In March 1990 I was employed as a paralegal at the D.C. law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. I had started psychotherapy with the psychiatrist Stanley R. Palombo, M.D. in January 1990, about a month-and-a-half earlier. In March the firm held a paralegal Happy Hour in one of the firm's conference rooms.
I attended the Happy Hour, which was held at the end of the work day. When I entered the conference room, which was full of people, an odd thing happened. Malcolm Lassman was standing at the back of the room. Malcolm Lassman was a member of the firm's management committee who reported to the committee on issues concerning paralegals. When he saw me enter the room, he started to beam at me. It was the way my father would have looked at me at my bar mitzvah -- if I had had a bar mitzvah. Then another odd thing happened. Earl Segal, the partner in charge of the paralegal program at the firm, saw me and he looked blankly, then turned away. Earl Segal reported to Lassman concerning issues about paralegals.
It was as if Segal and Lassman were at the racetrack and they had placed bets on different horses. Lassman had the look of someone whose horse had won. Segal looked like he had lost a bet.
What could have accounted for those facial expressions? I had an immediate idea of reference. I linked the partners' reactions to me to my psychotherapy with Dr. Palombo. I formed the belief that Dr. Palombo had provided favorable information to the firm about me. For some reason Lassman was gratified by the information; but Segal was deflated by the news. The paralegal Happy Hour was one of those micro-events that happened every day while I worked at the firm. A person would have to be a moron not to put the pieces together over time.
What else do I remember about that Happy Hour? I remember talking to the paralegal Phil Feigen. I mentioned that I had just been transferred to the Litigation Support Group that was housed in the terrace level (basement) of the firm's office. At that time I worked on the firm's ninth floor. Phil Feigen, who used to work in the Terrace when it housed Eastern Airlines paralegals, said that he tended to feel cut off in the terrace.
I approached Jesse Raben. I asked him if he wanted to do something after work. He said: "You mean the way we went out to a Chinese Restaurant last August?" Yes, I was thinking along those lines, even though it wasn't Christmas. I mentioned to Jesse Raben that my girlfriend was out of town, so I was free to get together with him. He said he couldn't. My "girlfriend" was actually Craig W. Dye, my friend who worked at Hogan & Hartson at that time. Craig was out of town. Craig was my girlfriend.
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In April 1991 I saw a psychiatrist named Lewis A. Winkler, M.D. for three consultations. Dr. Winkler, like Malcolm Lassman, was Jewish and originally from Brooklyn, New York. I had been moved to the terrace level of Akin Gump's office in April 1991, where the firm's Litigation Support Group was housed. I felt that the job harassment was particularly intense while I was seeing Dr. Winkler. I terminated my work with Dr. Winkler precisely because I could not tolerate the harassment.
The day after I terminated my work with Dr. Winkler I happened to see Malcolm Lassman in the elevator area of the firm's lobby. He looked at me and seemed almost apoplectic. I vaguely recall that he was with another partner named Mark Goldberg. Goldberg and Lassman were sometimes seen together; they traveled around the firm like a pair of nuns. I recall that on one occasion at Halloween, Lassman said he and Goldberg were dressing up as a pair of nuns for Halloween. I don't know if he was serious.
I had formed the opinion that Lassman believed that Dr. Winkler was the one psychiatrist who could help me, and he was intensely angry when I terminated my work with him -- hence his angry appearance in the elevator area one morning in April 1991.
I also formed another belief that is a pure idea of reference, but based on cues I picked up on in the environment. Lassman had asked Dr. Winkler if he thought I was paranoid. Dr. Winkler replied (in my fantasy): "No, he just describes what he sees."
In late October Akin Gump terminated me and later alleged that it had determined that I was paranoid and potentially violent.
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