TBD

• Activision-Blizzard lawsuits in chaos as federal agency accuses California's DFEH of ethics violations | PC Gamer
  • 10-11-21
  • DFEH is suing Activision Blizzard
    • "The suit alleges that Activision Blizzard is a company rife with discrimination, sexual harassment, and a 'frat boy' culture—claims that Activision Blizzard deny"
  • "around a fortnight ago, we discovered Activision Blizzard had also been in talks about a separate lawsuit being brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and had agreed to settle for $18 million."
  • "The DFEH last week filed an objection to this settlement, arguing that it would lead to the "effective destruction" of evidence critical to its case and cause "irreparable harm" to its own lawsuit."
    • DFEH: "The proposed consent decree also contains provisions sanctioning the effective destruction and/or tampering of evidence critical to the DFEH's case, such as personnel files and other documents referencing sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination."
• California state lawyer suing Activision Blizzard is fired
  • 4-13-22
  • "Janette Wipper was fired on March 29… in pursuing the case as chief counsel for the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said her lawyer, Alexis Ronickher."
  • her lawyer noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom had reappointed Wipper to her position just four months before she was being terminated.
  • The agency sued the Santa Monica-based video game company in July, alleging a "frat boy" culture that had become a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."
  • Activision has come under fire from the government and even some shareholders over allegations that management ignored sexual harassment and discrimination against female employees.
  • A shareholder suit filed last year alleges that the company's negligent response resulted in a loss of share value.
  • The company also agreed last year to pay $18 million to settle a complaint by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After a nearly three-year investigation, the agency concluded that Activision failed to take effective action after employees complained about sexual harassment, discriminated against pregnant employees and retaliated against employees who spoke out, including by firing them.
  • A federal judge approved the settlement on March 29, the same day that Wipper was notified of her firing. The judge rejected a request by Wipper's agency to delay the settlement as it pursued its own case.
• The Lawyers Who Ate California: Epilogue - by Matt Taibbi
  • Taibbi!
  • California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment, or CASE
  • California’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG)
  • "In one example, the Department of Fair Housing and Employment (DFEH) decided to bring in outside counsel in the cases involving both Riot Games and Activision, which didn’t go over well with its own lawyers."
    • during the Activision case, the DFEH hired two attny's who had worked on the (Fed) EEOC Activision case
    • the DFEH assigned these two to work on CA's activision case
    • the EEOC claimed this violated the Ethics in Government Act
    • CASE claims that DFEH responded one day later
      • "On October 5, 2021, the day following the meeting with the EEOC, DFEH notified the OAG of the need to retain outside counsel. The notice stated, in part, 'The DFEH needs to augment its in-house team with outside counsel with specialized knowledge and expertise in class action litigation, opposing reverse action settlement tactics, and state and federal procedure and anti-discrimination law.'"
      • and: "DFEH contends the challenged legal services contracts are permissible and necessary to guard against adverse consequences in the underlying litigated matters due to potential conflicts of interest.”
      • per Taibbi, DFEH admitted to no conflict of interest, but immediately retained outside counsel, in case there was a conflict of interest found
        • CASE's argument is that so long as the former EEOC lawyers are still in the picture, the problem remains
      • "Why the state needed so badly to hire away and keep two former federal lawyers — who worked on a federal case it claims was a failure — that it’s now willing to hire a whole new crew of outside lawyers for the duration just in case the decision turns out to be judged unethical is a bizarre use of public resources, no matter how you slice it."
    • hmmm… then he wanders off itno a larger point about bureaucratic parasites, to which I'm sympathetic, but it's not on point

03/08/23 10:08