Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Page 12 of document submission to Social Security Administration

FAX NO. 609 235 5569 MEREDITH FINANCIAL SERVICES
Transmittal for Mrs. Estelle Jacobson c/o Mr. Edward Jacobson

Dear Stell,

(A former Hogan attorney, Douglas Rosenfeld, who began working at Akin Gump on March 13, 1989, may have served as a conduit of information between the two law firms. Doug Rosenfeld was a friend of a former roommate of Craig’s, named Daniel Cutler, who also worked at Hogan, until about late April 1989 when he was more or less terminated. In about late October 1988, during lunch with Daniel Cutler, I wrote down and gave to Daniel the name of Akin Gump’s legal assistant administrator, Maggie Sinnott, after he stated an interest in obtaining a legal assistant position at the firm.)

This may be an example of both my paranoia and my distorted recollections, but I think it was at the end of the business day, on the day I had lunch with Daniel Cutler, that I saw Earl Segal and Any Cohen* talking in the elevator area on the fifth floor (?). Earl Segal looked at me with a strange look, which, in my paranoid state, In interpreted as “You are frighteningly stupid, Freedman.” When I got on the elevator, Amy Cohen (?) said something about being stupid. Then she stated that she forgot her umbrella, and I said, “I’m not the one who forgot my umbrella.” (*I am guessing it was Amy Cohen--it was only later that I learned the identity of Amy Cohen and retroactively attached the identity of Amy Cohen to the person on the elevator.) (At lunch with Daniel in late October 1988 [Craig was on vacation at that time], we discussed that management planned to offer me a permanent legal assistant position; in fact, this was an overstatement--my supervisor had only recommended, on my year-end evaluation, that I be considered for a permanent position. If Earl Segal was reacting to anything, it was probably this misstatement as to management’s intentions.)

At that time, in late October 1988, I did not know the identity of Earl Segal. It was in early December that I matched the name “Earl Segal” with the face. Some time around Pearl Harbor Day, in early December 1988, I had worked late, as I usually did during that period of time. Earl Segal walked out into the elevator area of the fifth floor to leave the building. I introduced myself to him. When he said he was Earl Segal, I was SHOCKED. Interestingly, there’s a tie in with Daniel Cutler here. The very next afternoon, around 6:00 PM, Daniel Cutler telephone me--something he never did. During the course of a brief conversation, he asked me why I worked late, or why I worked so much overtime. I told him it was to earn money to buy Christmas presents for all my friends. I think he may have told me to have a good weekend, which means I may have introduced myself to Earl Segal on a Thursday evening, which would place the date at December 8, 1988. And that’s the way my faulty memory and my paranoia operate.

Pages 13-14 of Document Submission to Social Security Administration

FAX NO. 609 235 5569 MEREDITH FINANCIAL SERVICES
transmittal for Mrs. Estelle Jacobson c/o Mr. Edward Jacobson

Dear Stell,

The following is a listing of telephone contacts, or attempted telephone contacts, with various Akin Gump attorneys in the period following my termination and before the filing of a complaint with the District of Columbia Department of Human Rights and Minority Business Development. The contacts and attempted contacts establish a good faith effort to resolve the issue of my termination, which I believed to be groundless, and establish a good faith effort to call attention to my job evaluations, which I believed, may have been overlooked prior to the firm’s decision to terminate. The listing is based on recollection.

October 29, 1991 -- In the afternoon after my termination I telephoned Malcolm Lassman at his office. I asked him if he knew what had happened. He said he knew. I told him that it had been a difficult three-and-one-half years; he acknowledged my statement. He mentioned that someone in his family was also going through a similar situation (Dennis Race also mentioned this fact at the termination meeting, in the context of the discussion about my being a "talented guy," etc.). I asked him if we could get together to discuss other employment opportunities. He told me to call him during the week of November 11, 1991 and that we could get together for coffee, and explained that he was going to be out of the office during the week of November 4, 1991.

October 29, 1991 -- I telephoned Earl Segal at the office. I left a message with his secretary; Mr. Segal did not return the call.

(Also, earlier in the day, while still at the office, I attempted to see Malcolm Lassman in his office; he was out. I also attempted to see Earl Segal in his office; he was out.)

October 29, 1991 -- In the evening I telephoned the residence of Laurence Hoffman, the firm’s managing partner. No one was home. I think I got a telephone answering machine message; I did not leave a message.

October 29, 1991 -- In the evening I telephoned the residence of Dennis Race. No one was home.

October 29, 1991 -- In the evening I telephoned the residence of Earl Segal. I spoke with a young man who told me that Mr. Segal was not available. I said I would call Mr. Segal at the office the next day, and did not leave my name.

October 29, 1991 -- In the evening I telephoned the residence of Malcolm Lassman twice. In the first call a woman with a foreign accent told me that Mr. Lassman was not home. The second time I called, Mr. Lassman answered the phone. I asked Mr. Lassman if the firm would object to a claim for unemployment insurance; he politely told me to call Dennis Race in the office.

October 30, 1991 -- Around 9:00 AM I telephoned Dennis Race at the office and asked him if the firm would object to a claim for unemployment insurance. Mr. Race said that the firm would not object, as long as I didn't put down anything that embarrassed the firm. Noting that the previous day, Mr. Race had said that one of the reasons for my termination was that I ignored people's corrections, I directed Mr. Race's attention to my job evaluation dated November 1989 that expressly stated that I "catered to individual needs." Mr. Race asked me if J.D. Neary had written that; I said, no, Constance Brown. Mr. Race politely explained that the problems with my work arose after that job evaluation had been written, which apparently in Mr. Race's mind, made that job evaluation irrelevant. The telephone call was cordial. I was somewhat agitated since I hadn't slept the night before.

November 4, 1991 -- Around 9:00 AM I telephoned Earl Segal at the office. Having thoroughly reviewed my job evaluations, I had come to believe that my termination was “problematic” and wanted to call the firm’s attention to this fact. I asked Mr. Segal if the management committee had had an opportunity to review my termination, which, in view of my job evaluations, I believed was “problematic.” Mr. Segal asked me if a review by the management committee was something I had discussed with Dennis Race. I said, “No, this is something I concocted.” I believe he told me that he would speak with Dennis Race and that Mr. Race would contact me if a contact were warranted. Mr. Segal also told me, politely, that in the future all of my contacts should be with Dennis Race only. (I assumed that this also entailed all third-party contacts.) (I received no contact from Mr. Race, either by telephone or by the mail.)

Week of November 4, 1991 -- I telephoned the office of Malcolm Lassman. His secretary told me that Mr. Lassman was out of the office all week (as he had told me on the afternoon of October 29, 1991). Weeks later I telephoned Mr. Lassman’s office on two different occasions. I left a message on each occasion that I wished to speak with Mr. Lassman about his serving as a job reference for me. On neither occasion did Mr. Lassman return my calls. During one of my calls I explained that my name was Gary Freedman and that I used to work at the firm. The employee, possibly Mr. Lassman’s secretary said, “I think I remember who you are.”

I did not call David Callet (or Mrs. Callet). I also decided it would be advisable that I not place a call to Moscow.

GF

[handwritten notation: 9/25/92]

[I submitted this document to the D.C. Department of Human Rights; the document is part of the record on appeal in Freedman v. D.C. Dept. Human Rights.]