Former Miami Heat lawyer sues team, claims she was fired for taking maternity leave

A former attorney for the Miami Heat is suing the team, claiming she was harassed and then fired for taking maternity leave.

Vered Yakovee is suing the Heat in federal court, saying the team violated the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act by firing her in December.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, asks for damages — and that Yakovee be returned to her position with Miami’s marquee sports franchise.

The team declined to comment Thursday. The federal lawsuit was first reported by Law360.

Yakovee began working with the pro basketball franchise in March 2015, as a vice president and associate general counsel, according to the lawsuit.

But according to her complaint, the relationship with the team began to falter when Yakovee was approved to become an adoptive parent. In July 2019, she said in the lawsuit, an adoption agency notified her about a newly born baby — and she requested to take parental leave.

The lawsuit claims that the Heat’s chief attorney, Raquel Libman, “made her displeasure” about the leave known to others, even complaining that “now I definitely won’t get to take vacation.”

When Yakovee returned from leave in October, Libman “treated [her] with disdain and hostility,” canceling meetings, bad-mouthing her to others and complaining about her work, the lawsuit says.

Yakovee complained to Eric Woolworth, the president of the Heat’s business operations, who later refused to appoint an independent “neutral investigator” to review the harassment claims, the suit says.

Finally, on Dec. 18, Yakovee took an approved sick day to take her ill baby to the doctor, the lawsuit says. The next day, Woolworth fired her. Yakovee refused to sign a severance agreement, according to the suit, filed by Boca Raton lawyer Erika Deutsch Rotbart.

The case is set before U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King.

This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 6:30 AM.