(Photo: Mike Scarcella/ALM)

A third woman who worked in DLA Piper's Silicon Valley office has come forward with accusations of improper conduct by the firm and Louis Lehot, the influential Silicon Valley rainmaker who recently left the firm amid sexual assault allegations brought by a junior partner.

Administrative assistant Andrea Ivan, 65, says she believes Lehot pushed a human resources officer in the firm to terminate her because of her age. Based a co-worker's description of Lehot's personal administrative assistant as "young and hot," Ivan contended that he had an unacceptable standard for female employees. Her filing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission follows an earlier complaint by an unnamed HR officer going by Jane Smith who said that she was let go because of her unwillingness to push out an administrative assistant Lehot wanted fired.

"I was unlawfully targeted by Louis Lehot, a senior partner that worked from the Palo Alto office, who decided that I was too old or not attractive enough for his tastes or both and wanted me gone," Ivan said in her charge. "Although I suspected that Lehot bullied women in HR to terminate me, until I read Ms. Smith's account of her experiences, I had no idea that Lehot would fire a senior HR manager because she spoke out on my behalf."

Ivan is being represented by Wigdor LLP attorney Jeanne Christensen, who is already representing DLA Piper partner Vanina Guerrero as well as Smith. Guerrero kicked off the increasingly messy fight when she accused Lehot of sexually assaulting her multiple times. Guerrero has since been placed on administrative leave by the firm, which said that an internal investigation revealed that she herself had engaged in harassment.

Louis Lehot, formerly of DLA Piper

Lehot has strongly denied Guerrero's claims of assault.

Christensen, who paired Guerrero's initial EEOC charge with a public letter asking DLA Piper to release her client from a mandatory arbitration clause, has renewed her request for the agency to investigate claims against the firm on a classwide basis.

"A work atmosphere that depicts a 'general fear by women employees at the office' is unlawful and unacceptable," she wrote to the agency.

Apart from Guerrero's claims of assault, Christensen cited Smith's alleged terror of leaving her car to enter DLA Piper's Palo Alto, California, office when Lehot was there, Ivan's allegations that she failed to meet Lehot's purported "young and hot" standards and was too scared to talk to anyone about Lehot, and a third letter from San Diego-based professional responsibility counsel Leah Christensen who claimed Lehot called her a "dumb bitch."

"Standing alone, the allegations by these women are serious. Collectively, it is implausible that DLA Piper elected Lehot to such a coveted senior position without knowledge of his discriminatory treatment towards female employees," she said.

Lehot responded via a spokesman that "this letter is riddled with lies, just like the previous letters.''

A lawyer for DLA Piper said the firm's rejected Ivan's allegations. "DLA Piper disagrees with Ms. Ivan's charge, and will respond in due course through the EEOC process," said Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Katherine Smith.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the professional relationship between Ivan and Lehot. The error has been corrected. 

Read More:

DLA Piper Says Partner 'Orchestrated' Relationship With Her Alleged Assaulter

'This Is The Future': DLA Piper's #MeToo Allegations Unleash a 3-Way Mudfight

Ex-DLA Piper Ethics Counsel Alleges Firm Tolerated 'Abuse of Power' by Ousted Partner