Patriarca v. Center for Living & Working, Inc.
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
438 Mass. 132 (2002)
In her wrongful-termination suit against the Center (defendant), Patriarca (plaintiff) had ex parte contact with four former Center employees, including two therapists, a manager-supervisor, and a business manager who witnessed the relevant events; the Center sought a protective order barring further such contact, arguing the ethics rule against ex parte communication with a represented party's employees applied, and the trial court granted a broad order barring contact absent the Center's counsel or court permission, which Patriarca appealed.
Whether an attorney for an adverse party may have ex parte contact with an employee of a represented organization without permission from the organization's counsel, where the employee was not involved in managing the litigation, lacked decision-making authority over it, and was not alleged to have committed the wrongful acts at issue.