Theodore Wells Jr. of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has long been a towering figure among trial lawyers. After his report on the bullying scandal that rocked the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, he’s on his way to becoming a household name for sports fans as well.
Since it was released on Feb. 14, it’s been hard to open the sports pages or turn on the TV or radio without encountering news of Wells’ disturbing, highly lauded 144-page chronicle, invariably dubbed “the Ted Wells report.” As a cautionary tale of a workplace culture run amok, it’s also caught the attention of employers outside the sports world: Slate’s Emily Bazelon, who has reported extensively on bullying, called the report “required reading in management courses and for anyone who wonders how ugly, demeaning and corrosive treatment can lie beneath a façade of ‘all in good fun’ workplace ‘teasing.’”
