Oldham County Schools fired its general counsel. Now it's paying 5X more for attorney

Oldham County Schools' firing of its longtime attorney has led to increased costs for the district, which is now spending nearly five times as much per hour for counsel as it faces two separate lawsuits.

The two suits were both filed in August by women who worked in the district's top positions for several years before being fired at the recommendation of Superintendent Jason Radford, who began leading the district of about 12,000 students in July 2021. Both women allege they were wrongfully terminated, with one alleging she was fired for not lying to support claims made against the other.

The latest lawsuit was filed on behalf of Anne Coorssen, the district's former general counsel for 19 years, who was initially fired in September 2022. Coorssen's suit is not for wrongful termination but is related to what transpired after she was fired.

In her termination letter, Radford charged Coorssen with knowingly accepting a salary that was out of line with the district's salary schedule, a claim former Chief Financial Officer Stephanie Anderson refused to support. That refusal, according to a suit filed on Anderson's behalf, led to her also being fired.

Claims made in a lawsuit represent only one side of a case.

After three requests for comment regarding Anderson's lawsuit, a district spokeswoman said the district does not comment on pending litigation. Radford, however, answered questions about Coorssen's lawsuit in an emailed response to The Courier Journal on Wednesday.

Expensive legal representation

Coorssen worked at an hourly rate of about $68. Since Radford's initial attempt to fire her, the district has been paying an out-of-house attorney $325 an hour, according to documents obtained through an open records request.

A full year's worth of work - 2,080 hours - provided Coorssen with an annual salary of about $141,000. In contrast, Oldham has paid attorney Eric Farris $175,000 for work done from October 2022 through Aug. 8. Invoices provided to The Courier Journal did not include the number of hours worked by Farris, but assuming all of his earnings were for his hourly rate, that would mean he worked about 540 hours.

During most of that period, the district also was paying Coorssen. After she appealed her termination, a judge ruled there was no evidence to support the four separate claims made against her by Radford, including the salary dispute. The judge ordered the district to pay her through the end of her contract in July.

Anne Coorssen Employee Hearing by Krista Johnson on Scribd

A large portion of Farris' work, according to Radford, was due to open records requests submitted by Coorssen.

Since October 2022, the district has paid $54,000 to Farris, for "assisting the District to respond to open records requests; and most of that was billed for responding to the 24 open records requests filed by Anne Coorssen alone since February 10, 2023, including two unsuccessful appeals to the Attorney General," Radford wrote.

One of those appeals related to a request by Coorssen not being responded to within the time frame required by law. The Attorney General's Office ruled that the district did not intentionally subvert the law, because a technical issue caused the delay.

Coorssen's termination was a result of Radford's "loss of trust in her," he wrote, reiterating the claims he made that a judge ruled were unsupported.

"Ms. Coorssen chose to exercise her right to challenge her termination through a classified due process hearing," Radford wrote. "The decision-maker in that hearing was a long-retired judge, whose findings are disputed by the Superintendent."

The judge who presided over the hearing was Tom McDonald, who retired from the bench in 2004, according to an online biography.

"Judge McDonald had more than 25 years of judicial experience," prior to his retirement, the bio states. "He's since developed an active private mediation and arbitration practice, with over 2300 mediations completed, with a 94% success rate."

After McDonald reinstated Coorssen's employment with the district, Coorssen said, she was not allowed to return to her office and was stripped of all duties. Her contract was non-renewed by the district, following the board's decision to eliminate the general counsel position within its administrative office.

"They had to pay me out the rest of my contract but wouldn’t let me do any work," she told The Courier Journal. "They wouldn’t let me come to the office."

Coorssen's suit was filed Aug. 22 and she is suing Radford in small claims court, alleging he denied her access to personal digital files and emails on her district computer drive. She is seeking $1,200 in damages.

When asked to comment on Coorssen's allegation, Radford wrote in an email that, "While it is not the District’s habit to comment on pending litigation we are also providing a highlighted copy of the Board Policy and Procedure related to the subject of her complaint, which is self-explanatory."

District policy, according to the documents provided, indicate access to district technology is a privilege, not a right.

Anderson, who served as the district's chief financial officer from 2017 until May this year, filed her suit two weeks prior to Coorssen's. Anderson alleges the board and Radford violated Kentucky's Whistleblower Act, Kentucky common law, the Kentucky Civil Rights Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

"The process of refusing to aid and abet a fraud was harrowing and exhausting for" Anderson, the suit says. "She had worked with Superintendent Radford for some time, and she had never seen him act so angry at her."

Stephanie Anderson v. Oldham County Board of Education by Krista Johnson on Scribd

The suit seeks a trial by jury along with compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, and "an amount to be proven at trial for the humiliation, embarrassment, personal indignity, apprehension about past, current, and future well-being, physical and emotional distress and mental anguish."

That suit was initially filed in Oldham Circuit Court but has since been moved to the federal Western District of Kentucky, at the request of the school district.

That request was filed by Farris, the lawyer being paid $325 an hour, court documents show.

More: Oldham schools superintendent accused of firing top official in retaliation

Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Oldham County Schools fired its attorney. Now it pays more for counsel