Babyak v. Cardiovascular Systems Inc.

Wrongful Termination

Los Angeles County

Superior Court Judge Michael Stern

Plaintiff’s Lawyers: Tamara S. Freeze, Robert A. Odell, Workplace Justice Advocates

Defense Lawyers: Mike Laurenson, Stacey M. Cooper, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP

In a whistleblower retaliation case, plaintiff’s attorneys Tamara S. Freeze and Robert A. Odell with Workplace Justice Advocates PLC secured a $25 million verdict last April.

“We are a really small law firm,” Freeze said. “We are both pretty young attorneys, facing a fairly big-sized company with a much bigger firm on the other side,” she explained.

Freeze and Odell represented Steven Babyak, who worked for Cardiovascular Systems Inc. from October 2012 until being terminated in June 2015 following internal complaints Babyak made concerning illegal kickbacks to doctors, Food & Drug Administration policy violations, and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Cardiovascular Systems Inc. was represented by Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP attorneys Mike Laurenson and Stacey M. Cooper.

“It’s a national firm [and] the defense attorney who tried this case has many trials under his belt,” Freeze said. “We don’t really have as many trials under our belt.”

After complaining directly to the company’s upper management, Babyak was retaliated against by his supervisor, Freeze said. Babyak reported the retaliation, which led to an investigation. Although Babyak’s concerns were corroborated by two other employees, the company claimed there was no evidence of retaliation or wrongdoing, the attorney added.

According to Freeze, demonstrating “to the jury that the company lied about why they fired Mr. Babyak” was one of the more challenging aspects of the case.

“Defense counsel was very aggressive and put a lot of roadblocks for us to get discovery,” Freeze said. “We did what we could and ... it was definitely a very hard-fought case.”

Freeze and Odell got a unanimous verdict.

“He was a very experienced attorney,” she said of Mike Laurenson of Gordon & Rees, lead defense counsel. But “our client was really good on the stand, we had a really good jury, and we had really strong evidence of retaliation.”

The verdict was subsequently reduced.

“We got it reduced to $2.7 [million] for compensatory damages and then the punitive award was reduced from $22 million to $2.7 [million], as well,” Laurenson said. The total award was around $5.4 million.

— Skylar Dubelko