A Whatcom County court ordered Western Washington University to pay an additional $656,000 in legal fees in a whistleblower retaliation case filed by a former employee.

Antonia Allen, a former director of the Office of Internal Auditor at Western, was awarded $2.99 million by a jury in May. Allen was fired from Western in November 2019 after investigating and reporting to federal and state authorities that staff and faculty in the university’s Woodring College of Education had granted false academic credentials to students.

Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Evan Jones ordered Western to pay Allen $656,240 in legal fees on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Allen’s lawyer Jack Sheridan had originally argued that she should be awarded $797,922 in fees — which included a “multiplier,” sometimes included to encourage attorneys to accept difficult cases.

Sheridan told the court on Aug. 23 that this case fit the requirements for a multiplier because these whistleblower cases are tricky to win, and people are afraid to take them on.

“It was so high risk; she never referred to herself as a whistleblower,” Sheridan told the court. “And also they had a charismatic president who was fearless in his refusal to understand what was being done,” referring to WWU President Sabah Randhawa’s lengthy testimony this spring denying that Allen was fired in retaliation for reporting potential fraud.

Western did not object to the legal bill, but did object to the multiplier, arguing that this was not a...

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