Fired General Counsel ‘Escorted’ From Building Sees Suit Trimmed

The former general counsel of Ascensus Group LLC’s college retirement savings division can move forward with defamation claims in a lawsuit challenging her 2019 termination, but her breach-of-contract and bad-faith claims aren’t viable, a federal judge in Boston ruled.

Sandra Madden, who served as senior vice president and general counsel from 2012 to 2019, failed to produce the employment agreement or the relevant contractual language that Ascensus allegedly breached when it terminated her, Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held Jan. 22. Her claim that Ascensus violated the implied covenant ...