Attorney Sues Brockovich Boss Over Firing

Westlake Village attorney Ed Masry, who has become famous as the real-life employer of movie celebrity Erin Brockovich, is being sued for allegedly firing a law firm employee for rebuffing his advances.

Kissandra Cohen, 21, who earned local publicity as a child prodigy who took calculus classes at UCLA at age 11, filed a wrongful-termination suit Wednesday alleging that Masry and colleagues frequently made sexual comments, touched her inappropriately and created an unprofessional environment.

Masry denied Cohen’s allegations, and said that she is merely one of many “people coming out of the woodwork” in hopes of profiting from him after the release of the current hit film “Erin Brockovich.”

The same day the suit was filed, Brockovich’s former husband and ex-boyfriend were arrested on suspicion of attempting to extort about $300,000 from Brockovich and Masry during a videotaped law office sting.

“It’s almost like a cottage industry out there,” said Masry, who has filed a countersuit accusing Cohen of slander. “This happens to celebrities all the time. I’ve never been in a situation like this.”

Cohen said her claims are legitimate.

“He’s just trying to cloud the issue,” Cohen responded. “He’s trying to intimidate and bully me.”

In her lawsuit, Cohen contends that Masry and others touched, hugged or kissed her inappropriately on many occasions during her eight months at Masry’s firm, Masry & Vititoe.

In addition, the suit contends that Playboy magazines were displayed in common work areas, that the firm’s employees regularly used vulgar sexual language and that Masry’s hiring of a Playboy model as an assistant contributed to an uncomfortable working environment.

She said she has been unable to find employment since being fired.

Masry said that he had never been alone with Cohen, and denied that the office was unprofessional.

“I don’t know that we used that kind of salty language around here,” he said. “Between [Brockovich and I] we holler and have arguments, but we don’t do it in general public. My office isn’t a hotbed of Playboy models.”

Although Masry’s assistant has modeled for the magazine, he said he wasn’t aware of it until six months after he hired her.

“That doesn’t disqualify her from working for me,” he said. “What’s wrong with that?” Cohen was fired from the job at the end of last year.

A Tarzana native who graduated from Duke University at 17, Cohen began working as a file clerk at the firm while in her final year at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and began working as a lawyer following her graduation.

The firm “had just won a large case and was very prominent,” she said in an interview. “I assumed them to be upstanding.”

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Cohen said in the suit that the harassment began almost immediately after she began, and that Masry would rub her legs, attempt to kiss her and demand to see her alone. Cohen would not discuss specific incidents, but her suit alleges that on Dec. 26, 1999, Masry called her at home and asked her to come to the office.

She refused to go unless it was work-related, according to the lawsuit. Masry responded that he just wanted to see her and threatened to fire her unless she came in, the suit said.

When she refused, he called her an hour later and told her she was fired, the suit alleges.

Masry said he fired Cohen because, although she was clearly intelligent, she “lacked common sense.”

“She didn’t want to listen to anybody,” he said. “She thought she knew more than everybody else.”

He also said that after passing the bar, Cohen delayed getting her “moral qualifications” certification, a technicality required to be considered a member of the bar association, while still drawing a lawyer’s salary of more than $120,000 a year.

“That’s just a story created after the fact,” argued Dan Stormer, Cohen’s lawyer. “He’s making all sorts of allegations against her that are completely untrue.”

Cohen said she spoke to Masry about her concerns while still working there. She said she decided to file the lawsuit only after she was unable to find another job and couldn’t reach a settlement with Masry.

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Times Community News reporter Tony Lystra contributed to this report.