I Always Wondered What Leonard Shengold, M.D. Looked Like --

--now I know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPep-jyaN9c

The Lassman Mishpachah: Did You Know Malcolm Has A Brother Named Lionel?

Lassman & Co Ltd was founded by Samuel Lassman, the father of Malcolm Lassman, on December 31, 1941. After World War II, the company manufactured barware and other items designed or invented by Samuel Lassman.

The Lassman factory was located in the Kilburn borough of North London. The firm was located in a converted townhouse at 306 Kilburn Lane. It was never a large firm and at its peak employed about ten people including managers.

Prior to World War II, Samuel Lassman was a master jeweller working for Garrards, the Crown Jewellers. He worked on the Crown Jewels for the coronation of King George VI, who became King when King Edward VIII abdicated on December 11, 1936. The coronation was on May 12, 1937.

Samuel Lassman's son, Malcolm Lassman, was the Managing Director of the company in the 1970s and 1980s. Another son, Lionel, was also involved in the company for a few years and was also a director. In 1986, Jack Halsey, acquired the firm and moved it to Watford in Herts where it continues to make padlocks and other products under the name Lawrence Churchill Ltd. Jack had previously been the foreman and manager of the company after Samuel Lassman died in 1971.

Coincidentally, it was in the year 1971 that Malcolm Lassman and Robert S. Strauss founded the Washington, D.C. office of the Dallas-based law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer.

http://www.paperweights.com/lassman.htm

Significant Moments: Fondness for a Female Judge

Cosima, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . contributing her diplomatic best, . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . .smoothed over all disagreements . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . logically and without undue passion
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court quoting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It was she who created and maintained the structure of the court, upon which the whole . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . of Wagner’s . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
. . . great work depended.
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
____________________________________________

I seem to have a special interest in female judges. It would appear that that interest is deeply-rooted in unconscious forces.

In 1995 I analyzed one of my dreams that I titled: "The Dream of Milton's Successor." The manifest dream image of the late psychiatrist John E. Mack, M.D. masks unconscious dream thoughts about Judge Julia Cooper Mack of the D.C. Court of Appeals.

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/10/dream-of-miltons-successor.html

Be that as it may.

Back in the early 1980s, while I was a student at the Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, I developed a fondess and admiration for a female judge: Judge Lynne M. Abraham. Judge Abraham sat on the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, the state trial court of general jurisdiction.

Judge Abraham, as well as other other Common Pleas Court judges, taught a trial advocacy course at night at Temple Law School. I took Introduction to Trial Advocacy taught by then-Common Pleas Court Judge Richard B. Klein in the spring term 1981. Judge Klein now sits on the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals.

Judge Abraham was herself a graduate of Temple Law School. She was a tough judge and a tough person. She once commandeered a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia that had been hijacked by a robber, if I recall correctly. She recently retired (January 2010) as Philadelphia's District Attorney, a post formerly held by the lions of Philadelphia's legal establishment: Richardson Dilworth, Senator Arlen Specter, and Governor Ed Rendell.

She was married to Frank Ford (Edward Felbin), who had hosted talk radio shows in Philadelphia on various radio stations (WPEN, WCAU, WWDB) for years. I remember listening to Frank Ford when I was 12 years old, back in 1966. He was on WCAU at that time. Frank Ford was years older than Judge Abraham; I think he had known her when he was middle-aged and she was still a teenager.

Frank Ford was a legend in Philadelphia. He was born in 1917 and died last year, in March 2009. I think he was a pilot in World War II. He had majored in economics and English at The University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/frankford.html

Frank Ford and Lynne Abraham lived in a townhouse in Society Hill in Philadelphia, a few blocks from where I used to live on Locust Street in Philadelphia. They may have been members of a Society Hill synagogue, whose rabbi was an individual named Ivan Caine. I don't know that for sure.

Coincidentally, Ivan Caine was the brother of Burton Caine, Esq. who taught Constitional Law at Temple Law School; I (and Eva Bleich, Esq.) was Professor Caine's student. Burton Caine, an expert in First Amendment law, is a personal friend of American University Law Professor Herman Schwartz. I am an alumnus of American University law school, by the way. While I was a student at American University, in the fall of 1983, I happened to read a Temple Law Review article about judicial review written by Professor Caine, and wrote him a four-page letter critiqueing the article. I had a problem with Professor Caine's legal reasoning!

I remember seeing Judge Abraham in the lobby of Temple Law School one evening in the spring of 1981, arriving to conduct her trial advocacy course; she was wearing an overcoat with a fur-lined collar--it was a cold evening in early spring. She saw Burton Caine and said, "Hi Burt!" (I have a mind like a steel trap.)

Incidentally, did you know that Judge Abraham has a special weakness for the singing of Cecilia Bartoli?



Burton Caine used to be a partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Wolf Block. Jerome Shestack, former President of the American Bar Association, was a partner at Wolf Block; Shestack is married to Marciarose Shestack, who, like Frank Ford, used to be a local broadcast celebrity in Philadelphia.

Michael Temin, Esq., a bankruptcy lawyer, used to be a partner at Wolf Block; Michael Temin was the brother of the late virologist Howard Martin Temin who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on retroviruses. I write about Howard Martin Temin in my book, Significant Moments! Howard Temin and Michael Temin, Esq. were both graduates of my high school, The Central High School of Philadelphia. In fact, they both graduated first in their respective classes at Central.

Peculiar connections. Frank Ford started the Valley Forge Music Fair with Lee Guber, who used to be married to TV journalist Barbara Walters. Coincidentally, Lee Guber and I both went to Central High School. Barbara Walters used to date former U.S. Senator John Warner (a colleague of Senator Arlen Specter's), who is now a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson -- where I was employed as a paralegal from 1985 to 1988! Small world!

Yes, I know a lot of facts about a lot of people. I happen to admire some of those people. Some of those people happen to be female judges!

Akin Gump: Now This Is Interesting!

On Saturday February 27, 2010 someone in Milwaukee googled the following terms: "Susan Guillory D.C." The internet user was directed to this blog, My Daily Struggles.

Susan Guillory was the name of a paralegal who was employed by Akin Gump during my tenure; I had listed her name in the following post titled "Legal Assistants: Akin Gump."

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/11/legal-assistants-akin-gump.html

Susan Guillory is still employed by Akin Gump as Coordinator of Pro Bono Services (DC office). I did not know her when I worked at Akin Gump. I have no recollection of her whatsoever.

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Theme and Variations: Etosha National Park and Schizoid States

Years ago I saw a documentary, "The Living Edens," broadcast on public television about Etosha National Park in Namibia, in Africa. I was enthralled by the show. Africa's Etosha is a vast and ancient land of seasonal paradox. During the blooming of the wet season, spring boks, elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, jackals, zebras and giraffe thrive. It is also an Eden that slowly disappears when heat, drought and thirst put all life at risk, except for the opportunistic vultures.

http://www.pbs.org/edens/etosha/

Variation I

Etosha National Park is one of Southern Africa's finest and most important Game Reserves. Etosha Game park was declared a National Park in 1907 and covering an area of 22 270 square km, it is home to 114 mammal species, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibian species and, surprisingly, one species of fish. The Etosha Park is one of the first places on any itinerary designed for a holiday in Namibia.

Etosha, meaning "Great White Place," is dominated by a massive mineral pan. The pan is part of the Kalahari Basin, the floor of which was formed around 1000 million years ago. The Etosha Pan covers around 25% of the National Park. The pan was originally a lake fed by the Kunene River. However the course of the river changed thousands of years ago and the lake dried up. The pan now is a large dusty depression of salt and dusty clay which fills only if the rains are heavy and even then only holds water for a short time. This temporary water in the Etosha Pan attracts thousands of wading birds including impressive flocks of flamingos. The perennial springs along the edges of the Etosha Pan draw large concentrations of wildlife and birds.

A San legend about the formation of the Etosha Pan tells of how a village was raided and everyone but the women slaughtered. One woman was so upset about the death of her family she cried until her tears formed a massive lake. When the lake dried up nothing was left apart from a huge white pan.

It's now clear what fascinated me about Etosha. It's a variation on a schizoid fantasy. The park represents symbolically the schizoid child's fantasy of emotional plenty in the midst of his family's emotional desert.

Variation II

In The English Patient, the novel by Canadian poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje, the Cave of Swimmers—-the most important of Count László de Almásy’s discoveries—-was a cave in the midst of the desert with prehistoric drawings of figures swimming. This proved to Almásy that in Tassali, 6000 years ago, there had been a lake where now there is dryness. The desert is turned by him, in his imagination, into a plentiful sea. This is what a schizoid child does in the midst of deprivation.

Variation III

In some symbolic sense the Cave of Swimmers is the equivalent of Klingsor's Magic Garden in Wagner's opera, Parsifal.In the second act of the opera, the desolate realm of Klingsor's domain is transformed magically into a luxuriant garden, inhabited by flower maidens. At the end of the act, the garden suddenly vanishes, and is replaced by a barren desert. This is, once again, a schizoid fantasy.

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/11/significant-moments-how-was-i.html

Fittingly, Christoph Schlingensief’s production of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 2004 transplanted the opera to Namibia, with the singers attired in African costumes, wearing blackface makeup.

Here is an excerpt from the Flower Maiden scene in Klingsor's Magic Garden:

Stanley R. Palombo, M.D. -- Scientific Paper -- Dreaming

Palombo, Stanley R. "The Adaptive Function of Dreams." Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 1:443-476 (1978).

The process of dreaming brings to light repressed unconscious wishes of childhood that are ordinarily inaccessible to the dreamer's consciousness. For the practicing psychoanalyst, this great discovery of Freud's overshadows all other aspects of the psychoanalytic theory of dreams. Accordingly, analysts have tended to ignore the likelihood that dreaming serves an adaptive function quite distinct from that of providing a source of substitute gratification for these repressed wishes.

The following are analyses of some of my dreams:

The Dream of the Four Miltons --

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/10/dream-of-four-miltons.html

The Dream of Milton's Successor --

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/10/dream-of-miltons-successor.html

The Dream of the Blue Oxford --

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/10/dream-of-blue-oxford.html

Stanley R. Palombo is a Washington, DC psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Born in New York City in 1934, Palombo is a graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Palombo is the author of Dreaming and Memory: A New Information-Processing Model and The Emergent Ego: Complexity and Coevolution in the Psychoanalytic Process and is an expert in the creative process.

I was a patient of Dr. Palombo's during the year 1990. I was referred to Dr. Palombo in November 1989 by Albert Rothenberg, M.D.

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Significant Moments: The Sigmund Freud Archives and the U.S. Department of Justice

At this moment . . .
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
. . . the chief advocate . . .
Bradley F. Smith, Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg.
. . . who had been for some time busily writing in his notebook,
called out “Silence!”, and read out from his book, “Rule Forty-two. . . . ”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
"Whosoever will have engaged in machinations or shared information with foreign powers . . . will be punished by death."
Jean-Denis Bredin, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus.
. . . by death?
William Shakespeare, King Lear.
(I’m imagining this)
Don DeLillo, The Names.
It was as though I . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
. . . was breaching national security by selling military secrets or something.
Joel Glenn Brenner, The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars.
I felt my heart pounding wildly, like that of a man facing a firing squad . . .
William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.
________________________________________________

The Sigmund Freud Archives was founded in 1951 by Dr. K.R. Eissler and directed by him for decades. Dr. Eissler prevented many well-meaning scholars from seeing many Freud documents claiming confidentiality, even when their donors had not requested nor demanded that confidentiality, nor was anyone a potential victim of the revelation of those documents.



The U.S. Department of Justice had a conniption fit when it learned that I had published on this blog facts about a public official: facts that were readily accessible on the internet. Justice sent two law enforcement officers to my home on January 15, 2010 to interview me about my "great crime."

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/01/alice-in-wonderland-justice-department.html

I Prefer To Think I'm Paranoid

A hostile work environment is a cumulative phenomenon, composed of "a series of separate acts that collectively constitute one 'unlawful employment practice.'" Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101, 117 (2002). While a single harassing act might not be actionable standing alone, it can be actionable as a constituent element of a larger hostile environment claim. Id. at 115.

Was I the victim of a hostile work environment at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld? I prefer to think I'm paranoid. I prefer to think I suffer from "ideas of reference," and that my belief that I was the victim of a hostile work environment at my former place of employment is a figment of my disturbed mind. There's money in that point of view.

Harold P. Blum, M.D. and The Sigmund Freud Archives

Described as a man for all seasons, Harold P. Blum is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Supervising and Training Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of the New York University Medical Center.

He is also the Executive Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives.

His service as editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association inspired readers and contributors alike as well as those fortunate to serve on editorial board during his tenure. Dr. Blum is recognized as a true Freud scholar and the author of significant and varied articles. His books include Defense and Resistance: Historical Perspectives and Current Concepts, (1985), Female Psychology: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Views (1977), and Reconstruction in Psychoanalysis: Childhood Revisited and Recreated (1994). He has been highly influential in psychoanalytic thought both in the United States and abroad.

I can recall that in the fall of 1994 Dr. Blum co-chaired a seminar with Stanley R. Palombo, M.D., my former treating psychiatrist, on a paper written by Erik H. Erikson, titled "The Dream Specimen of Psychoanalysis."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMc7GpaDHRA

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Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Page 34 of Social Security Document Submission [sent by U.S. mail to sister]

Dear Stell,

I had a seizure of paranoia on Tuesday July 28, 1992. When I was at the Club, I imagined that the following words were stated by Club employees in a markedly audible tone of voice; the remainder of the conversations were inaudible. In my paranoid state I had imagined that something happened on Tuesday July 28, 1992.

Rothenberg
Too much
Vegetables
It’s almost August; he’ll be gone in a month
Castle

On Wednesday July 29, 1992, while at the Club it was extremely quiet. My paranoia had gone into remission.

Page 35 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

An FBI agent would probably be able to spot me a mile away.

GF

Page 36 of Social Security Document Submission [sent by U.S. mail to sister]

Dear Stell,

I want to make a fashion statement:

In December 1986, during the week of about December 15, 1986, while I was working at Hogan & Hartson, Sheryl Ferguson asked me to work on a special project. She wanted me to help compile a list of exhibits for a matter that was coming up for trial in the spring. One week in late December 1986 I worked 83 hours on the project, and earned $812.00. I bragged to my co-workers that I had earned $1,000. My co-workers earned $6.50/hour, for a weekly total of $243.75 (based on a 37.5 hour week).

And that’s my fashion statement.

GF

[handwritten note:] 6/16/92

Page 37 of Social Security Document Submission [sent by U.S. mail to sister]

Dear Stell,

I’m wondering whether a psychiatrist would see an underlying consistency in these behaviors, and what these behaviors suggest about this Akin Gump employee’s psychological relation to me.

1. In about June 1989 I visited with the Jacobson’s to attend Meredith’s graduation from Westfield Friends. My first day back at the office the employee gazed at my General Bonaparte, something she rarely did.

2. On about Friday April 28, 1989 I had lunch with Craig. Craig asked me if there was a girl at Akin Gump who I could ask out. I said there was someone, without mentioning any names.

Later that afternoon this employee stopped up to the sixth floor and as she walked past my desk just said, “humph!” (Note that Stacey Schaar used to say I was in love with Gwen Lesh.) If the unnamed female employee was reacting to what I had said to Craig earlier at lunch--why?

3. On the morning of about January 17, 1990 I made an appointment to see Dr. Palombo; that was the first time I had spoken with Dr. Palombo.

Later that day I was riding alone on an elevator. The elevator stopped to pick up another person. The unnamed employee saw me. As she got on the elevator, she looked at me and started to sniff in a histrionic manner, as though she smelled something really offensive.

GF

[Something I found suspicious about Akin Gump was that employees seemed routinely to react to things about which they should have had no knowledge.]

Page 38 of Social Security Document Submission [sent by U.S. mail to sister]

Dear Stell,

This is what I mean by cues--verbal and otherwise.

On a Friday afternoon in May 1990, a consultant at Akin Gump, John Brooks, stopped up to the 9th floor office where I was working and was talking to somebody. He said the following phrase in a markedly audible and enthusiastic way: “You could use that as a writing sample.” John Brooks was accepted to Harvard Medical School. [John Brooks would have graduated Harvard Medical School in the spring of 1994.]

Also, that afternoon I saw Charles Warren and Pat Casey waiting for an elevator just off the lobby area on the 9th floor. Charles Warren looked at me blankly and Pat Casey smiled at me. Their expressions seemed to communicate something. [Charles Warren and Pat Casey, both attorneys at Akin Gump, were husband and wife.]

The following facts might have (and I emphasize “might have”) been related to the above cues. That Friday in May Dr. Palombo had canceled his appointment with me to attend the APA meeting in New York. Dr. Rothenberg was a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

I would need more cues to draw any firm inferences, but I felt at that time that the cues I did perceive were leading in a certain direction.

[Albert M. Rothenberg, MD had referred me to Dr. Palombo in a letter dated November 1989. I had sent Dr. Rothenberg a copy of my autobiographical sketch, "The Caliban Complex: An Attempt at Self-Analysis." I don't know whether Dr. Rothenberg and Dr. Palombo spoke to each other at the APA meeting in New York City, but that's what I surmised.]

GF

Page 39 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

Here’s a psychologically telling anecdote that may shed light on one person’s reaction to me and, by implication, shed light on like peoples’ reaction to me.

During the summer of 1989 I worked with two legal assistants, Stacey Schaar and Gwen Lesh. At one point the two of them had a personal feud. Gwen Lesh had just been admitted to practice law in Maryland. Stacey Schaar called the Maryland attorney disciplinary board to find out how she could provide information about an attorney’s character, information that concerned an attorney’s fitness to practice law.

Paradoxically months earlier, Stacey Schaar had given what seemed to be a relatively expensive nameplate to Gwen Lesh that read, “GWEN LESH, ESQ.”

[I thought that Stacey Schaar had traits of a Borderline Personality Disorder. Also, we see here evidence of Stacey Schaar’s propensity for defamation.]

GF

Page 40 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

She wasn’t just stating a point of view. If she had a good faith belief that I was “difficult to work with” why did she, in the summer of 1990, when I wasn’t even her employee anymore, go out of her way (when my supervisor was on vacation) to offer me an assignment. Her action states clearly that she thought I was easy to work with, that she could call on me for an assignment, and that I would complete it without complaint or protest. Further her going out of her way to offer me an assignment when she had about 50 other legal assistants at her disposal, makes a strong statement about her knowledge of the quality of my work.

Statements to the contrary, at a time when management was investigating my allegations of harassment, were manifestly false and manifestly malicious.

And that’s my point of view -- a point of view substantiated by fact. Dispute that logic.

[The referenced individual was Maggie Sinnott, Akin Gump’s Legal Assistant Administrator. Throughout the summer of 1992, my sister acted as a kind of Devil’s advocate: always taking the side of Akin Gump, as if she were trying to draw information out of me. It seemed to me that my sister had an unusual degree of interest in people and events that had absolutely nothing to do with her. I found her attitude peculiar and revealing; it suggested to me that my sister remained in contact with Akin Gump even after my job termination in late October 1991.]

Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Pages 30-33 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

Here’s some more on the issue of why people respond to me the way they do. I recently had a small insight that may contribute to an understanding of why Akin Gump management responds to me as they do. Maybe you could tell me what you think of this.

In one of my early sessions with Dr. Palombo I confronted him with the accusation that he was in communication with my employer. He put me on the defensive by asking me why I was not practicing law. His questioning of me on this issue was uncharacteristic of a psychoanalyst and was, in fact, not characteristic of my work with him generally. He said, “I’ll tell you what happened. When you graduated from law school you got scared.” 1/

I also confronted Dr. Brown with the accusation that he was in communication with my employer. He, too, asked me why I was not practicing law. His response resembled that of Dr. Palombo, but his questioning was even more pointed. (In a telling display of body language, Dr. Brown took off his glasses to explain at length that he was not communicating with my employer. On only one other occasion in my 20 sessions with Dr. Brown did he take his glasses off--once again it was to assert and explain that he had had no contacts with my employer. He literally couldn’t “look me straight in the eye” to tell me he was not in communication with Akin Gump management.)

I had the impression that Akin Gump management had coached both Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown on what to say should I complain that they were communicating with my employer. In Dr. Palombo’s case, he seemed to step out of his psychoanalytic persona in dealing with the issue. In Dr. Brown’s case, I was struck by the similarity in his response to that of Dr. Palombo. Dr. Brown took on the role of an attorney cross examining a witness on the issue of why I was not practicing law. When I told Dr. Brown that his response to my accusation was peculiarly similar to Dr. Palombo’s response, he said that it was just a natural response to my accusation. (In fact, when I confronted Dr. Sack with the very same accusation, his response was totally different, and consciously psychoanalytical. Dr. Sack said, “If you believe that I am in communication with your employer, you see how easy it is for you not to tell me certain things.” Dr. Sack thus linked my belief in his communications with my employer with the resistance, thereby staying within the psychoanalytical framework. Dr. Sack’s response evidenced a degree of psychological sophistication inconsistent with his having been coached by Akin Gimp management on this issue. Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown, however, linked my belief in the communications with my employer to my not practicing law, thereby putting me on the defensive--as one might expect an attorney to do--but also implicitly, and unintentionally, linking my belief to a problem of ego development (a point that is explained in the material that follows).

In terms of content, my accusation of forbidden communications has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of my not practicing law. It can be shown, however, that at a certain psychological level--at the level of psychological dynamics--these dissimilar issues really involve one and the same issue. If one assumes that it was Akin Gump management that coached both Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown to respond as they did, then a clarification as to the meaning of the response contributes in some small way to an understanding of Akin Gump management’s psychological relation to me (although I have no idea what the following insight contributes).

I. Issue of not practicing law: This can be analyzed in two opposing ways. Some would say I’m afraid to get out into the real world, that I’m chicken. As my co-workers at Akin Gump would say, “It’s a man’s world out there and he’s just not all man.” 2/ This viewpoint asserts some fear of an external danger, a fear of an external object. A contrary view holds that mine is a problem of guilt: a paralysis resulting from internal sources. These two viewpoints as to why I am not practicing law boils down to a conflict as to whether my problem is one of fear of external danger or one of internal inhibition--a problem of external versus internal.

II. Issue of mental health professionals’ forbidden communication with employer: This can be analyzed in two opposing ways. Some would say that my belief is an idea of reference: that my belief in some way gratifies the pleasure ego and that it has no basis in reality. An opposing view holds that my belief is based on my perception of certain verbal and other cues from the environment. These two viewpoints boil down to a conflict as to whether my belief is an internally-determined idea of reference that gratifies the pleasure ego or a realistic conclusion that satisfies the reality ego’s criteria for testing reality. Once again, a problem of internal versus external.

In effect, when I accused Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown of communicating with my employer I was saying that the issue was external; they, in turn, denied this and said the problem was internal. Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown (really Akin Gump management) then responded with a question of their own that implicitly raised the internal/external issue: “Why are you not practicing law?” As to the meaning of this response (what light it sheds on Akin Gump management’s relation to me), I can only say, as Freud would say, “This is something about which one would like to know more.” Unfortunately I have no idea what this response means. Perhaps a psychoanalyst would know.

The external/internal distinction, whether it concerns (1) high reality testing ability versus ideas of reference or (2) fear of external danger versus guilt, is really an issue of ego development. 3/ 4/ Both Dr. Brown and Dr. Palombo (really Akin Gump management), in responding to my accusation with their own question as to why I was not practicing law (both the accusation and the response raising the internal/external issue), thereby kept the focus of the exchange at the level of an inquiry into the degree of my ego development. As noted above, however, Dr. Sack, in effect, shifted the focus. He related my accusation (which raised the internal/external distinction) to the resistance. What is the significance, if any, that Dr. Sack’s response differed from the response of Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown? Once again, an issue about which one would like to know more.

________________________________________

1/ A recurring theme in my relations with Akin Gump employees was the issue of fear. In about August 1989 a legal assistant said to me: “We’re all afraid of you. We’re all afraid you’re going to buy a gun, bring it in and shoot everybody.” On October 29, 1991, Mr. Dennis Race--the chairman of the firm’s hiring committee--told me that the firm’s legal assistant administrator and legal assistant coordinator could not work with me, that they were “afraid” of me.

2/ Paradoxically, this statement was made by the same legal assistant who said, “We’re all afraid of you. We’re all afraid you’re going to buy a gun, bring it in and shoot everybody.” See footnote 1.

3/ Note that it is psychoanalytically consistent, though not axiomatic, than an individual who suffers from intense guilt -- really an overweening superego -- may tend to have unusually high reality testing ability, and, conversely, a person suffering from an uninternalized fear of harm would tend to have low reality testing potential. In other words, a person who is not fulfilling his potential because of guilt might tend to possess the psychological means to discern whether his employer were communicating with his mental health professional. Conversely, a person who was not fulfilling his potential because “he got scared” would tend not to have the psychological means to know of such communications.

4/ The origins of both impulse control mechanisms and reality testing ability have been traced to a single source -- oral, instinctual impulses. Melanie Klein believed that oral frustration contributes to the development of impulse control mechanisms; abnormally intense oral frustration may contribute to the development of a pathological guilt mechanism. Similarly, Freud traced the development of reality testing to the oral stage:

"The function of judgment is concerned with two sorts of decision. It may assert or deny that a thing has a particular property; or it may affirm or dispute that a particular image or presentation exist in reality. Originally the property to be decided about might be either good or bad, useful or harmful. Expressed in the language of the oldest, that is, of the oral, instinctual impulses, the alternative runs thus: 'I should like to eat that, or I should like to spit it out'; or, carried a stage further: 'I should like to take this into me and keep that out of me.' That is to say: it is to be either inside me or outside make. . . . [The original pleasure-ego tried to introject into itself everything that is good and to reject from itself everything that is bad. From its point of view what is bad, what is alien to the other ego, and what is external are, to begin with, identical. The other sort of decision made by the function of judgment, namely, as to the real existence of something imagined, is a concern of the final reality-ego, which develops out of the previous pleasure-ego (a concern, that is, of the faculty that tests the reality of things)." Freud, S. (1925) “Negation.” In: A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud, at 55-56, Rickman, J., ed. (Anchor Books: 1989).

One wonders what effect early oral frustration, or oral traumatization, might have on the development of hypernormal reality testing ability. One might logically speculate that intense oral frustration may serve as a body-ego prototype of an unusual capacity of the final reality-ego to defer judgment, an important aspect of reality testing (and creativity). One might also logically speculate that early oral traumatization (or early oral masochism) may contribute to the development of an ability of the final reality-ego to hold ideas that are in no way pleasurable--ideas that are held simply because they are real, or bitter truths.

The Schizoid Personality Trait in the Workplace: The Ability to See and Understand Nuances

by K. Finlayson, MA, LAC

In many ways, the schizoid personality in the workplace is one with the least maintenance. You can abuse them and they keep on working. This is the person that stays at their desk and does not mix well with the other staff. They avoid the holiday parties and rarely socialize with anyone. No one knows much about their personal history, whether they like “Grey’s Anatomy”, watch sports, read, or any other part of their personal life. They do their work without emotion, creativity, and they do it fairly well and on time. [According to Salman Akhtar, M.D., schizoids can be creative: ["[schizoids are] sometimes quite creative and may make unique and original contributions."]

http://www.ptypes.com/schizoidpd2.html

The schizoid personality type is introverted (as opposed to a person with an introverted style who can express emotion). They avoid interpersonal relationships. As a result, they are immune from all the gossip and other negative interpersonal drama in the workplace. Interestingly, they do not enjoy and do not desire close relationships. Other staff sometimes think they are morose because they don’t have friends, quite the contrary, they like it that way. They are indifferent to both the praise and criticism of others. They show an unwavering absence of feeling. They don’t avoid people because that implies the negative side of attachment; they simply don’t care one way or another about attachment.

Future schizoid personality types as children are generally exposed to emotional deprivation and a lack of exposure to warmth and caring emotions. Together with a general family context of indirectness in thought and behavior, the schizoid child focuses on and is more sensitive to the more tangential aspects of interpersonal dynamics. In the workplace, they might notice the relationship between who re-fills the bottled water and those unhappy about a new policy on attendance. The schizoid’s family is interpersonally reserved, superficial, formal, and interrelate in a remote, disaffiliated way. The schizoid child’s withdrawal may have resulted from a lack of adequate nurturance (no nurturance then; no nurturance now). It may also be a result of avoiding expressing need that as a child caused conflict. Also, schizoid behavior is a way of avoiding anxiety caused by the vulnerability of interpersonal relationships.

One interesting example of a context ripe for schizoid development is a poor immigrant mother traumatized by the transition that projects her dependence and sets up a context with the child where her role is to make him/her to grow up and be a big boy or girl as fast as they can. This maternal connection with the child’s phantom grown up persona leaves the child in the present tense unattended to emotionally. An irritated “what do you want now?” from the mother is a typical response to the child’s needs. The schizoid adult learns that if something is going to get done, they have to do it themselves.

In the workplace, the schizoid is intelligent, gets things done, and they are unaffected by emotional events in the workplace; nothing bothers them much. As supervisors, they have the ability to handle all kinds of interpersonal workplace problems without being personally affected and can instill a sense of calm and security in the workplace. Ironically, they, to some extent, enjoy conflict because they are totally acclimated to it and it presents a recapitulated opportunity to attempt to resolve their original family issue. This, of course, is impossible. Evaluations or criticisms do not bother them at all. They enjoy their after-the-fact intellectual debriefing and rationalizing of any feedback. They do not take this personally. This is one reason that therapist with a schizoid personality trait enjoys working with clients with severe problems. While they can unconsciously avoid emotionality, they are very good at providing a secure base for clients with issues like trauma, attachment disorders, borderline personalities, etc.

One core issue for a schizoid personality type is affirmation. They never got it growing up and when they don’t get it in the workplace, they withdraw. Complicating things for them is the fact that they tend to be intellectual, conceptual, tangential, and indirect in their interpersonal communications so that lack of affirmation is somewhat self-fulfilling. In a planning meeting, they desperately try to explain some important nuisance no one else can see, only to be tuned out.

Their core strength to any organization is their ability to see and understand nuances. They are the “Jack Bower” (“24” on Fox) of an organization. Coupled with their comfort in very chaotic environments they thrive on being trusted (affirmation) with various change management challenges. Depending on the other psychological variables in individuals, there best fit can range from the lone accounts payable clerk to a merger specialist.

http://workplace.blogtownhall.com/default.aspx

My Line of Work

If there were some other line of work that paid this well for doing this little, I'd do it. But there isn't anything else. There just isn't anything else.

Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Page 25 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

In the spring of 1987, Sheryl Ferguson left Hogan & Hartson to work at a litigation support contractor, Atlis. At that time Atlis was doing work as a contractor for Hogan on the project I was then working on as an agency-supplied temporary. I received a telephone call one day from a Miss Rice at Atlis. Miss Rice said that Sheryl Ferguson had given her my name as the contact person at Hogan. In fact, there was a data base administrator working in the department who at that time was also acting as temporary manager of the department until a permanent manager was hired. I gave Miss Rice the telephone number of the data base administrator.

We are left with the anomalous conclusion that Miriam Chilton may have based her decision to terminate me in part based on the word of someone who Sheryl Ferguson, the founder of the department, apparently had little or no confidence in.

Assuming a parallel between my difficulties at Hogan & Hartson and Akin Gump, as has been asserted, what does this anecdote suggest about my accusers at Akin Gump?

GF

Page 26 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

Here’s a Sherlock Holmes problem.

When I was working on the Hoechst-Celanese chemical analysis project, I prepared an alphabetical list of so-called “chemicals of interest.” These were the specific chemicals whose biological effects were to be noted. Each of these chemicals has a corresponding “CAS” number (an identifying number assigned by Chemical Abstracts).

The list would have looked something like this (I’m making up some chemical names and numbers.)

1. Cadmium 64-8493-8492
2. Lead 98-3782-9839
3. Nickel 71-0903-9920
4. Zinc 21-4783-4899

1. 21-47834899 Zinc
2. 64-8493-8492 Cadmium
3. 71-09093-9920 Nickel
4. 98-3782-9839 Lead

I typed the list on the firm’s computer system. What I’m wondering is whether Katherine MacKinnon found out about this list and made some favorable comment to either Chris Robertson or Katherine Harkness. I don’t remember when I prepared this list, but it would be interesting if I prepared this list in late September 1991. (Katherine MacKinnon had a high opinion of me. If she found out about this list her comments would have been very laudatory.)

We also have to ask whether the preparation of such a useful list, which perhaps no other legal assistant had prepared, indicates a high degree of apathy with regard to the project or something else.

Note the probable argument that Katherine Harkness may have made to management. “He’s so insecure, so unable to compete with the other legal assistants, that when I criticized his work, he was enraged and he tried to devalue me.” This argument is a reversal projection of “the attorneys have such a high opinion of Freedman; their praise of him enrages me,” [The use of reversal/projection is significant, since these two ego defenses are at the core of both paranoia and anti-Semitism. See Gay, P. Freud: A Life for Our Time, at 281 (Norton: 1988)].

GF

[Note the continued preoccupation in the above message with the quality of my work; I am obviously responding to an accusation that my work was of poor quality; Akin Gump denied that it told me my work quality was poor.]

Page 27-28 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

What do you make of this argument?

1. The termination of my employment by Akin Gump was malicious and discriminatory.

2. The malicious and discriminatory termination of my employment was carried out by the chairman of the firm’s hiring committee.

2. A letter dated February 14, 1985, signed by a former chairman of the hiring committee, establishes that I met the minimum criteria for serious consideration for an associate position with the firm.

4. Throughout my employment with the firm, supervisory personnel and attorneys, including the husband of the firm’s recruitment administrator*, engaged in harassing acts calculated to intimidate me not to solicit an associate position with the firm. (*During my meeting with Dennis Race and Malcolm Lassman on October 24, 1991 I observed Dennis Race taking notes, which may have recorded an incident I recounted during the meeting concerning David Eisenstat, husband of the recruitment administrator.) The meeting occurred before I had the slightest suspicion that my complaint would lead to my termination. At no time during my termination meeting with Dennis Race on October 29, 1991, indeed, at no time during the entire period of my employment with the firm, did I solicit an associate position with the firm. On a separate but related issue, during one part of my private meeting with Dennis Race, after the termination notice, I had the feeling he was tugging at me, trying to get me to raise the issue of an associate position. He told me he would serve as a job reference for me if I were to seek a position in the private sector or in government (an allusion to Robert Strauss?), he mentioned that he was handling my termination as he would handle the termination of an attorney, he mentioned my having worked on a matter that involved the Railway Labor Act, he said I was a “talented guy” (a peculiar comment to make under the circumstances). Keep in mind that Dennis Race is a litigator who was engaged at that point in time in an interaction that posed potential liability for the firm. This was not mere polite chit-chat -- everything he said and did at that time was carefully calculated to advance the firm’s strategic gain and to lead to my strategic loss. In a poker game a scratch on the chin is probably not just a scratch on the chin. One wonders; what strategic gain would Dennis Race derive from my requesting consideration for an associate position at that point? One thing we may conclude is that it must have been an important issue; he must have seen potential liability on this issue--liability that would be mitigated by my express request for consideration for an associate position.

5. In mid-June 1988 a partner dissuaded me from soliciting an associate position with the firm.

6. In 1990 a legal assistant, Brian Burns, was granted an associate position.

7. An agency-supplied temporary legal assistant, Jan Fraser-Smith, whose services were retained at about the same time I began working for the firm as an agency-supplied temporary, and who performed the very task I performed for the firm, was later granted a position as law clerk.

8. During the entire period of my employment I was employed in tasks far below my qualifications and experience.

9. I was terminated only days after I made an official request to the partner in charge of the legal assistant program that I be granted more substantive work.

GF

Page 29 of Social Security Document Submission

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

Dear Stell,

Here’s an interesting tidbit.

In the spring of 1987, Sheryl Ferguson left Hogan & Hartson to work at a litigation support contractor, Atlis. At that time Atlis was doing work as a contractor for Hogan on the project I was then working on as an agency-supplied temporary. I received a telephone call one day from a Miss Rice at Atlis. Miss Rice said that Sheryl Ferguson had given her my name as the contact person at Hogan. In fact, there was a data base administrator working in the department who at that time was also acting as temporary manager of the department until a permanent manager was hired. I gave Miss Rice the telephone number of the data base administrator.

What do you make of that?

GF

[handwritten note:] 6/29/92

And They Say I'M Crazy!

An email to the White House

On Tuesday afternoon February 23, 2010 I sent the following email message to the White House. I wonder if I will get a reply?

I believe that President Obama connects so wonderfully to the public through television that it could only help him immensely if he would hold monthly televised press conferences.

I'm 56 years old, and I vaguely recall as a child seeing President Kennedy often on television.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to hold more prime time televised press conferences?

Some people talk about President Obama being exposed too much on TV. I really don't think that's a problem. His appearances on television are always a rewarding event!

GARY FREEDMAN

On Writers, Editors, and Other Criminals

It's been my experience that if you come clean during the editing process -- disclose everything, hold back nothing, basically spill your guts -- you will have a far easier time of it in the sentencing phase.

Literary Symbolism -- and Mobbing in the Workplace

http://www.ehow.com/how_2095782_understand-symbolism-literature.html

How to Understand Symbolism in Literature

Whether you are taking a high school or college English literature course, symbolism will be important for you to recognize to fully understand a literature selection. If you've never had to evaluate a work critically, this may seem like a scary experience. Fear not, you can do it. Read on to learn how to understand symbolism in literature.

Step 1 -- Grasp the meaning of "symbol." Just as the American bald eagle is often thought of as the symbol of the United States, symbols used in literature are objects used to represent other things or ideas. For example, in Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," the "A" that Hester Prynne was forced to wear represented not only that she was an adulteress, but also the first letter of the name of her illegitimate child's father, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.

Step 2 -- Recognize the signs. There are several ways to recognize symbolism in literature. One is the frequency an object or character is mentioned in a piece of literature--if it is mentioned often, it is probably important. Another way to find a symbol is to look at how much detail is used in describing an object. These two methods give clues that the writer wants you to infer something about a particular object.

Step 3 -- Familiarize yourself with the author's work and style. A symbol in a piece of literature often represents an important issue of the time in which the author lived, or has personal significance to the writer. Edgar Allan Poe, for example, is well-known for the tragedy he suffered during his lifetime. His stories and poetry often included dark imagery and death which were undoubtedly symbolic of the events in his life.

Step 4 -- Trust your feelings. If an image or object described by the author makes you react in a certain way, you are probably on to something, never discredit your own feelings just because you're a novice. It is very likely that the author planted the image in the work in a particular way to alert the reader that a symbol is important.

Step 5 -- Look to others. There's no shame in reading critical essays about a literary work to gain a better understanding of it, or in discussing a piece of literature.

Mobbing In The Workplace

It has been my experience of workplace mobbing that there is a relationship between this subtle form of job harassment -- which tends to rely on hidden messages in the communicators' speech -- and literary symbolism. See, for example, Keyton, J. and Menzie, K. "Sexually Harassing Messages: Decoding Workplace Conversation." Communication Studies, March 1, 2007; Gruber, J.E. "A Typology of Personal and Environmental Sexual Harassment: Research and Policy Implications for the 1990's" (1992).

Step 1 -- Grasp the meaning of "symbol." Just as the American bald eagle is often thought of as the symbol of the United States, symbols used in mobbing are ideas used to represent other things. For example, in anti-semitic harassment the view of Jews as "liars" may be prominent. If you Google the phrase "Jews are liars," you will get 567,000 hits; substituting any other ethnic or religious group for "Jews" will yield far fewer hits. Google the phrase "Italians are liars," for example, and you will get 6,020 hits. We can expect that plays on the word "liar" will be prominent in anti-semitic workplace mobbing. Thus, an employee may sit at her desk and say, "Liar, liar, pants on fire;" then later, use a Yiddish phrase ("Oy, veh," for example) -- then talk about her July telephone bill, symbolizing the phrase "Jew lie."

Step 2 -- Recognize the signs. There are several ways to recognize mobbing in the workplace. One is the frequency an idea or individual is mentioned in workplace conversations -- if an individual or idea is mentioned often, it is probably important. Another way to find a symbol in workplace mobbing is to look at how much detail is used in describing an idea. These two methods give clues that the harasser wants you to infer something about a particular idea.

Step 3 -- Familiarize yourself with the harassers' conversational style. A symbol in workplace mobbing often has personal significance to the victim of mobbing. Mobbers' constant references to ideas symbolically related to the victim's personal life -- consultations the victim may have had with his psychiatrist, for example -- may indicate that the company's management has been in communication with the victim's psychiatrist and has divulged confidential mental health information relating to the victim to other employees.

Step 4 -- Trust your feelings. If an image or idea described by coworkers makes you react in a certain way, you are probably on to something; never discredit your own feelings just because you're making inferences that could be dismissed as paranoid. In workplace mobbing situations, it is very likely that the mobbers planted the image in the conversation in a particular way to alert the victim that he is the symbolic referent of the communication.

Step 5 -- Look to the experiences of others in the same work environment. If an African-American coworker was terminated by the employer in suspicious circumstances, it is all the more likely that you are correct to suspect that you are a victim of job harassment in that same environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cEfc-CRkUk&feature=channel

Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Pages 18-24 of document submission to the Social Security Administration

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

Dear Stell,

I added a paragraph 6 (together with a reference to paragraph 6 in paragraph 11). I also added material to paragraph 4 and included a concluding statement. I mailed a version to you that you will get in a few days; the mailed version can be discarded. Thank you. GF

[handwritten note:]

Dear Stell,

This is the original of the document I faxed to you on Monday morning. I’m mailing it to you because there may have been a problem with the FAX transmission.

Thanks,

GF

[handwritten note:] 6/92

Dear Stell,

You once said, “You had the same problems at the other firm that you have here [at Akin Gump].” I have tested that hypothesis, and, as you will see, it makes no sense. [I am being facetious. In fact, there were striking parallels between my termination from Hogan & Hartson in February 1988 and my termination from Akin Gump in October 1991.] The situation was totally different. If you compare my situation at both firms you can clearly see that any comparison is ridiculous and absurd -- too absurd to be tenable. We can finally dismiss the silly notion that my problems at Hogan & Hartson are in any way similar to my difficulties at Akin Gump.

___________________

The following is a list of incidents at Hogan & Hartson

1. In February 1988, my supervisor at Hogan, Ms. Miriam Chilton, issued a memo to me based on information provided to her by another employee, hereinafter referred to as “unnamed employee.” [In fact, the employee was Mary Jane Coolen, an Irish Catholic.] Before issuing the memo, Miriam apparently did not investigate the truth of the allegations made by the unnamed employee, since the assertions in the memo were demonstrably false. Miriam apparently simply accepted the charges made by an employee in the department without verification and without discussing the issue with me.

The memo read as follows:

February 9, 1988
TO: Gary Freedman
FROM Miriam T. Chilton [initialed]
[unnamed employee] [initialed]

RE: Full Pass QC [Quality Control] Shelves

Many painstaking hours have gone into creating an effective file and log system for Full Pass QC. This system enables anyone assigned to Full Pass QC to easily locate the next available batch of IU’s [information units] and the corresponding documents. This system also insures that the QC’ers get a random selection of coders. It is clear that you are not following this system [emphasis added.] The documents are kept sequentially on the fourth shelf from the top. The IU’s and printouts are kept sequentially on the fifth and sixth shelves. The QC’er should take the next available batch. Please do not pick and choose the batches you prefer working on [emphasis added]. Please reorganize the shelves and take batches as they come in order. Thank you.

Cc: Espe Rebollar

2. In the following memo, dated February 10, [1988], I clarified the situation for Miriam. The memo indicates the factual errors contained in Miriam’s memo dated February 10, thereby indicating her tacit acknowledgment that the memo accurately stated the facts. [?--I have no idea what this statement means.] (One might speculate that Miriam may have perceived my memo as a humiliation or “embarrassment.”]

To: Miriam T. Chilton
FROM: Gary Freedman
RE: Full Pass QC Shelves
DATE: February 10, 1987 [sic; should read 1988]

Regarding your memo dated February 9, 1987 [sic; should read 1988] concerning the full pass QC shelves, please note that I will arrange the out-of-order batches this evening on my own time. I realize that not keeping the batches in order is a discourtesy to my colleagues and presents an uncalled for inconvenience. I will take special care in the future to keep the batches and the shelves neat.

I would like to note that I do not pick and choose batches, however. Batches that I am now working on or have completed comprise:

380
381
382
383
384

391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402

408
409

As you can see these constitute entire series’ of batches sequentially arranged. On Sunday, when I picked up a group of batches to QC I noticed that there were some batches of documents missing. Sandra [Smalls] helped me look for them but they could not be located--I was forced to skip to the next available batch of matching documents/printouts, which explains one of the gaps above.

3. On about February 23, 1988, Miriam advised me that she was terminating my assignment with Hogan & Hartson effective February 26, 1988. She explained only that there was no longer a backlog of work and that, since I was a temporary employee, my services were no longer required. (Other temporary employees were kept on, however. Miriam’s explanation for my termination was obviously not a complete statement of her rationale.)

4. On the afternoon of about February 23, 1988, shortly after being advised of my termination by Miriam, I spoke with David Kikel, the attorney who headed the project on which I had been working. He was surprised to learn of Miriam’s decision, stating that this was the first he had heard about it. After David Kikel spoke with Miriam, he explained to me only that Miriam’s decision to terminate was her prerogative and that he could not interfere.** He stated, however, that my job performance was not an issue in her decision. In sum, neither David Kikel nor Miriam Chilton offered a complete statement of the reason for my termination. (**Mr. Kikel’s refusal to interfere with Miriam’s decision to terminate was apparently consistent with Hogan policy. In about February 1987, Sheryl Ferguson stated to me that Mr. James Hourihan, the billing partner on the subject project, was at that time extremely displeased with the progress of work on document coding. Sheryl Ferguson told me that Mr. Hourihan had strongly suggested that she terminate all the document coders assigned to the project except for me (and presumably Matthew Allender); at that time the unnamed employee was assigned to the subject project. (At that time Craig Dye was working predominantly on another assignment.) Sheryl Ferguson explained to me that she refused to follow Mr. Hourihan’s suggestion because of the administrative problems that a mass firing would cause in the midst of an existing, large-scale project.)

5. In February 1987, after Sheryl Ferguson announced to the department that she was leaving Hogan and Hartson, the unnamed employee, referring to another employee, Matthew Allender, said to me: “Once she’s gone [i.e., Sheryl Ferguson], he won’t last a minute. We’ll see to that.” Matthew Allender had been assigned the task of supervisor of the document coders; he was an xceptionally diligent employee, and was the one employee in the department who had the full confidence of Sheryl Ferguson. Matthew Allender’s mature and professional attitude aroused some hostility among certain employees in the department. The statement, “Once she’s gone, he won’t last a minute,” implies that Matthew Allender was being “protected” in some way by Sheryl Ferguson, and that without her “protection” he became vulnerable to the machinations of certain employees in the department. In fact, Matthew Allender left the firm voluntarily on September 25, 1987 to pursue more promising opportunities. Some time in about June 1987 I reported to Miriam Chilton the statement, “Once she’s gone, he won’t last a minute,” but did not identify to Miriam the person who made the statement.

6. [Daniel Cutler reported to Craig Dye that on one occasion in the office the unnamed employee exposed herself sexually to Daniel Cutler].

7. At the time I was terminated from Hogan & Hartson, effective February 26, 1988, I formed the belief that an employee had made the accusation to Miriam Chilton that I had been engaged in a scheme to “generate” overtime. I wrote a memo to Miriam regarding this issue dated about February 25, 1988.

________________

If one assumes that my difficulties at Akin Gump parallel my difficulties at Hogan & Hartson, then a comparison of certain incidents at both firms sheds light on the motivations and behaviors of selected Akin Gump employees. However, as stated above, a comparison of seemingly parallel incidents at both firms leads to certain inferences and conclusions about certain Akin Gump employees that are simply not tenable. After reading the following material, any reasonable person will conclude that there is simply no truth to the assertion, “He had the same problems at Hogan that he had here.” [Again, I am being facetious.]

8. If one assumes a symmetry between Hogan and Akin Gump, then one might infer that the investigation following my charges of harassment immediately prior to my termination at Akin Gump [in late October 1991] rose to no higher level of thoroughness than did Miriam Chilton’s investigation of the false charges made about me (see paragraph 1 and paragraph 2). One might assume that the investigation at Akin Gump was simply perfunctory.

[It was about a year later that Akin Gump coworker Pat McNeil told me in a phone conversation in early July 1993: "Dennis Race didn't question anybody in the Department. He never talked to me. If he did an investigation, wouldn't you think that he'd have talked to various ones in the Department? I don't know of anyone in the Department he talked to. Maybe he only talked to selected people Chris Robertson picked, Chris' favorites."]

9. If one assumes a symmetry between Hogan and Akin Gump, then one might infer that my termination by Akin Gump management was based in part on their acceptance of false statements made by employees (see paragraph 1 and paragraph 2).

10. If one assumes a symmetry between Hogan and Akin Gump, one might infer that the employee statements on which Akin Gump management partly based its decision were recklessly or knowingly false and made with the malicious intent to damage my employment relationship with the firm (see paragraph, 1, paragraph 2; cf. paragraph 5).

11. Some time in September or early October 1991, legal assistant Katherine Harkness encouraged me to take work home and to “work all the overtime” I wanted at home. (Katherine Harkness is the legal assistant who appeared to act in a sexually suggestive manner with me during a meeting in her office on October 2, 1991 [cf. paragraph 6].) Assuming a symmetry between Akin Gump and Hogan one might infer that Katherine Harkness’ suggestion to work all the overtime I wanted at home was less than ingenuous (see paragraph 7).

[I had the paranoid idea that the suggestion that I work "all the overtime" I wanted at home was a set-up; I suspected that Katherine Harkness and my Supervisor Chris Robertson were following the "Hogan Playbook" and they wanted to later make a case that I was generating overtime. Based on this paranoid suspicion I decided not to work any overtime at home.]

(I was assigned by Chris Robertson to work on the Hoechst-Celanese chemical analysis project with Katherine Harkness in around early August 1991 [cf. paragraph 13]).

12. In early August 1991, I discussed with Chris Robertson certain instances of harassment that I had experienced at the firm, including the incident in March 1991 in which someone had left a letter opener on my desk in a position suggestive of a symbolic stabbing and the incident in which someone had left a note on my desk with the message, [Legal Assistant Administrator] Maggie Sinnott of these incidents, Chris said, “You should have told Maggie or me. We would have protected you.” (I read Chris’ statement, “We would have protected you,” as a mocking reference to the notion current in the firm that I was being protected by firm management. The notion of my being protected by firm management--perhaps including Robert Strauss**--parallels the perceptions of the unnamed employee at Hogan who believed that Matthew Allender, whose professionalism and maturity set him apart from other employees, was being protected by Sheryl Ferguson [see paragraph 5].) (**One might wish to note that the morning after a particularly difficult telephone conversation with my sister on the evening of August 1, 1990, Laurel Digweed made a[n unusual] brief appearance at one of the weekly litigation support staff meetings. Laurel Digweed and Chris Robertson discussed the supposedly foolhardy policy of Robert Strauss, whom Laurel Digweed referred to on that occasion as “our fearless leader,”

[Compare pages 6-11 of SSA Document submisson: "The Hoechst training session on April 3, 1991, which lasted about 1.5 hours, appeared to have been hastily called in that a number of key issues with regard to the design of the data base had not yet been decided upon. A number of questions had to be left unanswered, pending a final determination with regard to the data base design. The attorney Cynthia Hogue attended the meeting. At one point in the meeting Cynthia Hogue reported on a conversation she had had with David Callet with regard to Hoechst document coding. Cynthia Hogue mildly ridiculed David Callet, a highly respected partner in the firm, and concluded her remarks about him with the comment, “Oh, silly David.” [I had the paranoid feeling that David Callet had made a favorable comment about me based on information reported to firm management by Dr. Winkler--and that David Callet's comment about me aroused the jealousy of firm personnel; I had the feeling Cynthia Hogue was trying to elicit a negative facial expression from me upon hearing David Callet's name, which would then be reported back to David Callet. David Callet had been the senior attorney on Eastern Airlines and, like me, was a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University.]"]

to allow free access to the firm’s premises on weekends in order to accommodate the firm’s clients. The issue under discussion was a rash of thefts that, at that time, was plaguing the firm--specifically, the fact that employees’ desks were being broken into. In the opinion of Laurel Digweed and Chris Robertson, Mr. Strauss’s liberal policy regarding weekend access to the building aggravated the problem of theft. I read the unusual exchange between Chris Robertson and Laurel Digweed as a reaction to possible sympathetic comments made by members of firm management following the difficult telephone conversation I had with my sister the previous evening. The conversation with my sister concerned, in part, personal information I had accidentally obtained while working at Maggie Sinnott’s desk--with her knowledge--during a weekend in May 1988.

[In May 1988, I was working at Maggie Sinnott's desk. I opened a desk drawer and found a notation referring to Dr. Ernst Ticho and including his telephone number. It was Dr. Gertrude Ticho (Ernst Ticho's wife) whom Dennis Race reportedly consulted immediately prior to his decision to terminate my employment in late October 1991. I had told my sister the previous evening in a phone conversation that Maggie Sinnott had seen Ernst Ticho in consultation; a fact that my sister, I believed, had reported back to Malcolm Lassman or Earl Segal. I further believed that my disclosure enraged Maggie Sinnott, a narcissistic injury that she never forgot.

Note the close relationship between Chris Robertson and Laurel Digweed -- "partners-in-crime," so to speak. In McNeil v. Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, (1993) Akin Gump denied that Laurel Digweed colluded with Chris Robertson in the termination of Patricia McNeil. The U.S. District Court accepted Akin Gump's denial. Akin Gump's denial, I believe, was perjured.]

At the litigation support staff meeting on August 2, 1990, it was as if Chris and Laurel were in a symbolic way giving voice to their feeling. “If Strauss weren’t here, Freedman would be gone in a minute.” See paragraph 5 concerning issue of protection by authority figure.)

13. In about August 1991, Robert Strauss left the firm to assume a Presidential appointment. Assuming a parallel between Hogan and Akin Gump, one might infer that those employees at Akin Gump who subscribed to the notion that I was being protected by management -- including Mr. Strauss -- also believed that once Mr. Strauss was gone I would become especially vulnerable to their machinations. Compare the statement by the unnamed employee at Hogan & Hartson in reference to another putatively protected employee, “Once she’s gone, he won’t last a minute. We’ll see to that” (see paragraph 5).

14. When Mr. Dennis Race advised me, on October 29, 1991, that the management committee had decided to terminate my position with the firm, he explained that a number of employees had made certain allegations about me. Assuming that I “had the same problems at Hogan” that I had at Akin Hump, we might infer that those allegations were false, and the allegations were made solely to damage my relationship with the firm (i.e., the statements were made by the same people who were determined to see that I “didn’t last a minute”) (see paragraph 1 and paragraph 2; cf. paragraph 5). Further, we may assume that the stated rationale for my termination -- that I did not “fit” at the firm -- was an incomplete statement of the reason for my termination (see paragraph 4; cf. paragraph 2 concerning issue of “embarrassment”).

In conclusion, assuming that the behavior and motivations of an employee at Hogan & Hartson parallel the behavior and motivations of certain employees of Akin Gump, we may infer that the employee statements upon which the managers of Akin Gump partly based their decision to terminate were made by many of the same employees (1) who had earlier caused to be instigated and actively promoted a rumor that I was a homosexual**; (2) who had a propensity to engage in sexually offensive behavior in the office, including my supervisor, Mrs. Christine Robertson and legal assistant Katherine Harkness; (3) who were motivated by a desire to damage my employment relationship with Akin Gump by making recklessly or knowingly false statements; and (4) who caused to be instigated and actively promoted the belief that I was being protected by managers of Akin Gump (**Shortly after Craig Dye began working at Hogan on October 6, 1986, the unnamed employee allegedly told another employee about Craig: “He’s gay. He is definitely gay. There is no way he’s not gay.” Craig Dye is, in fact, extremely heterosexual.)