(Photo: Svetlana Lukienko/Shutterstock.com)

The estate of a former Beck Redden lawyer has filed a breach of employment suit against the Houston trial firm, alleging it has failed to pay the lawyer's share of a $2.9 million contingency fee on a suit he brought to the firm.

The estate of Neil O'Kane Bowman, who died last summer, alleged in a petition filed on Friday in state district court in Harris County that the trial lawyer was "directly responsible" for a $10 million settlement in the underlying suit.

"Rather than fulfilling its agreement to pay a 15% bonus on the [suit] (totaling approximately  $435,000) or compensating Bowman for his diligent work at Beck Redden LLP, defendant instead unexpectedly terminated Bowman's employment and refused to fairly compensate him in accordance with its written and oral agreements," the estate alleged in the petition.

Beck Redden said in a statement that the suit is "unfounded in every way."

The allegations in the suit focus on the terms of the employment agreement Bowman signed with Beck Redden when he joined the firm in 2016.

The petition says Bowman signed an employment agreement with Beck Redden that was effective on Sept. 26, 2016. The estate alleged the firm orally represented to Bowman that he would receive a 15% bonus of the contingency fee if a lawsuit against Marathon Oil EF that Bowman would bring to the firm was successfully resolved.

"This bonus was defendant's standard policy and was directly represented to Bowman as a term of his employment," the petition alleged.

The estate alleged that representation was false, because the firm terminated his employment on Nov. 6, 2017, effective at the end of 2017, and subsequently refused to pay the bonus for his work on the suit, despite the firm receiving more than $2.9 million in fees.

Bowman devoted about 2,500 hours to the suit, the petition alleged, and he "personally convinced" his clients to stay with Beck Redden, even after they expressed dissatisfaction with the firm.

The estate alleged Bowman and Beck Redden entered into a settlement agreement on July 3, 2019, but the firm has since then failed to pay up.

But in the statement, Beck Redden wrote that the allegation that the firm made an oral promise to Bowman is contradicted by his written employment agreement, which spelled out his salary and "did not give him a percentage interest in any case or fee."

The firm alleged it paid Bowman "every penny of the salary he agreed to in writing," and it offered him severance on his departure. The firm did not make an oral side deal, the firm wrote in the statement.

The firm also disputed Bowman's claim that he had settled his fee claim with the firm in July 2019, because he passed away before the alleged agreement was reached.

Dale Jefferson, a partner in Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom in Houston who represents Beck Redden, said Bowman died at least two days before the "so-called acceptance of the offer."

Bowman's estate brings breach of employment contract, fraudulent inducement, quantum meruit, promissory estoppel and breach of settlement agreement causes of action against the firm, and seeks between $200,000 and $1 million in damages.

Plaintiff's attorney, Kimberley Spurlock of Spurlock & Associates in Humbie, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.