Beeblebrox & Dent, attorneys at law

Cellino & Barnes ought to take a cue from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: DON'T PANIC!

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Rochester, Steven A. Lucia said Stephen E. Barnes of the Buffalo-based firm of Cellino & Barnes fired him from its Rochester office March 8 after claiming Lucia was planning to leave the firm and take clients with him. Lucia said the firm's chief financial officer, Daryl Ciambella, told him after his dismissal that "we just made a big mistake" and that he wasn't fired because of his work as a lawyer with the firm. "Ciambella went on to explain to Lucia that Cellino and Barnes were under stress as a result of the pending disciplinary proceedings against them," the lawsuit alleges. "Ciambella also stated that Cellino and Barnes were not thinking rationally and had made an ill-advised decision to terminate Lucia ..."