TAMPA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - The former employee who accused him of sexual harassment was actually fired for poor performance, the founder of a personal injury firm that targets nursing home says.
The Wilkes Law Firm filed a motion to dismiss Dara Cooley's lawsuit Jan. 16 in Florida's Hillsborough County Circuit Court, attaching an affidavit from Cooley's paralegal that says Cooley, a former associate, failed to return calls with clients, was late for a Zoom deposition and cancelled an evidentiary hearing "at the last minute."
Cooley's lawsuit alleges James Wilkes - the firm's president, CEO and sole shareholder - first proposed a sexual relationship in a direct message then told her that she would have to sleep with him if she wanted a promotion to managing partner.
"Cooley alleges she was not promoted and was fired because she rejected Wilkes," the motion says. "This is simply not the case. Cooley was fired because she missed too much work and when she did choose to work, failed to perform her job well."
Cooley, according to her complaint, began working for The Wilkes Law Firm in 2013 and litigated hundreds of nursing home-abuse cases. She alleges that she suffered sexual harassment from Wilkes beginning in 2019.
Wilkes and Tim McHugh created the personal injury firm Wilkes & McHugh in 1985, and Wilkes rebranded it as Wilkes & Associates when McHugh retired.
Cooley claims Wilkes invited her to his mansion where he lived alone and sent her private and direct messages on Instagram stating he wanted a female companion. She further claims in March of 2021, Wilkes informed her that she would need to have sexual intercourse with him in order to get and keep a managing attorney position.
"We're gonna f--k," Cooley claims Wilkes said.
That never happened, and that position was never offered to her, Wilkes says in his motion. According to him, Cooley was fired for cause then demanded a $50,000 "ransom." When the firm refused, she filed a charge of discrimination with the Florida Commission on Human Relations and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Screenshots of the Instagram conversation show Wilkes asked Cooley if she had interest in a private relationship. He said he had been separated from his wife for three years and wanted a "female companion." Someone to "travel with, talk to, touch. Enjoy life basically."
Cooley said she wanted to keep her professional and personal relationships separate.
To support his claim Cooley was filed for cause, he obtained the testimony of Laura Hutton, who was Cooley's paralegal in 2021.
Hutton says she was blamed for calls Cooley rescheduled when Cooley told clients they weren't on her calendar. A client also complained in September 2021 about never being informed of settlement proposals five months earlier, Hutton says.
In July of that year, she was 25 minutes late to a deposition that the witness also missed, complicating the firm's ability to obtain a certificate of non-appearance because the court reporter logged off during the delay, Hutton says.
Also at issue will be Hutton's cancellation of a Monday evidentiary hearing on punitive damages in August 2021.
"I believe she cancelled it, at least in part, because she was going to be out of town the weekend before," Hutton says.
"This was a large hearing for the case, and, in addition to cancelling it without the client's permission at the last minute, Ms. Cooley failed to return several calls from the client requesting an explanation as to why she cancelled the hearing."
The affidavit goes on to criticize Cooley's availability for internal meetings and calls and her habit of working remotely even though the office had been opened.
Cooley is represented by attorney Craig Berman in St. Petersburg.
The Wilkes Firm is represented by Matthew Davis and Matthew Rothrock of Paskert Divers Thompson.