California’s Civil Rights Department violated state contracting law when it outsourced legal services for two high-profile discrimination lawsuits, according to a complaint filed Wednesday by the union representing state-employed attorneys.
The union—California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment—said the Civil Rights Department improperly contracted Olivier & Schreiber LLP and Outten & Golden LLP to work on employment discrimination cases against video game companies Activision Blizzard Inc. and Riot Games when the department should have relied on its own lawyers.
Activision makes the popular World of Warcraft game.
The State Personnel Board agreed with the department’s choice to approve those contracts and reaffirmed that decision after the union’s appeal. The board erred in its decision, the union said in its complaint filed at a state court in Sacramento.
“CASE and its members have been irreparably harmed by the Board Decision as it authorizes the outsourcing of legal work that could and should be performed by CASE members, who are rank-and-file civil service attorneys employed by the State of California,” according to the complaint.
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