Judge orders Bellingham law firm to pay $1.3 million in sexual harassment bench trial
The trial began with a photograph of seven smiling people.
The photograph was published as part of an advertisement on the back of a Bellingham phone book for Allen Law Firm, a local practice specializing in workers’ compensation and personal injuries. In the center of the photo stands Craig Allen, the firm’s owner and sole attorney. Six women — three on each side — fanned out around him.
The photograph was a facade, longtime employee Shawna Frolich told the court, as she and co-worker Kim Davey alleged and proved in Whatcom County Superior Court that their employment was characterized by ongoing sexual harassment from Allen.
The plaintiffs were represented by Bellingham attorneys Tom Mumford and Zach Mumford.
Following a weeklong bench trial, Judge Lee Grochmal ruled Thursday that Allen sexually harassed both Frolich and Davey. After considering the length of the harassment, its emotional effects and the flagrancy of the behavior, Grochmal awarded $800,000 in damages to Frolich and $500,000 to Davey.
“There’s no amount of money to replace what I lost,” Frolich said. “I lost a lot of myself by giving myself permission to put up with that.”
14 years of harassment
Frolich worked at Allen Law Firm for 14 years. At first, she said, she thought it was amazing. It paid well, and Allen would give his employees regular bonuses and gifts like designer handbags and spending money for vacations. But things changed when Frolich was given her own office at the firm.
What initially began as “friendly” shoulder rubs from her boss became massages of her chest, Frolich testified, with Allen reaching under her shirt and groping her.
Multiple former Allen Law Firm employees testified that their boss would come into the office and hand-deliver bonus checks. He would give each of them a hug and, often, a pat on the rear. Allen would hug with his arms straight out, according to testimony. His nephew’s wife, who worked as a receptionist at the firm, compared it to a forklift.
During these hugs, his hands would often brush against the sides of his employees’ breasts. The hugs weren’t given just when Allen gave out bonuses, either. He typically reached for hugs from his employees — all of whom were women — when he came into the office or left for the day.
Frolich said she started carrying lots of bags to have an excuse not to hug Allen. She even enlisted other employees to help block Allen from coming into her office or following her to the parking lot. She testified that on one occasion Allen went to her car and gave her a hug through the window while she was buckled in place, touching her chest as he did so.
“I just put my head down and told myself it was OK,” Frolich said.
The culture of Allen Law Firm
Witnesses called by both the plaintiffs and defendants all agreed on one thing: Allen Law Firm was not your typical office.
Employees thought of one another more like friends and family than mere co-workers, and tended to be fairly free with their speech. It was very casual, according to testimonies, and former employees who had worked at other firms found it surprising.
Allen and his wife often hosted parties outside of work. They held a Christmas party at their house during Frolich’s first year of employment at the firm. At the party, multiple employees ended up with the Allens in their hot tub. The next work day, Allen joked about Frolich drunkenly taking her top off in the hot tub. He then told her he was kidding and said, “Maybe next year.”
There was one near-daily tradition that was specifically brought up numerous times: happy hours. Allen Law Firm employees would gather in the office’s kitchenette most afternoons to drink and talk together. There was always alcohol available; when they ran low, someone was sent with a company credit card to purchase more.
Sometimes they chatted about clients, their children or other aspects of their personal lives. But often, employees testified, the conversations were dominated by Allen. He would also tell stories about seemingly innocuous things, like his travels or football “glory days.” But other times, he would tell his employees about his sex life. He once told Frolich about a sex dream he had about the two of them.
Multiple witnesses, including Frolich and Davey, recounted inappropriate stories and comments Allen made. They said he once brought in his father-in-law’s collection of old Playboy magazines and showed them to his staff, commenting on changes in women’s grooming standards over the years. He made the receptionist index the magazines for him so that he could sell them.
Frolich said she and her coworkers would laugh and go along with Allen’s jokes because that was “the culture of Allen Law Firm.” She said it was only later she realized that it was wrong.
The defense’s case
Allen’s wife, Karen, agreed that Allen Law Firm was “not your average office.”
She worked as a receptionist there sometimes, and came in more frequently after her husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. She said Craig Allen wanted everyone to feel like equals rather than a boss and his subordinates.
While she testified she never saw Craig Allen act inappropriately or sexually harass his employees, she would have talked to him about it if someone brought allegations to her attention. However, no one ever did.
She called the allegations in the lawsuit a “fabrication,” and said she believed Frolich and Davey had ulterior motives.
Frolich and Davey were fired from Allen Law Firm in the spring of 2022 and formed their own practice, K&S Injury Advocates. They had been planning to open their own firm for some time, and had been in talks with Craig Allen to buy out Allen Law Firm after Allen indicated he planned to retire.
Craig Allen sued the women and K&S for tortious interference, accusing them of trying to take clients from his firm. His defense attorney, Daniel Hagen, said this gave Frolich and Davey a “strong motive” to file the sexual harassment suit.
Craig Allen said he was “befuddled” by the sexual harassment allegations. He agreed that if the allegations were true — which he denied — they would constitute sexual harassment, and that the victims should be compensated.
However, he said that in this case, Frolich and Davey made up “nonsense” claims. He accused the women of “solicit(ing) dirt” from and paying off other former employees to testify on their behalf, including one who alleged Craig Allen would call his employees his “harem” and once sexually assaulted her in a van after a holiday party.
Craig Allen agreed that there was some inappropriate and sexual talk in the office, but said it was perpetrated by the women. He said he just felt flattered that the women trusted him with “girl talk.”
He testified that his employees “seemed happy.” Frolich and Davey, who were seated in the front row of the courtroom watching the proceedings, both shook their heads.
Impacts on plaintiffs
The effects of Craig Allen’s behavior extended far beyond the office. Both Frolich and Davey said they experienced difficulties in their marriages, with even hugs and kisses from their spouses sometimes being too much to bear.
Frolich’s husband said she used to tell him she didn’t want to be touched at home after being fondled at work. And while she told him about the harassment, he said he respected her wishes for him not to interfere.
By 2019, the Frolich’s were on the verge of divorce. It was only the pandemic and stay at home orders, which kept them together and Frolich away from Craig Allen, that brought them back together.
Davey also struggled in her marriage, and said to this day she still can’t be touched in certain ways. She recounted how Craig Allen would sometimes change his clothes in front of her or pull down his pants to show off his tan lines. Sometimes, when she returned from a vacation, he would pull aside Davey’s own clothes to see hers.
Davey said she felt particularly guilty because in her role as office manager, it should have been her job to stand up for the women she worked with. At the same time, she knew she and her co-workers all needed their jobs, and she didn’t want to rock the boat.
She said the harassment was “a dirty little secret (they) all kept.”
“I’d feel disgusted by him but also I’d feel disgusted by myself,” Davey said.
Despite the harassment, Frolich and Davey said they both cared for the Allens. Frolich compared the situation at the office to a dysfunctional family. Even though she hated the things Craig Allen did to her, she also cared about him.
Davey said seeing the Allens in the courtroom “breaks (her) heart and pisses (her) off at the same time.”
The judge’s decision
After many hours of testimony and arguments from both sides, Grochmal decided Thursday afternoon that Craig Allen did create a hostile work environment through his sexual harassment of Frolich and Davey.
She said it was “not surprising” that Craig Allen denied the allegations, and said she found the witnesses’ testimonies about his harassment to be credible. She said that despite the defense’s emphasis on the positive feelings the plaintiffs shared toward Craig Allen in things like cards and emails, it wasn’t inconsistent with their other testimony.
She said it was understandable that the women cared about keeping their jobs despite the harassment.
“No one should have to make that decision,” Grochmal said.
The judge acknowledged that the humiliation and distress seemed ongoing, but also noted that neither Frolich nor Davey sought therapy or counseling in the years after they left Allen Law Firm. The damages she awarded were lower than the requested $1.5 million for Frolich and $800,000 for Davey.
Frolich and Davey stood and embraced each other after Grochmal’s decision, surrounded by friends and family who came to support them in the courtroom.
“I feel heard and believed,” Frolich told The Herald after the judge’s ruling. “Hopefully it’ll give strength to other women to come forward. This is a very scary thing to do.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 11:23 AM.