Houston lawyer Carnegie Harvard Mims III has sued Geico and one ofits in-house lawyers, claiming in an April 27 petition thathe suffered racial discrimination, harassment and retaliationwhile working for seven years as a staff attorney for the carinsurance giant.

Mims alleges defendants Geico and Neil Levin, the managingattorney of the Houston staff counsel office, engaged indiscriminatory actions against him in violation of the TexasCommission on Human Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil RightsAct of 1964.

Seeks more than $1M in damages

Among other allegations, Mims says the defendants failed toprovide him with a personal secretary like other attorneys had,required him to clock in and out via email but did not require thesame of other attorneys on staff, and also failed to give him meritincreases, or even a merit review for four of the seven years heworked at the office.

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Mims alleges he was fired in August 2016 in “retaliation for hisopposition to discrimination in the workplace and his complaints toHR about the same.”

Levin did not return a telephone message left at Levin &Clinebell in Houston, where he practices as staffcounsel for Geico. The company also did not respondto messages seeking comment on the allegations.

Only African-American employee for last 5 years

In his petition, filed in state district court in HarrisCounty, Mims claims he started working for Levin and Geico inJune 2009. During his tenure, Mims alleges, he handled more than713 cases, including 50 jury trials — 48 as first-chair — and most“yielded zero/take nothing verdicts” and the majority werefavorable for Geico. He alleges that he was the onlyAfrican-American employee for the last five years he worked in theoffice.

Mims says he was not provided a personal secretary when hewas hired, and despite a promise that the next secretary hiredwould work for him, Levin reneged on the promise and assigned thenext secretary to an attorney hired two years after Mims.

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Mims alleges that Levin required him in 2014 to start clockingin and out each day, and the practice did not stop until after Mimscomplained to the Geico human resources department.

Mims also alleges that when the office moved to a new locationin 2016, his office furniture was given to another attorney and hewas assigned to a small temporary office, presumably while waitingfor new furniture. “The furniture never arrived, and Mr. Mims wasnever moved from the temporary office,” the petition alleges.

Hostile work environment

“All of defendants' above actions created a hostile workenvironment and had a negative effect on the physical andpsychological well-being of Mr. Mims and his productivity while hewas employed by defendant Geico,” Mims alleges.

Mims additionally alleges that after he accepted a job as anattorney at Hadi Law Firm in Houston, Levin and Geicoretaliated against him by filing motions to disqualify him fromlitigation his new firm was handling against Geico or itspolicyholders. Mims alleges that was an attempt to get him firedfrom his current job.

Husein Hadi, founder of Hadi Law Firm whorepresents Mims in Mims v. Government EmployeesInsurance, did not immediately return a telephone messageseeking a comment.

Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys covers the businessof law in Texas. Contact her at [email protected]. On Twitter: @BrendaSJeffreys

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