‘Bullied, belittled, harassed by boss’: Maurice Blackburn lawyer sues firm
Ani Haddad, who worked at the leading workplace injury firm for nearly a decade, is suing it over allegations she was bullied, belittled and harassed by her boss, who said her work was ‘the standard of a paralegal’.
A costs lawyer at workplace injury firm Maurice Blackburn is suing the company over allegations she was bullied, belittled and harassed by her boss, who disparaged her work in front of others as “being of the standard of a paralegal”.
Ani Haddad, who has worked for the plaintiff firm for nearly a decade, has filed a case in the Victorian Supreme Court in which she alleges she left the organisation having developed “depression, anxiety, trauma and panic symptoms”.
She claims she was repeatedly micromanaged and excluded from important meetings, and says her boss, senior counsel Lyn Honan, intentionally gave her “frivolous” tasks with little substance in order to criticise her performance.
Ms Haddad is demanding Maurice Blackburn issue her a payout worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, claiming her time at the firm has left her “totally incapacitated” and unable to get another job.
A spokesperson for the firm said: “As this matter is before the court, we’re not able to provide comment.”
In court documents obtained by The Australian, Ms Haddad says she made numerous complaints against Ms Honan to the firm’s human resources consultant, Jennifer Lejak.
She says she told Ms Lejak she was being “unfairly excluded from critical aspects of her role, including solicitors’ meetings”, and alleged her employment and performance “was being prejudiced due to unclear, changing, conflicting and incomplete instructions being provided by Ms Honan”.
The three women attended a meeting together on June 15, 2021 to try to resolve the matter, the documents say. But Ms Haddad claims the behaviour continued, and she continued to make complaints to Ms Lejak.
The statement of claim says Ms Honan “continued to provide unclear, inconsistent and incomplete instructions to the plaintiff in respect of the work duties she was required to perform” and “was using such matters to criticise the quality of her work”.
Maurice Blackburn bills itself as Australia’s largest plaintiff law firm, with large practice areas in workplace injuries, employment law and class actions.
The firm is representing former Seven producer Amelia Saw in a Fair Work claim against her ex-employer, and last month announced it had lodged filings against Harvey Norman for the sale of warranties that provided no extra protections than those already provided under Australian consumer law.
Ms Haddad alleged Ms Honan used her requests for further training “to micromanage and reprise against her, including by requiring her to perform frivolous, time-consuming and otherwise onerous tasks and in order to criticise her performance”.
“Honan continued to withhold information that was critical to the plaintiff’s employment and work performance, including but not limited to important training modules and training sessions, critical file/client information, the ‘Shared Work Space’ and the ‘MIL Teams Group’, which contained client disbursement information necessary for the plaintiff to perform her role,” the statement of claim reads.
“Honan was providing the plaintiff with unclear, incorrect or conflicting instructions, which were providing Honan with the opportunity to unfairly criticise the standard of the plaintiff’s work and performance.”
Ms Haddad claims Ms Honan forced her to work from the office despite this policy not extending to her colleagues.
She also says Maurice Blackburn allowed Ms Honan to performance-manage her “despite not having adequately and/or independently investigated” the complaints she had filed.
According to the statement of claim, on November 12, 2021 Ms Honan filed the performance management document on a client file that was accessible to other lawyers, managers, paralegals and legal assistants at the firm.
Ms Haddad said this was in breach of Maurice Blackburn’s “policies and procedures relating to grievances, bullying, harassment, victimisation, discrimination, fairness, performance management and confidentiality”.
“Upon entering the client file and reading some of the performance management emails and documents, the plaintiff became incapacitated for work,” the statement of claim reads.
Ms Haddad was earning $78,476 per year for three days a week of work at Maurice Blackburn. She alleges that if she had not been bullied and left incapacitated, she “would
have been promoted such that her earnings would presently be at least $160,000 per annum exclusive of superannuation”.
“But for the injury, the plaintiff would have continued to be promoted and earned income on a full-time basis until the age of at least 70 years,” she wrote in the statement of claim.
“The plaintiff claims past loss of earnings including loss of superannuation from November 15, 2021.”
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