A suit in which a former patent attorney for French cosmetics giant L'Or al alleged he was fired for standing up for ethical legal practices was dismissed in its early stages. But now a federal appeals court has reinstated the case, saying the claims "were more than skin-deep."
A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday reversed a New Jersey federal judge's prediscovery dismissal of Steven J. Trzaska's Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) lawsuit against L'Or al.
Trzaska claimed that L'Or al forced its patent lawyers to meet a quota of patent applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, even if the products were not believed to be patentable.
Trzaska alleged that this went against legal ethics, and that the company threatened lawyers who did not comply with "consequences which would negatively impact their careers and/or continued employment," according to Third Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro's majority opinion.
"An instruction, coercion, or threat by an employer that would result in the disregard of obligatory ethical standards of one's profession violates a clear mandate of public policy within the meaning of CEPA," Ambro said. "Under it, an employee cannot be terminated for refusing to engage in conduct in which he or she is prohibited from engaging."
Ambro was joined in the majority opinion by Judge Julio M. Fuentes.
In a concurring and dissenting opinion, Judge Michael A. Chagares said he disagreed with the majority's holding that Trzaska brought a viable CEPA claim.
"I do not believe that the district court erred in concluding that Trzaska did not plead a viable CEPA claim because he failed to establish that L'Or al had or would imminently violate a law, rule, regulation, or a clear mandate of public policy," Chagares said.
Harold I. Goodman of Raynes McCarty in Philadelphia represented Trzaska. Goodman pointed to the court's unanimous agreement in the case that New Jersey lawyers are bound by the state's rules of professional conduct to act ethically.
The decision "unanimously established that in-house lawyers are no more stripped of their ethical responsibility than lawyers who practice out at law firms," he said.
L'Or al's attorney, Christopher R. Carton of K&L Gates in Newark, did not respond to a request for comment.