In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court, a legal assistant who worked for a firm founded by a previously incarcerated man whose 17-year quest to practice law in New York attracted headlines alleges that he failed to protect her from sexual harassment by a male associate.

Mariella Tumminello alleges that Neal Wiesner of the Wiesner Law Firm, who spent six years in prison in the 1980s for attempted murder and taking part in an illegal drug distribution scheme and who obtained his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law in 1994, retaliated against her when she came forward to complain about continued sexual advances by Randall Hirsch, an associate with the firm and also a named defendant in the suit.