On Doing Your Own Investigation: Verner Liipfert

January 11, 1997
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW #136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Joseph L. Manson, III
Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand
Suite 700
901-15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005-2301

RE: Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand Employment Inquiry - Homicide/Violence Risk

Dear Mr. Manson:

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) (name of state court judge redacted at the implicit direction of the Justice Department). 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, within one year after my job termination by Akin Gump, I submitted an employment inquiry to Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand ("Verner Liipfert") as evidenced by the enclosed response signed by Recruitment Administrator Diane F. Ross and dated July 29, 1992. I do not know what communications, if any, Diane F. Ross may have had with Akin Gump's attorney managers or supervisors at the time of this 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 Diane F. Ross 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 my employment inquiry to Verner Liipfert), 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.

Verner Liipfert and Akin Gump have had professional ties--as you may know Verner Liipfert assumed the representation of Eastern Airlines from Akin Gump in the year 1990--so that any disclosures made by Akin Gump to Verner Liipfert concerning my employment history at Akin Gump may, therefore, have been unusually candid.

Additionally, Frederick J. McConville, Esq., Verner Liipfert Of Counsel, was associated with Akin Gump at the time of my tenure, and, coincidentally, Mr. McConville's office was located immediately adjacent to that of the Akin Gump partner in charge of that firm's legal assistant program, Earl L. Segal, Esq. (I believe that Mssrs. Segal and McConville shared a secretary.) Mr. McConville may have become involuntarily privy to information relating to Akin Gump's legal assistants.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman