Ross Cellino and Stephen Barnes — the law partners behind the personal injury firm known for its ‘Don’t wait, call 8’ jingle — rake in $10 million each a year while some of their 230 employees can’t afford health insurance, new court filings charge.
Cellino — the one with the healthier head of hair — filed affidavits from employees depicting his partner as a Scrooge in his ongoing lawsuit to dissolve their upstate Buffalo-based firm over disagreements about expansion.
Senior trial attorney Gregory V. Pajak says in a new Erie County Supreme Court filing that he met with colleagues to discuss asking Cellino and Barnes to provide a 401(k) match for employees.
Pajak says that Cellino is in favor of the proposal but “Steve [Barnes] has personally told me that he is not.”
“I am also aware that Ross wants to contribute to health insurance for the entire staff, pay bar [association] dues and attorney CLE (Continuing Legal Education) expenses,” Pajak writes in the filing.
“I am further aware that Ross [Cellino] had opposed providing such employer benefits,” Pajak continues. “Perhaps seeing the legal assistants crying when they learned of a premium increase that they could not afford or the fact that there are employees with no health insurance had an impact and caused him to change his mind. One would hope so,” Pajak says.
“I am also aware that Steve [Barnes] remains opposed to providing any of these benefits,” he says.
Pajak claims the company’s chief operating officer, Daryl Ciambella, told him that if “the firm provided health insurance it would go ‘bankrupt’ and would not be ‘profitable.’”
“When I learned that both Ross and Steve receive compensation in the range of $1 million a month, it became clear to me that Daryl was less than truthful when he said the firm would go bankrupt if it contributed to health insurance,” Pajak says.
“This type of conduct and management style resulted in a firm culture that was far from desirable,” Pajak says.
An office manager who also filed an affidavit on behalf of Cellino backed Pajak’s claims.
Maureen A. Napoli writes, “Ross stated a desire to have Cellino and Barnes contribute to employee 401(k) and health benefits. Steve refused to even discuss this.”
She adds, “by outbursts, yelling, bullying and in many cases firing employees, Steve created a toxic environment within Cellino and Barnes.”
One such outburst occurred on Dec. 4, 2015 when Cellino claims Barnes barged into his office and “berated” him about wanting to dissolve the firm.
“Why the f—k would you want to f—k this up when you are making $10 million a year,” Cellino recalls Barnes yelling.
Cellino says in a March 2016 email to his law partner that he feels “guilty making $8m per year.”
Barnes replies that he carried the firm for years after Cellino’s law license was suspended for professional misconduct in 2005.
“You ought to thank your lucky stars that you had and have me as a partner instead of some c—ks—er who might have taken a different view of things,” Barnes writes in the reply email.
The emails also reveal that Barnes proposed a deal where he would get their famous 1-800-888-8888 number in a split, an offer that Cellino rejected. They paid $1.7 million for the toll free number, according to court papers.
Attorneys for Barnes did not reply to email and phone messages seeking comment.