Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The former DLA Piper ethics counsel who has already publicly criticized the firm's culture in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against former partner Louis Lehot is speaking out again, this time in a filing with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"I am contacting you because I know no one will dare challenge Lehot," Leah Christensen wrote in a Oct. 23 letter to the agency.

Christensen, who spent five years as professional responsibility counsel in DLA Piper's San Diego office, said that her letter supporting the claim of Lehot's accuser, Vanina Guerrero, was prompted by Lehot's move to leak dozens of emails and photos showing friendly exchanges during the period of time in which Guerrero has alleged she was assaulted repeatedly. Lehot has denied ever assaulting Guerrero, painting her as a liar.

"I knew I had to come forward about this bully. I have no doubt he will create a false narrative to serve his personal interests," Christensen, currently an attorney at McCune Wright Arevalo, said in her four-page letter. "If the GC and senior partners, mostly men, fear Lehot, then who is going to speak up for Ms. Guerrero or challenge Lehot? If lawyers in positions of power at DLA Piper are afraid to speak out, then junior female lawyers and staff must be even more afraid."

Christensen told the EEOC that she frequently interacted with Lehot, a top adviser on technology mergers and acquisitions for the firm, because he often represented clients in deals with other clients. She claimed that her efforts to get him to comply with ethics requirements and seek waivers to do so made her the subject of the kinds of allegedly bullying behavior that Guerrero detailed in her initial EEOC complaint.

"If I dared to suggest to Lehot that I thought extra compliance was needed as per ethics rules, I was on the receiving end of Lehot's rants about my 'incompetence' and his threats to go to the GC to complain about me," Christensen wrote, noting that Lehot once called her a "dumb bitch" in front of other DLA Piper staff.

Attempts to draw her superiors' attention to Lehot's ethical missteps led to dead ends, Christensen continued. Lehot would then complain to general counsel Elisha King, who told her that the firm had a "top 10" list of partners that we "should not bother," Christensen alleged. Lehot, who brought in over $20 million annually in fees, was atop the list, she wrote.

Christensen claimed that three female attorneys at the firm had contacted her after the initial open letter, thanking her for publicly supporting Guerrero. "In sum and substance, they told me: 'Thank you. [We] wanted to come forward, too, but [we] are too scared,'" she wrote.

The EEOC letter was made public by Guerrero's attorney, Wigdor LLP partner Jeanne Christensen (no relation), in a post on Medium.com.

In an interview, Leah Christensen said that she reached out to Jeanne Christensen after seeing Guerrero's own open letter publicizing her claims against DLA Piper at the beginning of October: "Because I had this personal experience, I know what she was up against. I said, 'If I can provide additional information, let me know.'"

Leah Christensen added that her first open letter was unsolicited and that she had no intention of contacting the EEOC until she saw Lehot's response.

"This retaliation has to stop," she said. "It prevents so many people from being able to work in an appropriate and bully-free place, when corporations and law firms in particular can retaliate so blatantly."

Leah Christensen, who also teaches legal writing at the University of San Diego School of Law, said that her experience at DLA Piper prompted her move to plaintiffs-side firm McCune Wright Arevalo, where her advocacy on behalf of Guerrero has been "completely supported."

"Their exact word was 'proud,'" she said, after she asked to use the firm's name in her open letter amid concerns of retaliation from her previous firm.

In a statement Wednesday, DLA Piper strongly refuted both the premise and the substance of Christensen's claims: "Leah Christensen's letter to the EEOC contains false statements and misrepresentations regarding the culture and client intake process at DLA Piper. Her premise is that the firm will do nothing to confront Louis Lehot, yet he is no longer a partner of the firm—a fact she seems intent on ignoring. Ms. Christensen has written three letters about the firm, and with each letter, the factual inaccuracies are becoming more pronounced. The firm adheres to applicable law and ethics rules and expects the same from each and every one of our lawyers, without exception for any partners—a fact that Ms. Christensen, as a former lawyer whose client was DLA Piper, appears to have forgotten. Ms. Christensen has now made demonstrably false statements to a governmental tribunal (the EEOC), which no lawyer is permitted to do."

Last week DLA Piper placed Guerrero on leave from the partnership, citing allegations that Guerrero herself had harassed an unnamed individual at the firm. Wigdor's Christensen described the move as part of a "smear campaign."

A spokeswoman for Lehot declined to comment.

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