TORONTO – A nasty legal spat involving claims of fraud, owed money and abusive behaviour is playing out between a high profile employment lawyer and his former bookkeeper.
In his statement of claim, Toronto-based lawyer Howard Levitt seeks $25,000 in various damages from Theda Lean for what he alleges was overbilling, fraudulent hours and double-billing during her time working for his new law firm Levitt and Grosman starting last September.
Levitt, who writes a column on employment law for the National Post and appears on Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010, accuses Lean, a former auditor for the Law Society of Upper Canada, of being a “fraudster” involved in “criminal activity” that he says he reported to police and professional authorities.
“She seemed always, in the view of everyone present, to be concealing things,” he states in court filings. “The defendant was overbilling…and concealing it in the manner in which she invoiced.”
Levitt alleges Lean resigned immediately when she was “caught.”
Lean, however, in her defence and counter-claim, which also seeks $25,000 in damages for unpaid work, constructive dismissal and mental distress, tells a completely different story.
“Mr. Levitt is a bully and an abusive, incompetent manager,” Lean asserts in her pleadings. “He is unceasingly uncivil.”
Lean, who denies any fraudulent billing, says her only crime was to have taken a position with Levitt’s law firm. She says she made large personal sacrifices to do the work. She says Levitt accused her of causing losses for the firm and called her incompetent.
While she says further details of her claim will be provided ahead of a trial, Lean also says she puts the “mental health of Mr. Levitt in issue and states that he is not well.”
His media persona, she says, is the polar opposite of his true self.
She calls him a “disgrace” to the legal profession and has filed a complaint with the law society alleging professional misconduct.
“It is embarrassing that a high-profile lawyer be allowed to behave in such manner to create a poisoned environment at a workplace, causing tension, fear and anxiety,” her complaint states.
Levitt, who bills himself as “Canada’s best known and most quoted authority on employment law,” denies owing any money or that he inflicted any mental distress on his ex-employee.
“(Lean) was already suffering substantial mental distress at the time, as her medical or psychiatric records will indicate, as a result of her own personal issues,” he says.
None of the claims and counterclaims have been proven in any court. A trial date before Ontario Superior Court’s small claims branch has not been set.
