Law Week Colorado Selects WTO Employment Case Among 2010 Top Defense Verdicts

DENVER: Law Week Colorado selected Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell's successful defense of Cingular/AT&T in a whistleblower case among its 2010 top defense verdicts. The team led by WTO partners Ray Martin and John Fitzpatrick obtained a complete defense verdict on behalf of the telecommunications company in the $1.2 million wrongful discharge lawsuit. The case involved important issues under the public-policy exception to Colorado's employment-at-will doctrine. The plaintiff claimed she was fired for complaining to the Department of Labor that the company was not paying employees across the country the full amount of commissions they had earned. The defense countered with the presentation of a heated e-mail that the plaintiff sent to her boss which jurors cited as the smoking gun in their determination that she was fired for gross insubordination.