In a tabloid-worthy legal verdict delivered on January 27, 2017 (here), hot-yoga guru Bikram Choudhury has been found guilty by a Los Angeles jury of sexually harassing his own company lawyer and then firing her after she attempted to investigate sexual assault and rape claims against him. The jury awarded Ms. Jafa-Bodden $924,500 in compensatory damages and $6.4 million in punitive damages. That means the jury found that Choudhury not only violated the law in a technical sense, but he did so in a way that was malicious and oppressive.

There are more than a couple of lessons here for employers of charismatic, revenue-generating “problem children”:

• Revenue-generating employees are not sacred and are not immune from the law. They do not get special dispensation or a free pass to sexually harass. They should be investigated and, if appropriate, disciplined after the first time they sexually harass someone. Not the sixth.
• All employees should receive some type of sexual harassment prevention training. More than once in their careers.
• Terminating an employee for a “legitimate business reason” after she attempts to enforce employment laws in the company is a risky endeavor that is not recommended without the advice of employment counsel.
• Egocentric power-addiction is not a protected disability that needs to be accommodated. Yet.