David Glasser, who was fired last Friday from his post as president and COO of The Weinstein Company, has hired a Los Angeles law firm and plans to file an $85 million-plus lawsuit against the company and its board.
Glasser has retained law firm Sauer & Wagner to file the suit against the company and its remaining board members — Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov and Tarak Ben Ammar — for wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of contract and defamation.
The lawsuit will seek damages in excess of $85 million.
“My client’s sudden termination was nothing more than a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the very people who were empowered to halt Harvey Weinstein’s abusive behavior — Chairman Bob Weinstein and the two other members of the TWC Board of Directors,” said Eve Wagner, a founding partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP, in a statement.
“Throughout his tenure at TWC, Mr. Glasser worked tirelessly to protect the employees of the company from Harvey Weinstein’s frequent outbursts. Numerous documents and emails clearly show that Mr. Glasser acted appropriately and responsibly whenever allegations of misconduct were brought to his attention,” she continued. “The Board has yet to provide a single fact or detail explaining its decision to terminate Mr. Glasser on February 16. The simple truth is that the Board had no grounds to justify his firing. Through this lawsuit, we intend to bring to light facts and evidence to demonstrate that the Board acted precipitously and with malice.”
Last Friday, The Weinstein Company board of directors fired Glasser in a surprise move.
In a statement, the board — diminished by the sex scandal tied to the Weinstein brothers — said: “The Board of The Weinstein Company has unanimously voted to terminate David Glasser for cause.”
An expected sale to new buyers, led by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle, stalled earlier this month after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the company over civil rights violations.
The lawsuit came on the heels of the board of directors rejecting a settlement offer by Schneiderman over a long list of sexual misconduct accusations against ousted CEO and co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
Contreras-Sweet and Burkle had been intending to name Glasser the CEO of the new company. But this too was thrown into question after Schneiderman made it known this week that he considered Glasser to be an unacceptable candidate for CEO. This was largely because of Glasser’s previously close relationship to Harvey Weinstein, and the implication that he permitted sexual misconduct to go unchecked.
A spokesperson for TWC has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.