Kaye Scholer Faces Malpractice Claim From Ex-Computer Associates Worker

A former employee of scandal-plagued software giant Computer Associates, who claims she was fired for cooperating with an internal investigation, may sue the law firm hired by the company to represent her for legal malpractice based on alleged conflicts of interest, a Long Island judge has ruled.

Irene Salvatore, a former vice president in Islandia, NY-based Computer Associates' accounting department, claimed in a suit filed last year that 512-lawyer Manhattan firm Kaye Scholer and partner Jane Parver failed to advise her of options besides cooperating with an inquiry into alleged accounting fraud at the company or that her cooperation might affect her employment.

She was fired from Computer Associates in April 2004, not long after she was questioned by outside lawyers conducting the investigation.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hazlitt Emerson last month denied Kaye Scholer's motion to dismiss in Salvatore v. Kumar, 8565/05.

Noting that Kaye Scholer had an attorney-client relationship with Salvatore at the same time that its bills were being paid by Computer Associates, Emerson said Salvatore had alleged sufficient facts concerning a possible conflict of interest to survive the motion to dismiss.

Kaye Scholer, which is representing itself in the matter, says that the malpractice claims are frivolous.

According to the complaint, the lawyers worked with senior management to find lower-level employees to take the fall for accounting fraud at the company, which was also being investigated at the time by Eastern District of New York federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm argued that because Salvatore was an employee-at-will, Computer Associates could fire her for any reason; no action by Kaye Scholer could be the cause of her termination.

'[H]ad Kaye Scholer advised her not to cooperate with the internal investigation, she would obviously have been fired even sooner,' the firm said in its brief supporting its motion to dismiss.

A former employee of scandal-plagued software giant Computer Associates, who claims she was fired for cooperating with an internal investigation, may sue the law firm hired by the company to represent her for legal malpractice based on alleged conflicts of interest, a Long Island judge has ruled.

Irene Salvatore, a former vice president in Islandia, NY-based Computer Associates' accounting department, claimed in a suit filed last year that 512-lawyer Manhattan firm Kaye Scholer and partner Jane Parver failed to advise her of options besides cooperating with an inquiry into alleged accounting fraud at the company or that her cooperation might affect her employment.

She was fired from Computer Associates in April 2004, not long after she was questioned by outside lawyers conducting the investigation.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hazlitt Emerson last month denied Kaye Scholer's motion to dismiss in Salvatore v. Kumar, 8565/05.

Noting that Kaye Scholer had an attorney-client relationship with Salvatore at the same time that its bills were being paid by Computer Associates, Emerson said Salvatore had alleged sufficient facts concerning a possible conflict of interest to survive the motion to dismiss.

Kaye Scholer, which is representing itself in the matter, says that the malpractice claims are frivolous.

According to the complaint, the lawyers worked with senior management to find lower-level employees to take the fall for accounting fraud at the company, which was also being investigated at the time by Eastern District of New York federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm argued that because Salvatore was an employee-at-will, Computer Associates could fire her for any reason; no action by Kaye Scholer could be the cause of her termination.

'[H]ad Kaye Scholer advised her not to cooperate with the internal investigation, she would obviously have been fired even sooner,' the firm said in its brief supporting its motion to dismiss.