A Whatcom County court ordered Western Washington University to pay an additional $656,000 in legal fees in a whistleblower retaliation case filed by a former employee.
Antonia Allen, a former director of the Office of Internal Auditor at Western, was awarded $2.99 million by a jury in May. Allen was fired from Western in November 2019 after investigating and reporting to federal and state authorities that staff and faculty in the university’s Woodring College of Education had granted false academic credentials to students.
Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Evan Jones ordered Western to pay Allen $656,240 in legal fees on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Allen’s lawyer Jack Sheridan had originally argued that she should be awarded $797,922 in fees — which included a “multiplier,” sometimes included to encourage attorneys to accept difficult cases.
Sheridan told the court on Aug. 23 that this case fit the requirements for a multiplier because these whistleblower cases are tricky to win, and people are afraid to take them on.
“It was so high risk; she never referred to herself as a whistleblower,” Sheridan told the court. “And also they had a charismatic president who was fearless in his refusal to understand what was being done,” referring to WWU President Sabah Randhawa’s lengthy testimony this spring denying that Allen was fired in retaliation for reporting potential fraud.
Western did not object to the legal bill, but did object to the multiplier, arguing that this was not a high-risk case. “The multiplier is not mandatory. The court need not do it, it’s discretionary,” Special Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Grant, who was representing Western, told Jones on Aug. 23.
Jones denied Sheridan the “multiplier” and found that while the case was “high-risk from the outset,” the hourly and contingent fee award “represent just compensation and would serve to adequately motivate a lawyer to take the case.”
In May, a Whatcom County jury determined that Allen was a whistleblower, and that she was subject to “reprisal or retaliatory action” by Western. She was awarded $631,442 in back pay, $867,964 in front pay and $1.5 million in emotional harm, totaling $2,999,406.
Western filed an appeal on the jury verdict in June.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
