Disabled Wells Fargo worker says he was fired after needing to work from home

A Wells Fargo supervisor will have to answer a lawyer’s questions about allegations that the bank terminated her client because of disability and age discrimination, a federal judge ruled.

The San Francisco-based financial giant, with a major presence in Charlotte, wanted to disqualify Christopher Billesdon’s lawyer, L. Michelle Gessner, because she previously represented the supervisor in a different matter involving Wells Fargo. The request was denied by a North Carolina federal judge on Tuesday, Law360 reported.

Billesdon’s case against Wells Fargo began in March 2023 when he sued his former employer in the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina. The complaint said Wells Fargo violated the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

Billesdon, 52, claims John Templeton fired him because he wanted to work from home when the bank started to have employees return to the office after the COVID pandemic. Billesdon suffers from a paralyzed colon and bladder that dramatically affected the working conditions he needed, he argued.

In allowing Gessner to question Templeton, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan C. Rodriguez said the bank failed to show that the lawyer’s “former representation is substantially related to the current controversy.”

A request to stay home

The suit claims Billesdon was fired after wanting to work from home because of medical needs for his paralyzed colon and bladder and the associated side effects of taking medicine. But Wells Fargo told Billesdon that he was being terminated because of “cost-cutting,” the suit claims. He was notified about it on Feb. 24, 2022.

His disability began in 1990 after being involved in an accident that fractured his spine, according to the suit.

He was employed by Wells Fargo for about 25 years in various positions at offices in the Los Angeles area and Charlotte. The suit claims that his teams generated tens of millions of dollars in sales for the bank.

Billesdon moved to Charlotte from Los Angeles in August 2020 during the pandemic and kept his position as the Head of West Coast Asset Backed Finance Sales within Wells Fargo Securities’ Corporate & Investment Bank’s Markets Division.

He and all workers were working from home at that time. In 2021, as talk of returning to the office increased, Billesdon asked for accommodations in August 2021. That was denied in December 2021 and he was terminated in February 2022, weeks before a mandatory return-to-office for all employees, the suit claims.

The suit claims that the Charlotte office did not have the right working conditions for Billesdon because of bathroom locations on the opposite side of the building where his groups were situated.

He made a written request with the help of an ADA advocate in August 2021. After Wells Fargo acknowledged the request several months later, Billesdon claims, managing directors had a very different attitude toward him.

“For example, they began to avoid, and cease contact with Mr. Billesdon, such that he had to attempt on numerous occasions to coax them into responding to him,” the suit says.

He claims that Wells Fargo terminated him so other employees could not use him as a reason to work from home too.

Fisher Phillips law firm is representing Wells Fargo. The bank believes the claims in the lawsuit are without merit, a spokesperson said on behalf of the bank.

“Wells Fargo provides equal employment opportunities to all employees, regardless of disability, age or any other status protected by applicable law,” the bank said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “We value and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our business and at all levels.”

A jury trial is being demanded for the case.

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