Exclusive | Neiman Marcus accused of bungling – Business News
Neiman Marcus allegedly bungled a number of office complaints from senior execs together with a lawyer who claims she was hospitalized for scientific despair attributable to “unsustainable” work calls for — and was later fired after she was recognized with mind most cancers, The Post has discovered.
Seasoned lawyer Erin Borg claims Neiman Marcus overwhelmed her with work from the time of her hiring in 2022. The chain allegedly chinsed on help employees and tolerated her hostile co-workers — then appeared the opposite approach when she complained, in keeping with a current courtroom submitting obtained by The Post.
Following her bout of despair, Borg was recognized with glioblastoma and needed to go on go away — solely to be kicked to the curb when coming back from chemotherapy remedy final yr after Neiman Marcus’ mother or father company was acquired, in keeping with the submitting.
Erin Borg’s stint as an in-house lawyer for Neiman Marcus “broke” her, she instructed The Post. LinkedIn
“It simply broke me,” she instructed The Post.
Borg is amongst not less than 4 former in-house legal professionals who lodged formal complaints about a hostile work atmosphere, a former Neiman Marcus government who isn’t related to Borg instructed The Post. Two of the complaints resulted in settlements, this source mentioned.
Borg’s nightmare stint at Neiman Marcus included a colleague, Thomas Mattei, who Borg claims within the courtroom docs was overtly hostile in direction of her and joked about E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault case towards President Trump. He prompt that the retailer “capitalize” on the case because the alleged assault occurred within the dressing room of Neiman Marcus’ sister company Bergdorf Goodman, in keeping with the submitting in federal chapter courtroom.
She lodged a number of complaints with the company about Mattei and her boss, Hannah Kim, who buried her with work, the submitting said.
“This seems to point to a failure of leadership overall at the company,” the source mentioned, referring to the quantity of employment complaints.
The company denied each allegation in Borg’s criticism, in keeping with a submitting within the arbitration continuing final yr. Neiman Marcus, Kim and Mattei didn’t reply a number of requests for remark.
Geoffroy van Raemdonck led Neiman Marcus earlier than and after the chapter submitting in 2026. Getty Images for Fashion Scholarship Fund
Geoffroy van Raemdonck was the chief government of Neiman Marcus during Borg’s tenure from 2022 to 2025, with Saks Global buying the company in December 2024. He turned CEO of the merged entity during its chapter earlier this yr. The company, which exited chapter in June, has since been renamed Exemplar Luxury Group.
Borg initiated arbitration proceedings towards Neiman Marcus, Mattei and Kim in July 2025. She alleged she had been pushed out of the company months earlier for formally complaining to the human sources division and to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about Mattei’s alleged habits and the next retaliation towards her, in keeping with the submitting within the courtroom in Houston, the place the chapter has been unfolding.
Borg is now together with her unique criticism as half of Saks Global’s chapter case, urging the courtroom to make sure she will gather a future arbitration award from any out there insurance coverage proceeds. The declare doesn’t specify the quantity of damages she is in search of.
The lawyer is amongst hundreds of unsecured collectors who’ve claims towards the luxurious retailer.
Thomas Mattei was Erin Borg’s peer after which turned her boss, her submitting states. LinkedIN
Borg, 46, is attempting to fast-track her case as she continues to battle stage-four most cancers, for which she flies to Germany to get therapies.
She tapped high-profile lawyer Ari Wilkenfeld, who represented the NBC worker whose sexual misconduct accusations led to Matt Lauer’s ouster (he denied wrongdoing) and, more not too long ago, glam journo Olivia Nuzzi within the wake of her reported sexting relationship with Robert Kennedy Jr.
Wilkenfeld alleges that Neiman Marcus delayed its responses final yr and did not pay arbitration charges — which held up the proceedings — for a number of months earlier than its chapter submitting in January.
“Unfortunately, Neiman Marcus appears to be trying to outwait Erin, who according to the best projections, would have succumbed to her illness over a half a year ago,” he mentioned in a assertion.
Erin Borg’s lawyer claims that Neiman Marcus delayed its responses within the arbitration course of to “outwait” Erin’s lethal illness. Gado through Getty Images
A former lawyer for PetSmart, Borg was employed as Neiman Marcus’ vice president and assistant basic counsel in April 2022. Her tasks and hours on the luxurious division store chain expanded “significantly” and shortly morphed into an “unsustainable workload,” because the struggling retailer skimped on hiring help employees, Borg’s submitting mentioned.
She was unable to take a single work time without work for 11 straight months after she was employed, in keeping with the doc.
She additionally alleged that the legal division had a high quantity of vacancies that weren’t stuffed.
“It was ever-changing and not stable,” she mentioned of the unit.
A mom of two elementary school-age daughters, Borg claims she was subjected to “hostility and sexism” by Mattei, who allegedly refused to collaborate and “disparaged” her to others, in keeping with the submitting.
Erin Borg along with her household earlier than her most cancers analysis. Linkedin/Erin Borg
She reported their interactions to HR, together with the alleged remark about E. Jean Carroll.
Mattei allegedly joked that Neiman Marcus ought to “capitalize” on the Carroll case for “marketing” functions by putting a life-sized cutout of Trump within the ladies’s dressing rooms and handing out “prizes” to clients who seen it, in keeping with the courtroom submitting.
“When Tom made that casual rape joke, I was on a conference call with him and Hannah boarding a plane at the airport, so I couldn’t say something at the time,” Borg instructed The Post. “But it’s not appropriate in any workplace. And as the head employment lawyer and as someone who was raped at age 29, I had to speak up.”
Hannah Kim allegedly known as for conferences between herself, Erin Borg and Thomas Mattei to “resolve tensions.”
The state of affairs turned so extreme that Kim insisted Mattei and Borg take part in a sequence of conferences attended by Kim and a human useful resource rep to “mend fences” and “resolve tensions” between them, in keeping with the submitting.
The conferences with Mattei left Borg emotionally depleted and Mattei “continued to retaliate” towards her by excluding her and her paralegal from important conferences, in keeping with the submitting.
At the identical time, Kim allegedly promised her more sources and a promotion – with a catch.
Borg was instructed that she and Mattei can be promoted on the identical time to co-deputies basic counsel, in keeping with the submitting.
Erin Borg’s most cancers signs emerged when she started to have seizures at work. LinkedIn/Emily Borg
The promotion was delayed, in keeping with the submitting, as a result of of issues over Mattei’s “professionalism and misconduct.”
By March 2023, Borg’s mental health deteriorated and she or he checked into a facility for one month to deal with scientific despair.
Her marriage additionally fell aside at that time, she instructed The Post.
When she returned to work in June, Kim knowledgeable her that she wouldn’t be promoted, however Mattei can be – and he was ultimately given the job of chief legal officer in February 2024, turning into Borg’s supervisor after Kim left the company, the submitting claims.
Erin Borg’s employment at Neiman Marcus was terminated after her most cancers analysis. LinkedIn/Emily Borg
Around the identical time, Borg started having seizures, together with two that occurred after conferences with Mattei, in keeping with the submitting.
When Borg knowledgeable Mattei that she would need to take medical go away, he “responded with agitation” and requested whether or not she’d “break from her leave” to take part in a “crucial” call, the submitting claims.
When she returned to work in October after six months’ go away, Borg was instantly positioned on administrative go away till she was laid off in February 2025, in keeping with the doc.
