Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

DLA Piper has submitted its first formal response to claims by partner Vanina Guerrero that she was the subject of repeated sexual assaults by Silicon Valley rainmaker Louis Lehot, highlighting a stream of consciousness letter she emailed to herself saying that offering "friendship w/o anything" would allow her to "control" him.

While both Lehot and DLA Piper have been employing a carefully crafted media strategy in response to Guerrero's allegations, the firm's 122-page response Tuesday to her Sept. 30 charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission marks a new phase in the fight.

The firm's letter draws on an internal investigation handled by attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher that has already led to the dismissal of Lehot and the administrative suspension of Guerrero, and it appends nearly 100 pages of emails and photographs.

"Ms. Guerrero's own emails show that she was not subject to abuse or assault by Mr. Lehot. In fact, dozens of emails and messages show that Ms. Guerrero was a willing participant in a lengthy emotional flirtation with Mr. Lehot that she orchestrated to advance her career," Gibson Dunn attorneys Michele Maryott, Katherine Smith and Kevin Rosen wrote.

Vanina Guerrero

One of the linchpins for this argument is an email that Guerrero sent to herself, via her DLA Piper account, on Nov. 10, 2018, just weeks after the third of four alleged assaults she claimed against Lehot. (Lehot has denied ever assaulting Guerrero.)

Guerrero begins one section of that email, which is over two pages long: "Louis: This man will help me / Control him: friendship w/o anything."

"Cannelize [sic] the energy – get me to where I need professionally," she continues. "Don't open up to him / Leverage it for me…"

The Gibson Dunn attorneys note that the email, which is published in full, includes a number of other candid statements about her professional goals and references to her sexuality, and it does not describe Lehot as "abusive, bullying, or controlling"—in contrast to her EEOC claims.

As further evidence of what it characterizes as Guerrero's duplicity, the Gibson Dunn team representing DLA Piper pointed to her omission of a March 2019 trip she took with Lehot to Machu Picchu from her EEOC charge and her other public statements,

The trip came after the fourth and final allegation of sexual assault, during which Guerrero claimed she made it clear to Lehot that she would never be in an "intimate relationship" with him, allegedly prompting Lehot to threaten her job, position at the firm and compensation, telling her "their working relationship would never be the same."

It also came after the date Guerrero said she'd "forfeit[ed] opportunities" to travel with Lehot out of fear he "would sequester her in a hotel room and physically force himself on her."

The letter also provided an alternate explanation for the transformation in the working relationship between Guerrero and Lehot, who recruited Guerrero to leave her job in Hong Kong as general counsel for both Reliance Communications, the flagship telecom arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, and its internet and technology subsidiary.

The Gibson Dunn attorneys said the pair disagreed over whether Guerrero's time and the firm's resources were best spent pursuing work on a transaction in which the client had not yet received sufficient funding to meet the firm's anticipated fees. The letter added that when Guerrero took the issue to Sang Kim, another partner on the deal and a member of DLA Piper's global board, she said that Lehot was "controlling" but did not share that she was "assaulted."

Rather than removing her from the deal in retaliation for her complaint, as Guerrero claimed, she was removed at the instruction of the client, DLA Piper alleges.

Guerrero's attorney, Jeanne Christensen of Wigdor LLP, said, "DLA Piper, a global law firm, has managed to reach a new low in the how to smear women that speak out about sexual assault playbook—a low that even Harvey Weinstein, Bill O'Reilly and Matt Lauer did not reach."

The letter also called out Leah Christensen, the former DLA Piper conflicts counsel who has spoken up publicly in support of Guerrero. Christensen has described her own experience with Lehot's alleged bullying and a purported culture of impunity for top-earners at the firm. But the Gibson Dunn attorneys said that Christensen, based in San Diego, was not in a position to know about Lehot's activities in the Palo Alto, California, office, and that she violated her duty to the firm by speaking out about its internal communications, particularly a letter that purportedly identified a "top ten" list of attorneys "not to be bothered."

"Christensen's letter to this Commission, as well as her public statements, are in direct violation of her duty of confidentiality and her duty of loyalty, among other ethical and tortious transgressions," the letter said.

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