Two Atlanta-based PR houses accustomed to generating publicity for others - and not themselves - will face a new kind of media spotlight beginning today.
This time, Manning, Selvage & Lee (MS&L) and Jackson Spalding Ledlie (JSL) will face the press when they take their two-year-old, unresolved lawsuit into the public domain - the Superior Court of Fulton County in Georgia.
The crux of the case hinges on claims by 30-year-old Manning, Selvage & Lee that principals at Jackson Spalding Ledlie - who are former MS&L employees - stole company secrets and clients when they left MS&L and began their own PR agency in Atlanta in July 1995.
But attorneys for JSL executives Joseph Ledlie, Glen Jackson and Bo Spalding are contending the trio didn't break the law. Lawyers have filed a countersuit against MS&L alleging, among other claims, slander and libel.
JSL has 44 clients and had fees of $1.5 million in 1996, according to Spalding. MS&L, which wouldn't release client and billings figures, earned $9.3 million in billings in 1995, according to the 1997 ADWEEK Agency Directory.
MS&L will request in court that the defendants' earlier actions be deemed inappropriate by a jury.
In turn, JSL is slated to seek $10 million in combined punitive and compensatory damages - not including additional compensation, vacation pay and expense reimbursement.
MS&L Chairman and Chief Executive Kirk Stewart declined to discuss the case last week and issued PR NEWS a statement: "We believe the defendants in the case must be held accountable for their actions. While there is much more to be said, this case should and will be tried in the courtroom, not in the media."
The case - which legally can be settled at any time before and during the trial - is expected to take two weeks and go before a six-person civil jury.
MS&L originally sought a temporary restraining order against the start-up firm in federal court but the case was dismissed. MS&L lawyers later filed the case in state court and in August 1995, the countersuit was levied.
The lawsuit has been followed closely by Atlanta area newspapers, which have published several stories, including a March 11 article in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution. PR practitioners nationwide are likely to be curious about the suit's resolution since more and more PR veterans are leaving the folds of large PR houses and embarking on entrepreneurial endeavors - some taking longtime clients with them.
As of press time last week, the two companies had yet to settle the case which is set to begin today with jury selection before Fulton Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner, who likely will continue to press the two firms to reach an agreement.
"We have not reached a settlement," JSL attorney Richard Robbins told PR NEWS last week. "We plan on arguing seven different causes of action, including false imprisonment (security guards hired by MS&L are blamed for bullying the departing employees)...This is clearly a factual case and there will be no pre-trial motions."
It's the false imprisonment allegation - mixed in with details set out in hundreds of pages of court documents - that provides a window into why this nasty, soap-opera-like battle erupted in the first place.
The lawsuit, according to sources and court documents obtained by PR NEWS, was the result of what happened on July 14, 1995, when Ledlie, Jackson and Spalding resigned from MS&L to start their own company.
But the two sides differ on what transpired that last day at MS&L and about what rights the departing employees - and their former employer - had. Among MS&L's allegations are claims that the former employees, who are described as "defecting" in the suit, breached their fiduciary duties when they began setting up the new business while they were still working for MS&L. Other claims are that:
- the entrepreneurs hurt MS&L's business opportunities;
- JSL entered into contracts for new business that it didn't have the right to establish; and
- the new partners disclosed confidential information about MS&L.
Still, attorneys for JSL are equally steadfast about their case. "The security guards searched the offices and personal spaces of counterclaim plantiffs and their fellow employees, searched their personal belongings, and ultimately searched several of their automobiles," according to the court documents.
The suit claims the guards' actions were "grossly intrusive and violative" and also states the guards falsely imprisoned the former employees and confiscated their personal belongings.
In other claims, JSL execs are alleging that:
- they were slandered and libeled to numerous clients and prospective employees;
- their business was injured; and
- they have endured emotional distress and mental anguish. (Richard Robbins, 404/853-8137; Kirk Stewart, 212/213-0909)