Activision boss Bobby Kotick has lost a legal stoush with renowned lawyer Patricia Glaser over a 2007 sexual harassment case involving Kotick's private jet and one of its former flight attendants.
Kotick and Andrew Gordon, the head of the LA branch of Goldman Sachs investment bankers, run a company called Cove Management, which was created to essentially run a private jet the two men co-owned. One of their pilots was a man by the name of Phil Berg.
Anyway, it was alleged by Cynthia Madvig, a former flight attendant on the jet, that in 2006 Berg pressured her into being his "arm candy"; in other words, a public escort, someone to join him at dinner parties and the like. Madvig declined, at which Berg allegedly "set out to make life miserable" for her, including one instance where she says he made her clean the plane's toilet while he stood there "leering" at her.
Madvig told this to Gordon, who did nothing, and two months after reporting the incidents, Kotick fired her, saying "The guys are unhappy with the hostile environment."
What followed was an unusually lengthy legal battle, where Kotick and Gordon not only battled Madvig in the courts (who accused them of, among other things, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and failure to prevent sexual harassment), but one of their former law firms as well, following a dispute with Glaser's team over legal fees.
Indeed, Kotick & Gordon have ended up paying Glaser's firm more than they paid Madvig; Madvig settled out for court for $200,000 (plus $475,000 for legal fees), while a court last year ruled that Kotick & Gordon had significantly under-paid Glaser, and awarded her $938,458 (plus $479,898 in fees).
Kotick & Gordon appealed against that ruling, but last month it was determined that the original decision would be upheld.
Video game mogul Kotick loses fight with top Hollywood litigator [LA Times]