Ideas of Reference: Bob Strauss

Did I ever have any ideas of reference about Bob Strauss, founder of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld? Yes, as a matter of fact, I had one. It was back in the year 1989.

In early March the major client for whom I worked, Eastern Airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection.

In mid-March 1989 I was walking in the elevator area of the fifth floor of the firm where I had an office. Bob Strauss was walking toward me. I had worked at the firm since March 1988, about a year earlier. This occasion, in mid-March 1989, was the first time I had ever seen Bob Strauss. His gaze fixed on me. He looked at me intently without smiling.

A few days later I talked to my sister. I said to her: "You know I recently saw Bob Strauss at the firm. He didn't look jolly and friendly, the way he looks on TV. He looked like any other tight-ass 70-year-old lawyer."

On Monday morning April 3, 1989 the firm held a buffet breakfast meeting for legal assistants in one of the firm's conference rooms. The meeting was billed as a "Breakfast with Bob Strauss," and was attended by about 25-30 of the firm's legal assistants. At that time the firm employed about 60 legal assistants. Strauss offered some remarks, then responded to questions posed by legal assistants. During the course of his breakfast remarks, Bob Strauss said: "I'm just a seventy-year-old lawyer." I thought that was a notable coincidence. It seemed to fit into my working theory that my sister was in communication with someone at the firm.

But then, I have a lot of paranoid ideas about Akin Gump.

At noon on Thursday April 6, 1989 the firm's legal assistant administrative staff had arranged a luncheon computer-training seminar for legal assistants. The training was offered by someone from either Westlaw or Lexis (the person's name was Eva [last name? of Greek derivation]). The seminar was attended by about 30 legal assistants, including myself. I sat in the back of the room and could observe all the persons present. Also present was the legal assistant coordinator John D. Neary. Before the training session was completed, legal assistants began to leave the room. It was my impression that the employees' departure from the conference room appeared to be staged: the departures seemed too evenly timed, there was an unnatural quality about the body language, and I could see glances between Neary and some of the legal assistants as they got ready to rise from their chairs that appeared to suggest a kind of cueing behavior. The legal assistants seemed to look at Neary as if they were united against me. Neary appeared to become dejected as time wore on. I specifically recall that when I left the room, I spotted Neary's roommate, Michael Sierra (who was also employed as a legal assistant at the firm); Sierra appeared to turn away and seemed to refuse to look at me while we both waited for an elevator.

http://backgrinfo.blogspot.com/2005/10/why-my-coworkers-despised-me.html