News: January - August 2006
Packard Negotiates Employment Separation Agreements
Attorney Tamara Packard negotiated employment separation agreements on behalf of numerous employees this summer. Because such agreements are private, we cannot report the specifics of any one case. However, these agreements, also referred to as "severance agreements," typically involve an agreement to end the employment relationship in exchange for continued health and other benefit coverage, an agreement on how requests for references will be handled, and a cash payment to the employee, among other terms. In every case, Packard was able to improve on the terms initially offered to the employee. In several cases, the cash payment to the employee was substantially increased by Packard's identification of potential discrimination and other claims which were settled in conjunction with the separation agreement. Summer 2006
Action Wisconsin Education Fund Names Packard Board President
Attorney Tamara Packard has been re-elected to a one year term as President of the Board of Directors of Action Wisconsin Education Fund. The Education Fund is the charitable arm of Action Wisconsin, and provides educational resources on legal matters and other issues for Wisconsin's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered citizens and their families. It also exists to educate the general Wisconsin public about the consequences of anti-LGBT prejudice. June 2006
Pines Appears on Court TV
Attorney Lester Pines appeared on the Court TV in the documentary The Investigators: Tracing Audrey. where he discussed the legal strategy he and his co-counsel used in the defense in 2004 of Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin student who feigned an abduction and was then charged with obstructing a police investigation by failing to be truthful with the detectives who interviewed her. May 2006
Pines Successfully Defends former UW Vice Chancellor
Attorney Lester Pines successfully defended Paul Barrows, the former Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, against claims that he had sexually harassed an employee and a student. The University's Academic Staff Appeals Committee unanimously exonerated Dr. Barrows. The Barrows matter has been the focus of significant media and legislative attention. Read the Committee's decision. May 2006
Madison School District Handed Cease and Desist Order
In another arbitration in a series interpreting Madison Teachers, Inc.'s special agreement with the Madison Metropolitan School District governing the unique Four Block Schedule at LaFollette High School, Attorney Lester Pines successfully argued that the District's failure to schedule time for LaFollette teachers to collaborate on their class planning, violated the agreement. The arbitrator ordered the District to cease and desist from any further violations. May 2006
CWPB Attorneys Recover Over $14K in Attorney Fees
In a case before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, Attorneys Nick Fairweather and Lester Pines recovered over $14,000 in attorneys fees from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection following their successful claim that the Department, in violation of the State's civil service rules, had improperly transferred state career executive into a non-executive position. May 2006
Fairweather Named Member of Board of General Practice Section
Attorney Nick Fairweather has been named as a member of the Board of the General Practice Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin for a term expiring June 30, 2008. April
2006
Significant Decision in MTI Case
In a significant decision in a case tried by Attorney Tamara Packard for Madison Teachers Inc, Arbitrator Henry Hempe ruled that the school district had no right to discipline a teacher who had shared with MTI's attorney legitimately-acquired information relevant to a grievance, even through the employee might otherwise have been prohibited by confidentiality rules and laws from disclosing such information to third parties. The arbitrator explained that the union member's "contractual right to choose a representative to present her grievance would be a hollow, meaningless right -- indeed, an impediment -- if the representative were not allowed the same rights as [the member] herself, possessed, to review potential evidence against her." The case arose when a teacher was disciplined for sharing a student's redacted special education materials with MTI's attorneys and using those materials to defend herself in a prior arbitration. March
2006
Loeb and Packard Named CWPB Partners
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Cullen Weston Pines & Bach is pleased to announce that Jordan Loeb and Tamara Packard have become partners in the firm. Jordan is a 1994 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School who concentrates in criminal defense and civil litigation. He joined Cullen Weston Pines & Bach as an associate in 1998. Tamara is also a 1994 U.W. law school graduate. She concentrates her practice in civil litigation with an emphasis in labor and employment. She joined the firm as an associate in 1999. Both Jordan and Tamara have strong community ties in Madison and Wisconsin as a whole, and look forward to the continued development of Cullen Weston Pines & Bach's connections to clients in Madison and throughout Wisconsin. February 2006
Favorable Settlement in Employment Discrimination Case
Attorney Nick Fairweather obtained a favorable settlement of a employment discrimination case involving an employee with a criminal conviction record and the termination of his employment by a Madison company. The parties settled the case after the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission found probable cause to believe that the employer discriminated against their former employee. February
2006
CWPB Work Praised by Judge
"High quality" was the description given by Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Patricia McMahon about the representation of Action Wisconsin, Inc. by Attorneys Tamara Packard and Lester Pines. She praised their work, saying that their "written materials were consistently well prepared, timely filed. . .appropriately addressed the issues," and demonstrated "a depth of knowledge of the case both factually and legally." January
2006
