Yesterday,
I
reported
here
on
a
lawsuit
filed
March
20
in
U.S.
District
Court
in
Manhattan
by
a
legal
tech
executive
who
alleges
her
former
company
owes
her
over
$1
million
in
stock
and
that
her
former
boss
sexually
harassed
her.
As
it
turns
out,
just
a
week
before
she
filed
her
lawsuit,
her
former
company
had
sued
her
in
federal
court
in
Texas,
seeking
a
declaratory
judgment
that
it
had
terminated
her
for
cause,
and
that,
as
a
result,
her
stock
option
was
also
terminated.
As
I
reported
yesterday,
the
plaintiff
in
the
New
York
case, Silvia
Diaz-Roa,
filed
the
lawsuit
against Hermes
Law,
a
Texas
law
firm,
and ClaimDeck,
a
litigation
management
system
for
insurers
and
insurance-defense
firms
that
spun
out
of
Hermes
Law.
The
lawsuit
also
names Dwayne
Hermes,
the
founder
and
CEO
of
both
the
law
firm
and
the
company,
and Andrea
Hermes,
the
cofounder
of
the
company
and
legal
compliance
specialist
at
the
law
firm.
Diaz-Roa
alleged
that
when
she
sought
to
exercise
stock
options
worth
over
$1
million,
the
company
terminated
in
order
to
deprive
her
of
that
compensation.
She
also
alleged
that
she
had
been
subjected
to
sexual
harassment,
including
having
been
urged
by
superiors
to
flirt
and
become
romantically
involved
with
customers.
Defendants
Sued
Her
First
At
the
time
I
wrote
that,
I
had
not
heard
back
from
my
request
to
the
defendants
for
a
response
to
Diaz-Roa’s
allegations.
Subsequently,
I
received
an
email
from
Stefanie
Shah,
an
Austin
lawyer
with
the
firm
Vela
Wood,
who
represents
the
defendants.
Although
her
clients
had
not
been
served
with
the
complaint
in
the
New
York
matter,
she
said,
they
deny
the
allegations.
“It
is
my
understanding
Ms.
Diaz-Roa
filed
suit
in
response
to
the
declaratory
judgment
action
my
clients
filed
the
week
prior
in
the
Northern
District
of
Texas,”
Shah
said.
In
their
Texas
lawsuit,
ClaimDeck
and
Hermes
do
not
deny
Diaz-Roa’s
claim
that
they
granted
her
a
stock
option
in
2020,
but
they
say
that,
by
the
terms
of
that
option,
it
would
be
forfeited
in
the
event
of
a
termination
for
cause.
They
say
she
never
sought
to
exercise
the
option
until
after
they
terminated
her.
Read
the
full
text
of
the
Texas
complaint.
(ClaimDeck
is
a
d/b/a
of
the
company
Syzygy
Legal
Tech
Inc.
For
ease
of
reference,
I
am
referring
to
the
group
of
parties
as
Hermes
and
ClaimDeck.)
Termination
Forfeited
Options,
They
Say
As
for
why
they
terminated
her,
the
ClaimDeck
and
Hermes
cite
a
number
of
reasons,
including
that
she
took
actions
to
harm
the
companies’
reputations,
demonstrated
an
increasing
lack
of
respect
for
her
coworkers
and
management,
and
lacked
the
skills
necessary
to
perform
her
job.
Both
the
New
York
and
Texas
complaints
agree
that
after
Diaz-Roa
first
started
working
for
Hermes
in
2017,
she
began
to
pursue
a
graduate
degree
at
Yale,
while
continuing
to
work
part
time
for
Hermes.
ClaimDeck
and
Hermes
say
they
paid
the
cost
of
her
graduate
education,
in
a
total
amount
of
some
$170,000.
But
after
completing
her
degree
and
returning
to
full
time
work
at
Hermes,
she
refused
to
return
to
the
firm’s
office
in
Dallas,
as
had
been
planned,
and
instead
moved
to
New
York.
The
Texas
lawsuit
alleges
that
this
violated
the
companies’
remote
work
policy,
which
allows
only
one
remote
work
day
per
week.
The
Texas
lawsuit
describes
a
number
of
alleged
incidents
that
it
says
gave
the
companies
ample
cause
to
terminate
Diaz-Roa.
Because
they
terminated
her
for
cause,
they
allege,
her
options
to
purchase
stock
terminated
and
the
shares
were
forfeited
back
to
the
company.
In
the
Texas
lawsuit,
ClaimDeck
and
Hermes
are
asking
that
the
court
issue
declaratory
judgments
that
they
terminated
Diaz-Roa
for
cause,
that
her
stock
option
terminated,
and
that
she
has
no
equity
in
the
legal
tech
company.
“We
expect
that
the
New
York
and
Texas
courts
will
rule
in
favor
of
our
clients,”
attorney
Shah
said
in
her
email.