director as it would "reduce her control over the Bar and its finances and bring scrutiny on her past management of the Clients' Security Fund," the lawsuit says.
The suit alleges Farmer screamed at Taylor when Taylor questioned Farmer's decisions about staffing needs in Taylor's departments and "Taylor often observed Ms. Farmer berate, insult, belittle, undermine, humiliate and scream at other employees."
As for Eichman, the suit says Farmer "launched screaming attacks on Mrs. Eichman and other employees in the admissions department, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation."
The suit alleges at times Farmer undermined Eichman by "making comments to people under Ms. Eichman's direct supervision that insulted and criticized Ms. Eichman on a personal and unprofessional level."
The lawsuit goes on to charge that at the time Farmer forced Eichman to resign, the admissions department was grading the February 2010 bar exams and because of Eichman's departure, "errors were made during the grading which caused persons who had not actually passed the exam to be admitted to the Bar."
Eichman also complained that in one incident, Farmer "hurled a document at Ms. Eichman" and "followed this assault by screaming and yelling at Ms. Eichman, slamming her hand on Ms. Eichman's desk and approaching Ms. Eichman in a physically threatening manner."
The suit alleged Breinig was forced to seek medical treatment as a result of Farmer's behavior including verbal and emotional attacks and "trapping" her in an office during a meeting in which Breinig attempted to exit an office but "Farmer jumped between Breinig and the door and blocked the exit."
"Plaintiffs are not the only casualties of Ms. Farmer's reign of terror. During her two-plus years of depravities, she has terminated or forced the resignations of at least 15 employees, the majority of whom were high-level employees with many years of service to the bar," the lawsuit alleges.
The suit alleged Farmer was hired to replace Allen Kimbrough after Kimbrough was forced to resign amid allegations of intimidating and harassing his subordinates, misappropriation of Bar resources "and other unprofessional activities."
The suit said Kimbrough's activities had been brought to the attention of the Bar's Board of Governors but the Board "pursued a policy of conscious inaction and secrecy until threatened with litigation."
A 2006 story by the Las Vegas Review-Journal said a bar official reported Kimbrough resigned "to pursue a different direction in his personal career" and that the resignation came after allegations were made about him.
The R-J reported Vincent Consul, bar president at the time, said an independent investigation of allegations by a disgruntled ex-employee did not substantiate "the substantial portion" of the allegations.
Last week's lawsuit said the Board of Governors engaged a San Francisco attorney to investigate the allegations of Eichman, Taylor and Breinig -- "the same individual it had hired to conduct the sham investigation after accusations were made against Mr. Kimbrough."
"Predictably, the San Francisco attorney once again found no information to substantiate the allegations against Ms. Farmer. Plaintiffs have been advised by persons interviewed by the San Francisco attorney during the course of his `investigation' that he did not seem interested in ascertaining the truth, but instead sought to justify a pre-ordained conclusion," the lawsuit charges.
The lawsuit asserts counts including breach of employment contracts, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligent hiring and supervision of Farmer, tortious discharge, tortious discharge in violation of public policy, assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified general and punitive damages.
***
Full text of the State Bar's response to the lawsuit:
The Board of Governors believes that the allegations in the complaint essentially amount to griping by former employees who could not, or would not, adapt to changing work requirements.
The board is confident of a positive outcome for the lawsuit and is fully supportive of Ms. Farmer's continuing efforts to provide a high level of service to the public and the bar.
Here is some background on this situation:
Almost a year ago, the State Bar of Nevada hired an experienced labor and employment attorney to investigate vague allegations by these former employees against Ms. Farmer. Plaintiffs' attorney and his clients were invited to provide information to the investigator, but they declined to do so. The investigator reported that he was able to gain an accurate understanding of the facts relevant to the allegations, despite the lack of cooperation by the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs had discussed their grievances against Ms. Farmer with a number of persons who were among the approximately 30 employees interviewed.
Based on the facts reported, the Board of Governors concluded:
1. The investigator had conducted a thorough and independent investigation;
2. Despite his best efforts, he could not find sufficient information to credibly sustain the former employees’ allegations;
3. Much of the criticism of Ms. Farmer was based on inaccurate rumors; and
4. Much of the balance of the criticism of Ms. Farmer resulted from her implementation of fiscal and other policy changes mandated by the Board of Governors to improve the operations of the state bar.
On June 8, 2010, the Board of Governors sent a letter to all state bar employees reporting their conclusions based on the investigation and communicating their support for Ms. Farmer's implementation of the Board's new policies.
Rotten to the core, Nevada Justice system, from the Judges on down.
HA, make sure those employees don't try to get a job with the State. They have a problem with abusive attorneys too. I guess abuse is part of the law degree?
This is going to such fun to watch the Bar unravel!
Good point about removing that security fund from the Bar's control.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." -- Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare's "Henry The Sixth," Part 2 Act 4, scene 2
Crack smoking DA's could be the whole department
Crack addicts
Follow they money simple. Who donated and to whom. The Da's crack addict is just the tip of the Iceberg
So a few employees got yelled at.
BFD!!!!
Just quit and move on. People get yelled at in the work place all the time. Its no reason to sue.
I hope the bar fights this all the way to trial.
I'v e worked in a couple of such hateful environments and let me tell you it's not just as if someone snaps at you. It's full on intimidation which screws up your whole life. Going to a hostile work environemnt, especially when it's not as if there are tons of jobs out there, is a living hell. You know the stories about people showing up to work with a gun? That behavior isn't just from a malcontent.
These people aren't suing lightly. To do such a thing is a last resort that they know will follow them wherever they work and decided to fight back with the courts - NOT with their mouths or throwing things. Nepotism and cronyism is a horrid thing to confront to get your check and has emotional and physical ramifications. Good for these people to fight back.
Oh, boy, the "club" is turning on itself. Let's face it, being an ambulance chaser is not a profession, it's a "club" that makes work for its members by coming up with inventive ways to clog the court system with "deep pocket" lawsuits; in effect blackmailing defendants into settling because it's cheaper than fighting it out. Look at the proliferation of greaseball ambulance chasers using TV to hawk their wares. "You may be entitled to a large cash settlement," is the battle cry of many ambulance chasers! It's simply disgraceful!
I wonder what kind of "physical intimidation," was allegedly going on.
great points lvfacts...call the heavy hitter!
lvfacts101 -- good points. I recommend you read (if you can find it) that excellent essay from Florynce Kennedy "The Whorehouse Theory of Law." According to her judges are the pimps. When one considers one of the older definitions of prostitute was a judge who sold the benefit of his office to the highest bidder, it's quite apt.
In case you didn't know, the late Ms. Kennedy (R.I.P. 2000) wasn't of the Massachusetts clan. She was a fiery black 60s-era feminist who crusaded for the rights of little people. She once led a rally on the Harvard campus to protest it's lack of women's restrooms. They did a mass urination. Check her out @ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florynce_Kennedy
"The question arises ... whether all lawyers are the same. This is like asking whether everything that gets into a sewer is garbage." -- Florynce R. Kennedy, U.S. lawyer, activist, speaker, and author, from her 1971 essay "The Whorehouse Theory of Law"
With the exception of the great Wayne Blevins, five of the last six State Bar Executive Directors have been run off. With the exception of the Board of Governors, Kim Farmer is hugely disliked in the Nevada legal community.
Just saying what I have been hearing since shortly after she arrived.
I absolutely believe these allegations, given the wholly unprofessional manner in which Ms. Farmer interacted with me - a potential member of the Bar.
She is extraordinarily arrogant and unyielding, even when the completely illogical nature of certain Bar procedures are brought to her attention.
This is, however, typical of the way state Bar organizations often are run. Instead of being operated by various members, they tend to be autocratic, literally operated by one lone individual who wields complete and total control.
Bad way to run any business, especially a Bar organization.
the bar declined to investigate my claims against an attorney because his written pleadings and video taped arguments were not clear and convincing evidence of misconduct. and, below is the text of an email i received from another attorney responding to my search for a malpractice attorney:
"I guess your either stupid or greedy or both. The two go together. There is no contingent money in it for a lawyer, meaning there is no contingent money for you. Perhaps you're slow, you've had two lawyers, or was it three? If there was money in it, you'd still have a lawyer. There isn't. Your mother wrote you out and so did your brother. That's why she went joint tenancy with him. It doesn't matter if it's silent as to that. It has survivorship. Face it. You lose. Oh, by the way - go pound yourself."
i think this says it all about the bar and the caliber of many of its members -- since i have no money i did not get ripped off and am just whining, but if i had money then i would have an attorney to prosecute a meritorious claim that there never was a joint tenancy and, thus, no survivorship, express or implied.
liars, cheats and foul mouthed thieves!
It is about time that the State Bar of Nevada (SBN) was investigated and put to task for all the "sham" investigations it has conducted in its history. The history of this organization and other similar entities is the same; the organization does not care about its mandate but only cares about growth at all cost. The SBN was screwed up much before 2007, as, in 2001, when I was prosecuting a case, as a citizen of Nevada and not as an attorney licensed to practice in this state, I filed a complaint against my opposing attorney for presenting untruths, aka lies, to the district court in Washoe County and the result was a sham investigation, much as described in this article, and of course the obvious result, that the said attorney was innocent of the lies, even though the evidence presented was in writing.
This is just more evidence of the incentive of having an open and transparent federal authority for all lawyers, doctors, engineers,etcetera, instead of having 50 duplicative bureaucracies in each state for each profession whose only goal is to increase the size of the particular bureaucracy instead of the pursuit of justice/ethics in the case of the State Bar of Nevada.