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Comment by Millennium | Hacker News Reader

No modern legal department would ever let a business make a statement that direct about an employee termination, and certainly not in the active voice. They wouldn't dare; the risk of a lawsuit is much too high. "Adria Richards is no longer working at SendGrid" might be credible, but "SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards" is not.

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There is almost certainly not a legal department at a startup of 60 people. I agree it's a very dumb thing to do legally, but I've seen lots of small companies make lots of legal mistakes, and could easily picture a founder freaking out that he's sheding users left and right and making a rash move.

considering they were paying her for PR as a "developer evangelist" I think they should be able to make a fair case for her dismissal.

As a startup lawyer (and a social media lawyer at that) I couldn't agree more. Even big companies make some unbelievably stupid mistakes when rushed to "do something."

Why?

If they fired her, it's an accurate statement.

What would she sue for?

The most likely angle of attack would be privacy law: public disclosure of private facts.

I don't know if this would stand up in court, but it doesn't have to stand up in court if the lawyers can drag it out long enough. In this particular case, that tips in her favor, because the odds of this case escalating to celebrity status are high. That scenario is every corporate lawyer's nightmare, because with celebrity status comes reliable financial support.

If she really was fired, if I were company counsel, I'd be more concerned about the employment law issues vs. the public statement. They did keep the post brief and factual, and I don't see anything actionable about it.

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