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After 25 years with Douglas Elliman, top-producing real estate veteran Holly Parker is suing the brokerage, alleging it’s incorrectly demanding $1.5 million in clawbacks and refusing to pay her commissions on deals that closed after her move to Compass, The Real Deal reported Friday.
Parker, the founder and CEO of The Holly Parker Team, filed the lawsuit seeking release from the clawback demands, as well as approximately $385,000 in damages — double the amount of withheld commissions — along with attorneys’ fees and related costs.
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Parker made the switch to Compass in February after a long career with Elliman, where she ranked among the firm’s top 10 agents for more than 15 years and served as a leading producer in new development sales.
At the time of her exit, Parker had 16 deals under contract. According to the lawsuit, she was entitled to a 40 percent commission split on any of those transactions that closed after her departure, per the terms of a 2020 independent contractor agreement (ICA) with Elliman. That agreement stated commissions were to be paid within 30 days of closing.
However, Parker claims that 10 of those deals have since closed, all more than 30 days ago — and that Elliman has withheld nearly $193,000 in commissions.
Beyond the ICA, Parker argues that side letters signed during her time at Elliman should override the original contract. One letter, signed in 2020, increased her commission split to 70 percent. Another, signed in 2022, provided up to $205,000 in reimbursements for assistant and receptionist costs as well as a performance bonus tied to her team’s transactions.
The clawback clause in those letters allowed Elliman to recoup those funds only if Parker left before Dec. 31, 2024, a threshold she crossed before leaving the firm earlier this year. Nonetheless, on Feb. 28, Elliman issued a letter demanding $1.6 million in clawbacks, including $1.1 million in bonuses, $394,000 in assistant funding, $85,000 in advertising and $92 in StreetEasy fees.
A key point of contention is a policy manual Elliman is allegedly relying on to justify its claims. According to the complaint, Elliman refused to provide the full manual, offering only two partial excerpts after Parker agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement that included a liquidated damages clause.
In the complaint, Parker’s attorney, Michael Rakower of Rakower Law, described Elliman’s legal position as “unsustainable.”
“The limits of its clawback rights are evident in the agreements it signed with Parker,” as stated in the lawsuit. “Elliman is willfully ignoring those limits and wrongfully withholding money owed to Parker as punishment for her departure.”
Inman has reached out to Douglas Elliman, as well as Holly Parker and her legal team, for comment but did not receive an immediate response Friday.
