Akin Gump: Let the Record Speak for Itself!

In late October 1991 I lodged a harassment complaint against my supervisor and other personnel at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where I was employed as a paralegal.  I reported ten incidents of harassment to Dennis Race and Malcolm Lassman, two of the firm's attorney managers.  (The firm later admitted that I reported 7 incidents of harassment.)  Several days later, on October 29, 1991, firm management terminated me.  In the firm's version of events, Mssrs. Race and Lassman had spoken with a psychiatrist, Gertrude R. Ticho, MD about my harassment complaint, and Dr. Ticho advised the firm that my report was consistent with the psychiatric "disorder" ideas of reference, which might be associated with a risk of violence.

I later filed an unlawful job termination complaint with the D.C. Department of Human Rights (February 4, 1992).  I submitted several documents to the agency that summarized numerous additional incidents of harassment I had experienced at the firm, but never told the firm about; I reported that I believed that in January 1990 the firm's management committee approved a break-in of my residence by one or more attorneys, a criminal act.  In its final opinion, the agency determined that I had advised the firm of ten incidents of harassment only, which the agency designated "ideas of reference," and  which prompted the firm credibly to conclude that I suffered from mental illness.  The agency did not label any of the additional incidents I reported to the agency (after the job termination) as "ideas of reference." The additional incidents that I reported to the agency formed no part of the agency's final opinion.  The agency ruled against me, refusing to order my reinstatement at Akin Gump.

In my appeal of the agency's final determination before the D.C. Court of Appeals, the D.C. Office of Attorney General (representing the agency) enumerated for the Court all of the incidents of harassment that I had reported to the D.C. Department of Human Rights, only ten of which related to Akin Gump's termination decision.  The D.C. Attorney General did not characterize the additional incidents as "ideas of reference," consistent with the agency record.  See Brief of Appellee District of Columbia at 5, Freedman v. D.C. Dept. Human Rights, D.C.C.A. no. 96-CV-961 (Sept. 1, 1998).

Note Well!  There is no evidence in the agency record, and the D.C. Office of Attorney General did not argue before the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1997,  in Freedman v. D.C. Department of Human Rights, that a psychiatrist opined that my belief that Akin Gump attorneys broke into my apartment in January 1990 was an idea of reference.  The record states that Dennis Race spoke with Dr. Ticho about -- at most -- 7 incidents (or 10 incidents, if you accept the findings of the D.C. Department of Human Rights) that I related to Dennis Race.  My belief that Akin Gump broke into my apartment in January 1990 was not one of the incidents I communicated to Dennis Race or Malcolm Lassman in the days prior to my job termination.

There is no evidence in the record that my belief that Akin Gump broke into my apartment is delusional, an idea of reference, or the product of a psychiatric disorder.  There is no evidence in the record that my belief that Akin Gump's management committee approved the break-in is delusional, an idea of reference, or the product of a psychiatric disorder.

The Attorney General simply said that among my beliefs is the belief that Akin Gump broke into my apartment and that the Akin Gump management committee probably approved the break-in.  PERIOD!  The Attorney General did not state in its pleadings that a psychiatrist (Gertrude R. Ticho, MD) was advised of that belief by Dennis Race and Malcolm Lassman and that she -- or anyone, for that matter, including the D.C. Department of Human Rights -- opined that it was an idea of reference.