Vered Yakovee, former associate general counsel of the Miami Heat.

The Miami Heat has launched an aggressive defense against the NBA team's former associate general counsel, who alleges she was fired for requesting maternity leave after adopting a newborn baby. 

In a motion to compel arbitration filed March 6 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the Heat describes ex-counsel Vered Yakovee as having been a "disruptive, toxic, and sub-standard employee who single-handedly consumed more attention from human resources and senior management than any other individual employee." 

The Heat also accused Yakovee of filing a "frivolous and factually deficient lawsuit" as part of an attempt to circumvent an arbitration agreement, tarnish the organization's reputation and "obtain a premature trial through press and public speculation."

The team asserts that the decision to fire Yakovee in December was based solely on her "deficient attitude, disruptive behavior" and poor job performance,

Yakovee's attorney, Erika Rotbart of Deutsch Rotbart & Associates in Boca Raton, Florida, responded to the Heat's arguments Monday. 

"The Heat's allegations are not only inaccurate but yet another attempt to cast Ms. Yakovee in a poor light and are further evidence of the Heat's bad acts and continued attempts to bully my client," she wrote in an email. "We strongly believe and will show that their intentions were nothing less than discriminatory." 

She added, "The media independently picked up this case and followed it from the moment it was filed—we have not sought out the press." 

The Heat's attorney, Paul Ranis of Greenberg Traurig in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

At this point, the case centers on the enforceability of the Heat's arbitration agreement with Yakovee. She argues that the agreement is flawed because it contains a clause that violates the Family and Medical Leave Act by precluding an arbitrator from awarding legal costs to a prevailing plaintiff. 

The Heat contends that Yakovee, in a "flagrant attempt to avoid her contractual obligations," misstates both the language of the arbitration agreement and applicable case law. 

Rotbart said she and Yakovee "are confident the court will have to look at the issue of arbitration based on the legal arguments and make an appropriate determination of whether the arbitration agreement is enforceable. 

"Ms. Yakovee is not an employment lawyer, and although she understands what she signed, that does not make a one-sided document enforceable," she added. "Professional women, adoptive parents, and the residents of the city of Miami should be appalled at the Heat's behavior." 

Yakovee is a veteran sports law attorney who previously served as associate team counsel for the Boston Celtics, taught sports law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and was editor-in-chief for the American Bar Association's entertainment and sports lawyer publication. 

Her complaint names the Miami Heat organization as the sole defendant. But the team's general counsel and Yakovee's former boss, Raquel Libman, figures prominently in the allegations laid out in the complaint. 

For instance, the complaint alleges that "Libman berated Ms. Yakovee and complained about her FMLA leave not only privately, but also publicly in group meetings and on group email correspondence." 

And when Yakovee announced that she had adopted a baby, Libman reacted by saying, "Now I definitely won't get to take a vacation," according to the complaint. 

Attempts to speak with Libman have been unsuccessful. But the Heat's recent motion to compel arbitration asserts that Yakovee mischaracterized her interactions with Libman and others at the organization. 

According to the Heat, Libman supported the retroactive application of the organization's new parental leave policy, which allowed Yakovee to receive pay while on maternity leave under the FMLA.

The team also noted that Yakovee sent Libman an email in which she thanked her former boss "for your good wishes this morning when I shared my adoption news."

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Fired Miami Heat Lawyer Accuses Team, General Counsel of Retaliation Over Her Maternity Leave