A key force in the legal recruiting business is going against an upstart competitor – in court.
A. Harrison Barnes, proprietor and founder of this kind of companies as BCG Lawyer Search and LegalAuthority, is suing Robert E. Kinney of Kinney Recruiting in Texas for anonymously maligning Barnes and his firms on the net. (Full disclosure: Job Mission, which is affiliated with these web-sites, is the proprietor of JDJournal.com.)
Although it is common for disgruntled ex-workers and unhappy consumers to complain about companies on internet sites and chat boards, this is an unusual case in which an anonymous critic was realized to be the owner of a competing small business.
It is also uncommon that Kinney, in accordance to the complaint, went to extraordinary lengths to prevent the aggrieved get together from discovering his identity. When Barnes sought his identity from RipOff Report, Kinney even hired a higher-priced law firm to stop RipOff Report turning above his identity pursuant to a court buy Barnes obtained. Kinney had registered on Ripoff Report as “Albert” and performed a posting on RipOff Report below this fake title. The situation is extraordinary mainly because Barnes was capable to obtain a court purchase for information that is usually fiercely guarded by the 1st Amendment. (Kinney is a former worker of BCG Lawyer Search.)
Apart from Kinney, the lawsuit also targets a number of individuals, including one solo practitioner in particular. The solo practitioner in query had set up a internet site largely focused to attacking Barnes. Kinney and the other defendants are accused of making use of on the net “rip-off report” internet sites and anonymous personalized blogs to spread incorrect information about Barnes and his companies.
In accordance to the complaint, the defendants have “gone beyond expressing their opinions” and “mounted a vicious smear campaign towards Barnes and his legal recruiting organizations.”
The complaint also alleges that when Kinney was an employee of BCG Attorney Search in 2004, he devised an unethical kickback scheme, trying to spend an associate under the table at Preston, Gates and Ellis (now K&L Gates) to hire 1 of his candidates. Barnes says that when he found this scheme, he and other BCG Attorney Search recruiters immediately fired Kinney. The complaint in the action even has an e mail from Kinney where he talks about having to pay the bribe to an associate at Preston Gates in return for employing a candidate.
Incredibly, Kinney made the decision over 4 many years following working for Barnes and BCG Attorney Search to start out maligning Barnes and his businesses on-line. Kinney even attacks firms of Barnes that were not even in existence at the time Kinney worked for BCG Lawyer Search.
Barnes says the actions of these anonymous on the web critics have broken the two his status, and that of his businesses, foremost to missed organization options, lost shoppers, weakened morale, and loss of personnel.
The suit, filed this week with the California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles, Northeast District, seeks $10 million in damages.
Robert Kinney Austin
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