Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A junior partner at DLA Piper has accused the co-managing partner of the firm's Silicon Valley office of sexually assaulting her multiple times in the months after he recruited her to join the firm.

Vanina Guerrero lodged the allegations against Louis Lehot, who also co-chairs the firm's U.S. emerging growth and venture capital group, in an open letter to DLA Piper U.S. co-chairs Roger Meltzer and Jay Rains, asking them to release her from her mandatory arbitration agreement with the firm.

"No female working at DLA Piper, whether she works as an administrative assistant, paralegal, departmental staff employee, associate lawyer, contract lawyer, of counsel lawyer, contract partner or equity partner should be forced to litigate claims involving sexual assault and battery or sexual harassment by male lawyers in secret," Guerrero said in the letter.

Guerrero joined the firm in September 2018 as a partner in Silicon Valley, after previously serving as general counsel for both Reliance Communications, the flagship telecom arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, and its internet and technology subsidiary.

In an Oct. 1 supplement to a complaint lodged with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Guerrero said that it was Lehot's promises that persuaded her to uproot her husband and two toddlers from their home in Hong Kong and move to Palo Alto, California, to take the job with DLA Piper. The attorney allegedly promised to make her part of his four-partner nucleus and share in his $22 million book of business.

But she alleges to the EEOC that on her first international business trip with Lehot in Shanghai, just weeks after she joined the firm, he forced himself on her in his hotel room, hugging and groping her before she ran from the room.

Guerrero included detailed allegations of three other alleged sexual assaults by Lehot, along with a lengthy list of sexually charged statements that he allegedly made against her. She also claimed that Lehot was a regular thrower of tantrums in the office, alleging in the letter that his bullying techniques prompted others to proactively silence themselves around her.

Guerrero also claims that initially, after each effort to initiate a sexual relationship with her, Lehot would "forgive" her for rebuffing him and act professionally again. But, she further claims in the letter, by late last winter, after Guerrero once again made clear that she would not engage in a sexual relationship with Lehot, he responded by freezing her out. Lehot allegedly sought to undermine her work on a major deal alongside a senior partner. After repeatedly informing the partner that Lehot was "terrorizing" her, and finally detailing his specific actions in July, the partner allegedly responded by saying it looked like a "he said, she said" situation and asking Guerrero to "talk it out" with Lehot and three other senior partners.

Attorney Jeanne Christensen of Wigdor said she informed DLA Piper that the firm was representing Guerrero in late July, and she claims that since that date, Lehot has continued to retaliate, dropping Guerrero from work-related emails for their largest client, for example. After he forced her to participate in a meeting, Guerrero claims she suffered a panic attack and landed in the urgent care unit of a local hospital.

Furthermore, Guerrero claims the firm has contrived alleged information about her own "inappropriate" behavior and initiated a full investigation through outside counsel.

"We are aware of these allegations by one of our partners and take them seriously," a spokesman for the firm said Wednesday. "As soon as we were notified of the allegations, we took appropriate steps to investigate them. This process is ongoing and we continue to seek Ms. de Verneuil's cooperation in our investigation."

Guerrero's website with the firm refers to her as Vanina de Verneuil.

Lehot joined DLA Piper in 2015, coming from Cooley, where he was a partner for just over two years. Before that, he practiced at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton for less than four years, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett for just under four years, and Shearman & Sterling for five years.

Lehot did not respond to both an email and a telephone call Tuesday.

DLA Piper's policy of imposing mandatory arbitration agreements on lawyers and summer associates has previously been the subject of a pressure campaign by students at Harvard Law School.

"No victim of sexual assault or harassment should ever be denied access to our court system.  DLA Piper should lead by example and do what is right for its female employees. No longer should female employees be silenced to protect its male centric leadership," Christensen said in an email.