A former employee has filed a lawsuit against her previous employer, alleging a range of serious labor violations and unethical practices. Rachel Crockett filed the complaint in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, on August 13, 2024, against Lloyd & Mousilli, PLLC, Feras Mousilli, Megan Matthees (also known as Megan Weiss), and other unnamed defendants.
The complaint outlines multiple grievances against the defendants. Crockett claims she was misclassified as an independent contractor despite being treated as an employee. She alleges that this misclassification allowed the firm to avoid paying her due wages and benefits. "Defendants intentionally and willfully misclassified Plaintiff as an independent contractor in violation of California law to deny Plaintiff the benefits to which she was entitled under California law," reads one part of the complaint.
Crockett started working for Lloyd & Mousilli as an associate attorney on February 15, 2022. She claims that despite being hired for her California legal expertise, she was required to sign an Independent Contractor Agreement (ICA) that unlawfully stated Texas law would govern their relationship. This violates California Labor Code § 925, which mandates that employees primarily working in California cannot be forced to adjudicate disputes outside the state or be deprived of California's legal protections.
Crockett also alleges that she raised ethical concerns about how non-attorneys were performing tasks requiring legal supervision. Her attempts to withdraw from cases due to these ethical issues were met with hostility from Feras Mousilli and Megan Matthees. She states that after refusing to sign a new work statement that included unethical terms, her wages were withheld in retaliation.
The plaintiff is seeking various forms of relief from the court. These include compensatory damages for unpaid wages and emotional distress, statutory penalties for labor code violations, punitive damages for intentional misconduct by the defendants, and attorney’s fees incurred during litigation.
The case has been assigned Case No. CGC-24-617228. The attorneys representing Rachel Crockett are Derek L. Midkiff from Patent Beach PC.