Debra Raskin, Esq.
Vladeck, Waldman, Elias, Engelhard, PC
Adjunct Professor
Columbia University Law School
New York, NY
telephone: (212) 403-7300

Dear Professor Raskin:

I thought you might have an academic interest in the following creative remedy I have devised for the injuries I suffered as an employee at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (Washington, DC).

Gary Freedman
Washington, DC
cc: Dean Claudio Grossman (American Univ) ; Dean Robert Reinstein (Temple Univ)
___________________________________


Dennis M. Race, Esq.
Senior Counsel
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
1333 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20036
Telephone: 202 887 4028

                         RE: Intent to File Worker's Compensation Claim

Dear Mr. Race:

This will advise the law law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (Akin Gump) that I plan to file a claim for Worker's Compensation from the Department of Employment Services of the Government of the District of Columbia, and I state the following reasons for the claim:

1.  I was employed as a paralegal at Akin Gump during the period June 13, 1988 to October 29, 1991.  During the entirety of my tenure at the firm I was subjected to a recognized subtle form of job harassment known as "workplace mobbing." 

My allegations of facts concerning the mobbing were affirmed as genuine and truthful by the Government of the District of Columbia in an unlawful job termination complaint and subsequent litigation styled Freedman v. D.C. Department of Human Rights, D.C.C.A. no. 96-CV-961 (Sept. 1, 1998).  See Brief of Appellee (D.C. Office of Corporation Counsel).

2.  Neither Akin Gump nor the D.C. Office of Corporation Counsel denied that I was a victim of workplace mobbing.  The issue of whether I was a victim of workplace mobbing was never litigated; there is no anti-mobbing statute in the District of Columbia.  No administrative agency or court has ever determined that I was not a victim of workplace mobbing.

3.  Since May 2009 I have been a patient at the McClendon Center in Washington, DC where I receive medical management for mental illness.  On September 17, 2013 I was advised in an email message by Dennis Hobb, Program Manager, McClendon Center that my chart includes the following psychiatric diagnoses: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depression, Alcohol Dependence (in remission), and Paranoia (as well as Schizoid Personality Disorder, a nonpsychotic psychiatric disorder that does not render an individual unemployable, but that may require that the individual's need to work in isolation be accommodated by the employer under the Americans With Disabilities Act).  Prior to that email message of September 17, 2013, I was not aware of my psychiatric diagnoses.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Hobb <dhobb@mcclendoncenter.org>
To: 'Gary Freedman' <garfreed@netscape.net>
Cc: 'Natalie Nichols' <nnichols@mcclendoncenter.org>; 'Michael Burt' <mburt@mcclendoncenter.org>; 'Anne Degirolamo' <adegirolamo@mcclendoncenter.org>; 'Sallie Twentyman' <stwentyman@mcclendoncenter.org>
Sent: Tue, Sep 17, 2013 3:57 pm
Subject: RE: : Complaint against Nurse Sara F. Carroll 
Mr. Freedman,

At the McClendon Center we take allegations of Medicare/Medicaid fraud and abuse very seriously.  

Actual fraud would have been committed if Nurse Carroll had billed for services that she didn't provide.  I have no reason to believe that she did not see you 
on the days for which she billed, so I believe no fraud was committed.

Abuse can encompass a range of issues.  It can vary from claiming too much (or too little) time with the patient, or it can be committed if you did not have a 
valid treating diagnosis.  Your file contains the following diagnoses: Delusional Disorder (297.1), Major Depression Recurrent Severe Without Psychotic 
Features (296.33), Alcohol Dependence in Sustained Remission (303.90), and PTSD (309.81), and Schizoid Personality Disorder (301.20).  These diagnoses were made 
by Aimee Calderone-Burgess, who is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social worker, and therefore qualified to diagnose mental health conditions in the 
District of Columbia.  As you have valid DSM diagnoses and are being appropriately treated by an Advance Practice Registered Nurse, I believe your 
allegations of Medicare/Medicaid fraud are unfounded.

However, it is your prerogative to contact an appropriate agency such as the Office of Health Care Ombudsman to register your concerns.  You have my 
assurance that we will cooperate fully in any investigation conducted by any oversight agency at which you register a complaint.

Dennis Hobb

4.  Major Depression, PTSD, Alcohol Dependence, and Paranoia are medically-recognized consequences of workplace mobbing.

Victims of workplace mobbing frequently suffer from: adjustment disorders, somatic symptoms (e.g., headaches or irritable bowel syndrome),psychological trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depresssion).  In mobbing targets with PTSD, Heinz Leymann notes that the mental effects were fully comparable with PTSD from war or prison camp experiences. Some patients may develop alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders. Family relationships routinely suffer. Some targets may even develop brief psychotic episodes, generally with paranoid symptoms. Leymann estimated that 15% of suicides in Sweden could be directly attributed to workplace mobbing.  Hillard JR Workplace mobbing: Are they really out to get your patient? Current Psychiatry 8(4): 45-51, April 2009.

Akin Gump admits that I suffered from paranoid symptoms during my employment at the firm.  The D.C. Worker's Compensation program administers the special/second injury fund, which provides benefits in instances where an injury (or unhealthy workplace condition) combines with a pre-existing disability to cause a substantially greater disability.

5.  On January 15, 2010 I was interviewed by Deputy Marshal xxxxx of the U.S. Marshals Service (U.S. Department of Justice) as part of a threat investigation.  Deputy Marshal xxxxx was concerned about my obsessive preoccupation with my employment experience at Akin Gump and the intense anger expressed in my writings published on the Internet about that employment experience.  Anger, obsessive preoccupation with past trauma, and the potential for violent acting out are symptoms of PTSD.  Thus, the U.S. Department of Justice has affirmed as genuine the symptoms diagnosed by the McClendon Center as constituting PTSD, a recognized consequence of workplace mobbing.

6.  I advised the U.S. Department of Justice by letter dated January 5, 1994 that I had suffered severe emotional distress as a result of Akin Gump's action in using the legal processes of a state agency, the D.C. Department of Human Rights, to defame me in pleadings filed by the firm with that agency.

There is no evidence that I suffered from Major Depression or PTSD prior to September 1992, that is before I learned in late December 1992 that Akin Gump had used the legal processes of a state agency (in May 1992) to defame, humiliate and embarrass me, which resulted in the infliction of extreme emotional distress.   Experts in workplace mobbing recognize that a frequently encountered aspect of the phenomenon is that the employer himself ultimately colludes with coworkers in mobbing behavior which typically features behaviors intended to defame, humiliate and embarrass the mobbing victim.  Thus, an expert in mobbing could very well conclude that Akin Gump's act of filing false and defamatory written statements about me in May 1992 (seven months after my employment ended on October 29, 1991) with a state agency was, in fact, an integral part of the mobbing.

7.  Under the D.C. Worker's Compensation program a claimant is required to report job-related injury or illness in writing to the Office of Workers’ Compensation within 30 days of occurrence or awareness.  I became aware that I suffered from the recognized consequences of workplace mobbing experienced at Akin Gump (1988-1991) on September 17, 2013 by way of the above email message (see paragraph 3, above) sent to me by Dennis Hobb, Program Manager of the McClendon Center.  Thus, I have until October 17, 2013 to file a timely claim under the D.C. Worker's Compensation program for the injuries I suffered at Akin Gump, namely, the specific complex of psychiatric symptoms or disorders typically caused by workplace mobbing: Major Depression, PTSD, Alcohol Dependence (in remission), and Paranoid symptoms.

Gary Freedman
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 136
Washington, DC  20008
telephone: 202 362 7064