Lawsuit implicates school board member





Lawrence

Lawrence

A sex discrimination lawsuit filed last month against toy manufacturing giant Mattel, Inc. has called into question the behavior of Las Virgenes school board member Dallas Lawrence, who served as a vice president of corporate affairs for the El Segundo-based toy maker in 2013 and 2014.

Lawrence, a 40-year-old Calabasas resident, was elected to the Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Education in 2013. He allegedly created a hostile work environment for women at Mattel after making numerous derogatory remarks about females and showing a preference for hiring males, said the complaint that was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Dec. 18 by Bononi Law Group on behalf of Julie Andres, a former senior director in the corporate communications division of Mattel.

During Lawrence’s 15-month employment at the firm, several women lodged formal complaints about his alleged inappropriate behavior. In the wake of the scandal, one female employee quit the company and two were fired, including Andres.

In all, eight charges were filed against the toy maker, including sex discrimination, workplace retaliation and a violation of the federal unfair competition law.

Lawrence was not named as a defendant in the suit, but clearly was implicated.

According to the complaint, Lawrence’s inappropriate behavior caused Andres to be terminated from her job despite a decade of stellar annual job reviews, performance awards, industry recognition, hefty financial bonuses and frequent promotions.

Initially, Andres was told by Mattel chief financial officer Kevin Farr that she was terminated because she didn’t have the “talent or the skill set to be part of the Mattel communication team.” But Mattel officials changed their minds and later told Andres she was fired as part of a companywide work force reduction.

Andres, 48, said in the suit that Lawrence displayed inappropriate behavior towards her from the time they first met in June 2013 when she was asked to work on an internal communication strategy. At the meeting, Lawrence reportedly warned her to “not f_ _ _ this up.”

“In the more than 10 years that she had worked at Mattel no manager had made a vulgar and profanity-laced threat in conjunction with a work assignment,” the lawsuit states.

By all accounts, Andres had been a valued employee. She had been promoted to a senior management position just nine months after she started work at Mattel in 2002, and had won numerous awards, bonuses and recognition during her tenure at the firm. Even after Mattel recalled 19 million defective toys in 2007, Andres was presented with a special achievement award for her round-the-clock commitment to her job, and was one of four finalists for the company’s Spokesperson of the Year award.

Graciella Meibar, vice president of Diversity and Global Sales Training at Mattel, witnessed an incident between Andres and Lawrence. While he was discussing Mattel’s travel policies, Meibar claims he said he had “joined the corporate world for the boondoggles,” and asked Andres, “Where are my hookers and cocaine?”

Complaints about Lawrence’s treatment of women didn’t only come from Andres and Meibar.

Debbie Dicochea, a 20-year employee and manager of Mattel’s Children’s Foundation, said she lodged several complaints about Lawrence’s behavior, including a time when he made “inappropriate sexually suggestive comments while rubbing his thumbs over a Barbie doll’s breasts.”

Deidre Lind, Mattel’s former director of philanthropy, also reported to Lawrence. In the lawsuit, Lind said Lawrence treated female managers “like secretaries, barking orders at them, and refusing to answer their emails.”

Lind resigned from Mattel after her numerous complaints about Lawrence to the human resources division went unheeded. Lind had worked for the company for more than a decade.

Mary Craig, a 29-year employee of Mattel and Lawrence’s executive assistant, also had problems with her new boss. Craig says in the suit that Lawrence asked her to falsify his expense reports. She refused and was fired in March 2014.

‘Negative perceptions’

According to an email distributed by an employee in Mattel’s human resources division, “It is without question that there is a set of behaviors and communication style that is contributing to an environment where the team questions the intentions, draws conclusions, and has formed negative perceptions about Mr. Lawrence, the way he operates, and the broader team environment.”

But Mattel HR determined there was no evidence to support Andres’ allegations against Lawrence.

Mattel spokesperson Alex Clark said he could not comment on the case.

Ally Mann worked with Lawrence at Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm, from 2011 to 2013 in Washington, D.C. before he was transferred to the Los Angeles office. As chief global digital strategist for the company, Lawrence was Mann’s supervisor.

“I loved working for him,” Mann said of Lawrence. “He was such a strong leader, especially as I was just coming out of college. He has an extremely strong work ethic and helped shape my work ethic. I still consider him a mentor.”

Mann said she never witnessed Lawrence treating women disrespectfully at work and never heard him speak to female employees in a derogatory manner. She said she was “completely shocked” to hear of the allegations against Lawrence from Mattel employees. Most of the people on the digital team at Burson-Marsteller were women, she said.

“An unfortunate reality in today’s litigious environment is that some individuals facing a loss of employment seize the opportunity to file lawsuits against their former employer in the hopes of securing a quick settlement,” Lawrence told The Acorn.

“While I am not named in this case personally, I can certainly sympathize with the frustrations of an out-of-work employee. That reality, however, doesn’t change the fact that this legal attack, as it relates to me, is wholly without merit. While it is painful for me and my family to be the ‘collateral damage’ in this legal drama, I remain confident that as the process works its way through the court system, the truth will come out,” he said.

Lawrence said that during his tenure with the company, he hired twice as many women as men.

Mattel had not filed a response to the complaint as of press time.

Not the first time

The Mattel lawsuit isn’t the first time Lawrence’s judgment has been questioned.

Last September, the Las Virgenes Educators Association, the school district union, accused Lawrence of using undue influence in campaigning for a candidate in the state superintendent race.

Lawrence backed Marshall Tuck’s candidacy for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and purportedly invited Tuck to the district to meet with teachers and students at the local schools while campaigning locally.

Craig Hochhaus, LVEA copresident, alleged that Lawrence arranged the meeting between Tuck and district leaders as a means to collect information about the school district that could be used in the challenger’s campaign.

Lawrence denied any wrongdoing and called the incident a misunderstanding.

Tom Torlakson defeated Tuck and won a second term as the state’s top education administration in November 2014.


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