Whistleblower Mom Loses Custody of Children for Over Ten Months Due to Law Firm’s Retaliation
"One of the most heartbreaking cases of injustice I’ve ever heard was recently brought to my attention. It’s a story of a mother who refused to sit idly by while corruption occurred at a prestigious NYC private school and about the ultimate price she paid for daring to come forward in an attempt to end the fraud and greed going on behind the scenes. It’s important to share this story in an effort to illustrate the unscrupulous depths to which those with power will stoop in order to avoid the tarnishing of their own reputations. In 2011, Seema Kalia reported the law firm Wachtell Lipton for the mismanagement of the tax exempt status of the Trinity School, a New York City private school that has been around for centuries. In response, Wachtell Lipton published a “slam piece” online about Ms. Kalia in an attempt to distract the public and the Trinity School community from shady tax documents. Imagine Kalia’s surprise and dismay when, during her divorce proceedings a year later, new opposing counsel is brought in on her case and informs her that she will not see her kids again if she refuses to recant her prior incriminating statements about the law firm. Approximately a week later, Kalia’s children were removed from her home on the basis of an undated custody order from a hearing she was never told of. It’s been nearly a year that Seema Kalia has been without her children."
