After reading that Metra "investigator" and attorney James Sotos had appeared on a radio show, on May 2nd I emailed Metra with the following message: "RE James G. Sotos. I suggest that you fire Mr. Sotos now and retain a law firm that will investigate first, then report to the Board, then handle any court matters, not try his case on the radio before any investigation has been completed."
Today Metra replied, "Thank you for your recent email. Your comments are appreciated, however given the ongoing nature of this inquiry it would be inappropriate to provide any additional comments regarding Mr. Sotos's engagement with Metra at this time."
My immediate thought was to wonder what role, if any, Mr. Sotos' radio show appearance might have contributed to Phil Pagano's suicide.
Years ago in Denver I knew a man who had worked for a major national, independent, out-placement and HR firm. He was assigned to corporate clients which were about to can their chief executives, and his job was to hold the guy's hand and keep him from jumping out a window (or stepping in front of a train).
In other words, those corporate clients anticipated the stress that such a firing would cause and got ahead of the curve to help their top gun who was about to get the ax. This consultant worked with the fired executive to deal with the emotional issues and re-employment issues.
How did Metra handle its approach to its problems with Pagano? To what extent did it authorize Sotos to appear on a radio program and talk about his work? Or did it? Sotos has got to be a smart enough lawyer to know where the line of confidentiality was, so how is it that he was on that radio program before completing his investigation for Metra?
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