Job Application -- Jones Day

David A. Copus is a partner in the Washington office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Following a distinguished career at the EEOC, he entered private practice in 1977. He is a nationally recognized employment discrimination expert, having been named by the National Law Journal as "among the nation's best litigators in employment law." A graduate of Harvard Law School and widely published, David is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Employment Law Institute, the American Bar Association's Section on Litigation and Labor & Employment Law, and the editorial board of Corporate Counsel's Guide to the ADA.

Beth Heifetz, Esq., a Jones Day partner, is married to U.S. Inspector General, Glenn A. Fine, Esq.

A paralegal at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld during my tenure, Gary Zanfagna, Esq., later entered law school and graduated in 1993. Mr. Zanfagna was employed at Jones Day as an associate from 1993-1998. Gary Zanfagna was a close friend of Akin Gump paralegal Jesse Raben, Esq., who is now an attorney. Zanfagna and Raben went on a world trip together after leaving Akin Gump in the spring of 1990. Mr. Zanfagna is now general counsel at Honeywell in the greater New York City area.

Zanfagna believed I was a homosexual; I asked him to lunch in the summer of 1989 and he replied: "Is this a date? Because if it's a date, I'm not going to lunch with you." According to Dennis Race, Esq., the issue of my sexuality was never raised by anyone involved "directly or indirectly" with my employment. Akin Gump Sworn Interrogatory Response (May 22, 1992), Freedman v. Akin, Gump, Hauer & Feld (Dept. of Human Rights Investigation).

An Akin Gump paralegal named Stacey Schaar worked on a temporary paralegal assignment at Jones Day before being assigned to Akin Gump.

January 15, 1997
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

David A. Copus, Esq.
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue
Washington, DC 20005

RE: Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue Employment Inquiry - Homicide/Violence Risk

Dear Mr. Copus:

This letter is forwarded to you further to my previous letter dated October 7, 1996, a copy of which is enclosed for your reference.

To review and elaborate: During the period March 1988 to October 1991 I was employed as a legal assistant at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld ("Akin Gump"). Attorney managers at Akin Gump terminated my employment effective October 29, 1991 upon determining, in consultation with a psychiatrist, that a complaint of harassment I had lodged against several co-workers was attributable to a psychiatric symptom ("ideas of reference") prominent in the psychotic disorders and typically associated with a risk of violent behavior. See Freedman v. D.C. Dept. of Human Rights, D.C. Superior Court no. MPA 95-14 (final order issued June 10, 1996). In the period immediately after my job termination senior Akin Gump managers determined that it was advisable to secure the office of my direct supervisor against a possible homicidal assault, which it was feared I might commit.

During the summer of 1992, approximately one year after my job termination by Akin Gump, I submitted an employment inquiry to Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue ("Jones Day"), as evidenced by the enclosed response signed by Recruiting Coordinator Charlotte J. Siegler and dated August 12, 1992. I do not know what communications, if any, Charlotte J. Siegler may have had with Akin Gump's attorney managers or supervisors at the time of this employment inquiry.

I have been under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service as a potential security risk to President William J. Clinton, and was interrogated at the Washington Field Office by Special Agent Philip C. Leadroot as recently as February 1996.

I request that you counsel Charlotte J. Siegler to candidly disclose to federal authorities the content of any communications she may have had with any senior Akin Gump supervisors or attorney managers, including Dennis M. Race, Esq. (whom I expressly designated as a job reference in the employment inquiry to Jones Day), relating to the subject matter of my job termination by Akin Gump, including facts relating to the firm's alleged determination that I suffered from a paranoid mental state that rendered me potentially violent, or facts relating to the firm's concerns that I might have been armed and homicidal and possibly poised to carry out a homicidal assault on the firm's premises.

For your additional information I enclose a copy of a letter dated December 23, 1996 addressed to U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder, Jr. concerning the affirmation by the D.C. Office of Corporation Counsel that an Akin Gump coworker, and former Jones Day temporary legal assistant, Stacey Schaar, had genuine fears that I might have been armed and homicidal during my tenure at Akin Gump.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman