After suing Marc Jacobs president Robert Duffy for "sexual discrimination and retaliation" in March, dismissed CFO and COO Patrice Lataillade now says that he and his legal team are unsatisfied with the response from company executives, and have issued a statement insisting that Duffy respond to the accusations personally.
In March, Lataillade had filed a lawsuit against Duffy (pictured here wtih designer Marc Jacobs) claiming sexual misconduct, saying that the company president's behavior in the workplace created a "hostile work environment." In response, LVMH lawyers (LVMH being the parent company to the Marc Jacobs brand) last week filed a counter-claim accusing Lataillade of financial misconduct. An LVMH spokesperson told WWD:
“The filing focuses on a purely technical matter and is simply an attempt to deflect attention from the facts concerning the serious financial manipulations of Patrice Lataillade, which were the sole reason he was terminated by Marc Jacobs.”
Lataillade's camp, on the other hand, insists that LVMH's latest salvo is all just an effort to distract attention from the whistle-blower. As one laywer told WWD: "They are contending financial issues that go as far back as 2008 ... It is surprising that they are denying matters as to the hostile environment when there are pictures, videos and other evidence known at the higher levels of the company.”
