A former attorney for the Miami Heat basketball team is suing the franchise for allegedly firing her for taking maternity leave, according to a report.
Vered Yakovee, who was let go by the team in December, filed the lawsuit in federal court, alleging team officials violated the US Family and Medical Leave Act, the Miami Herald reports.
Yakovee, who joined the team in 2015 as vice president and associate general counsel, claims her position began to diminish after she was approved to adopt a child. She then sought parental leave after being notified by an adoption agency about a newborn in July, according to the filing.
That prompted the team’s chief attorney, Raquel Libman, to make her “displeasure” known about Yakovee’s looming time off, the lawsuit claims.
“Now I definitely won’t get to take vacation,” Libman said, according to the suit.
Yakovee claims she was later greeted with “disdain and hostility” from Libman when she returned from maternity leave in October, including canceled meetings and complaints to other staffers about her.
The attorney griped about the alleged treatment to the team’s president of business operations, Eric Woolworth, who refused to appoint a neutral investigator to probe her harassment claims, according to the lawsuit.
Yankovee was ultimately fired after taking an approved sick day in December to take her baby to the doctor, the lawsuit claims. She also refused to sign a severance agreement.
A message seeking comment from the team’s director of media relations, Rob Wilson, was not immediately returned Friday.
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