Question

Please let me start by apologizing for the tone of this email if it sounds angry. But I have an immediate need for legal representation or guidance.

I filed a racial discrimination case in federal court, against Hewlett Packard in December, 2007. I was being represented in this case by attorney Trang Tran. Attorney Tran also added an overtime case around March, 2008, so I had two cases filed against HP.

A quick synopsis of my discrimination case is:

I came down to Houston from Boston , in January, 2004, with the intention of working in a project management capacity in HP's Trade (outsourcing business) organization. Prior to coming down to Houston I worked in HP's Taylor St. Command Center providing level 2 support for various technical disciplines - UNIX, Cisco networking, Microsoft Windows, OpenVMS, etc.
The Taylor St. Command Center was closing down in late 2003, and I had a choice between coming down to Houston or taking another job in Boston . The move to Houston involved a promotion, a substantial salary increase (from $70K to $95K), and the option to return to Boston within a few years. This was a much better offer than my other option, as there was no promotion or salary increase involved in the Boston job.

I arrived in Houston in January, 2004, and began to work a variety of tasks, which included some project work. I was promoted from an ITO III to and ITO V in March, 2004. But I did not receive a raise as promised. I was simply told that there was no money in the budget for raises in 2004.

Around September, 2004, a new manager, Mark Prock, was hired to work on my shift. Within about a month of Prock's hiring he was trying to change my job responsibilities and make me a full time level 1 ticket troubleshooter, which was a lower level skillset than the level 2 work I was doing in Boston .
I had a series of issues with Mark Prock which is documented in other emails, but I'll leave that out for now so not to complicate the matter too much.

In late 2004 official Trade project management jobs were opening up, but I was not moved into any of these positions, as promised. Instead, Mark Prock continued to push me towards first level ticket work. I was not even told that an official Trade project management group was being created.

I continued to work first level tickets as my main responsibility throughout 2005. In December, 2005, there was a management restructuring in the Houston Command Center, and as a result 4 new supervisor positions were opening up across the 4 shifts in the Houston Command Center (we work alternating 3 and 4, 12 hour per day work weeks, in a 7/24 operation).
In an attempt to get out of the mundane first level ticket work Mark Prock was having me do, I tried to apply for these new supervisor positions. When I asked Prock about the supervisor’s positions he simply told me that they did not exist, and acted like he didn't know what I was talking about.

After all the supervisor positions were filled (with people who were much more junior than me), in late December, 2005, I filed an EEOC case in January 2006.


Essential HP's position in their affidavits and "Motion for Summary Judgement" was:

1. I did not come to Houston under any special circumstances, and that my move to the Houston Command Center was a lateral move, meaning I would be doing the same type of work I was doing in Boston. There was no promise to move me into a project management team or assume a project management role.

2. People do not necessarily receive a raise in conjunction with a promotion.

3. The people who were placed in the supervisor positions were considered to be the best fits for those positions.

I have their Motion, and my responses to their Motion, if you'd like to see this for further details.

HP basically lied in their affidavits and in some of their depositions. It is easily provable that I did come to Houston under special circumstances, and that I should have receive the salary increase I was promised in 2004. I should have been moved into a project management position in late 2004 when that group was being formed. And HP was intentionally keeping me from moving out the mundane first level ticket work they had me doing, by not properly informing people of new or available positions, including the supervisor positions in late 2005.

My argument is that HP was denying an opportunity that was promised to me before I even got down to Houston, because the Houston Command Center has a pattern of denying opportunities to high profile, relatively high achieving African Americans and other such minorities.
HP also uses marginal, unproven minorities to block the upward movement of ambitious minorities who are trying to advance based on merit.


Considering all the facts concerning my argument, this should have been a solid case. But I don't think attorney Tran fully understood my discrimination case until after my deposition. He was more interested in pursuing the overtime case, and did very little in the discrimination case. He had no discovery going into the three depositions we had. He didn't understand many of the facts and arguments during those depositions. And, He didn't bother using some audio recordings that I wanted him to use during one of the depositions.

Attorney Tran didn't even have any salary information until about a few days before our mediation/settlement meeting last week. Attorney Tran was only able to get W2s, but W2s do not include 401K numbers, and therefore are inconclusive in terms of determining gross pay.

What I was looking for as a reasonable settlement was back pay plus relief and to be moved in a comparable position to the project management position I was promised, with some guaranteed years. And, If HP insisted on terminating me, that there should be substantial forward pay in the $300,000 to $600,000 range for the damage they did to my career by having me work 1st level tickets for 4 years.

The back pay was more than $32K per year (the $95K - $70K difference plus differential and overtime) over 5 years or $160K. Because HP insisted on my resignation my severance was also on the table - current value about $25K. Attorney Tran only insisted on $100,000 of forward pay to start (I wanted a minimum $300,000).

Just in terms of the base numbers:

Back pay      $160K
Severance     $25K
Forward pay $100K (which is much lower than what I wanted)

$285K plus relief is $570K
    
During mediation, Attorney Tran never argued punitive damages or the medical problems I've had (non-specific seizures and back pain). I also did not want to agree to their final offer until we had a chance to talk to Rich Couch, who was the manager up in Boston who sent me down here - he no longer works for HP. I also wanted Tran to talk to another individual who filed a similar discrimination case as mine, at around the same time – XXXXXXX XXXXXX. Tran never spoke with either one of these people.

During mediation Attorney Tran also miscalculated the starting base number and began negotiations at $370K which he immediately lowered to $315K. The case was eventually settled for just $210K with termination.

Throughout mediation, Attorney Tran did not advocate for me, and gave me some legal reason why he would not be able to talk to Rich Couch, who could have been a powerful witness. The mediation was on January 27th. Attorney Tran did not have to agree to any terms during mediation. He did not have to schedule mediation or respond to their Summary Motion until around the time of trial, in June. As in the depositions, Attorney Tran simply went forward without proper preparation, and rush through a quick low ball settlement.

This mediation is clearly not what I wanted as I am in a worse position, now, than I was before - unemployed (I’m currently on paid administrative leave pending court approval) in a terrible economy, with just a small amount of money.

I don't think Attorney Tran ever wanted the discrimination case as he didn't really understand it, but he was very interested in the overtime case. HP is clearly violating Labor Laws with how they handle exempt AWS (adjusted work schedule) employees. There could be thousands of employees who fall under this category, and Tran wants to tap into that pool, ASAP.

Attorney Tran gave me a sweet deal on my discrimination case so I'd hire him – 20% of the award minus cost at a billable rate of $100 per hour. I think this deal is also indicative that Tran probably never intended to put a whole lot of work into my discrimination case.

Since the settlement, he has been trying to over bill me on the discrimination settlement! This is probably his way of compensating for lowing his usual billable rate of $250 per hour. At $100 per hour, I currently have a total bill of over $25,000. This is an unbelievable amount considering there is no indication that Attorney Tran had done much of anything in my discrimination case.
I have yet to sign the final settlement draft due to the percentage breakdown between myself and attorney Tran. Last week Tran emailed me a settlement draft with the field for the division of money, plank. When I asked him to fill in the fields with his percentage and mine, he sent me another email with the division of the award evenly split. When I told him he needed to apply our attorney’s contracts to the settlement based on the money proportion of the two cases, he argued with me that the overtime case (an absolute maximum payout including attorney’s fees, of $77,000) represented the entire settlement. After I replied with an email arguing why this was not true, he sent me another revised final settlement draft with: about $125, 000 for me (with a $20,000 deferred payment), and about $62,000 for Tran. This is more representative of our two contracts, but Tran still did not proportionally reduce the maximum overtime numbers. And his attorney’s fees are clearly excessive. The numbers should be about $140,000 for me (with a $20,000 deferred payment), and about $50,000 for Tran.
Tran clearly did not understand the strength of my discrimination case and did not properly work it, but he’s now trying to cash in on the higher award. The award would be much higher if he had done his homework and represented me in an appropriate fashion.

I have a sense that Tran may have intentionally low balled my discrimination case so he could try to argue that the total settlement was based on the much lower overtime case, and thus apply the overtime contract to the entire settlement. Attorney Tran sent me an email doing just that. The $20,000 deferred payment is also in dispute. It was discussed during my mediation that the $20,000 deferred payment would be based on $16,000 of my share of the settlement, plus interest. Now everyone, including my attorney is denying that the $20,000 was an interest payment, and there is no clear indication of this in the document that my attorney had me sign. All of these factors have me very concerned that I might be getting completely screwed by my attorney in this matter.

I am looking for legal advice or representation in order to pursue two possible avenues – file a malpractice case, or if it’s possible rescind the initial settlement draft as I was led to believe that my attorney had the right to settle my case per our legal contract.
I have not signed the final settlement agreement and release form which my attorney wants me to do, ASAP. So I will need a quick response on this matter.

If it is not possible to rescind the agreement, I will also have a secondary need to have another attorney review the wording of my final settlement agreement before I sign it, and to also check to see if I am being over billed by Attorney Tran. Because my confidence and trust in Attorney Tran has been greatly compromised, I basically need another attorney to weigh-in on this case.

Thanks.