A former employee at the plaintiffs firm Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano has sued the firm and three of its lawyers, alleging they engaged in or tolerated sexual misconduct from union officials and other client referral sources and then fired her for speaking out.

Evelyn Quiles, who said she was hired as an outreach coordinator in 2013, claims she was "sexually exploited, harassed, assaulted, degraded, and humiliated" for years at numerous lunches and networking events that she was forced to attend. Her lawsuit didn't name most of the alleged wrongdoers, but she asserts that attorney Jordan Ziegler touched her inappropriately and made lewd sexual comments, comparing her at one time to a prostitute.

"When Quiles told Ziegler that she would not sleep with clients, nor anyone else, to get cases, Ziegler responded, '[o]ther firms are sending hookers,' clearly intimating to Quiles that she had a job to do, and that job was to lie on her back," the suit said.

She also named managing partner Edgar Romero and Victor Pasternak, identified on the firm's website as managing partner emeritus, as defendants. Quiles said Pasternak defended Romero and Ziegler as his "golden boys" when she complained about their alleged harassment. She claims she was told that misconduct was "part of the job."

James Scalise, a Scarsdale, New York-based lawyer representing the firm, Pasternak, Romero and Ziegler, said the defendants "dispute Ms. Quiles' allegations and look forward to vindication once all of the facts have been presented in the case."

"The firm's employees, as well as the firm's clients, have always been treated with dignity and respect," Scalise said. "The firm has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to any unlawful discrimination and harassment of employees and others in the workplace."

Quiles' lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges she was fired in September 2019 after she hired a lawyer and sent the firm a letter with her complaints. The suit said she had previously been given a low bonus and denied a salary increase for refusing to go to a conference where she said she had been sexually harassed and assaulted.

The defendants "encouraged the harassment and essentially guaranteed its reoccurrence" by making Quiles conduct business meetings at bars and hotels in the evening instead of allowing her to conduct meetings during normal business hours, her complaint says.

She said she was even forced to keep seeing a business contact who had drunkenly raised his fist to her face and said "all women are useless and deserve a beat-down." She said she told the firm about it, but was made to understand that if she refused, she'd be fired.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and includes claims for hostile work environment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, failure to accommodate her, retaliation and failure to pay overtime, among other alleged offenses, in violation of city and state laws.

Pasternack Tilker lists 34 lawyers on its website and 12 office locations in and around New York City. It lists its practices as workers' compensation, Social Security disability, pension disputes, construction and workplace accidents and personal injury, among others.

Marc Garbar, a lawyer at Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney At Law who represents the plaintiff, declined to comment.