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Attorney Charged With Posting Ad Seeking 'Secretary With Benefits'
To borrow a line from Martin Landau's Bob Ryan character on the HBO show "Entourage," what if I was to tell you about an Illinois Disciplinary Commission complaint against an attorney who allegedly attempted to hire a secretary whose duties would expressly include sexual interaction with him and his partner, and that as part of the interview process the candidate would be required
to perform for them sexually?
Is that something you might be interested in?
The Legal Profession Blog reports here on this bombshell of a complaint over the attorney's May 2009 ad for a secretary/legal assistant. The ad was curiously posted in the "Adult Gigs"
section of the classified advertisements on Craigslist, and was entitled, "Loop lawyers hiring secretary/legal assistant." It read as follows:
Loop law firm looking to hire am [sic] energetic woman for their open secretary/legal
assistant position. Duties will include general secretarial work, some
paralegal work and additional duties for two lawyers in the firm. No
experience required, training will be provided. Generous annual salary
and benefits will be provided, including medical, dental, life,
disability, 401(k) etc. If interested, please send current resume and a
few pictures along with a description of your physical features,
including measurements. We look forward to meeting you.
Later that day, an applicant sent in her information, including a
photo, her height, clothing size and her measurements. The next day, the attorney in question allegedly responded with an e-mail that gave some basic information about the position, but then went on to state:
As this is posted in the "adult gigs" section, in addition to the legal work, you would be required to have sexual interaction with me and my partner, sometimes
together sometimes separate. This part of the job would require sexy
dressing and flirtatious interaction with me and my partner, as well as
sexual interaction. You will have to be comfortable doing this with us.
If you think you're comfortable so far, please let me know and we can proceed with the process.
The next step is to
set up an interview. When are you available to interview? I am free to
interview today. Please let me know what your availability is.
Lastly, we've actually
hired a couple of girls in the past for this position. But they have
not been able to handle the sexual aspect of the job later. We have to
be sure you're comfortable with that aspect, because I don't want you
to do anything that you're not comfortable with. So since that time,
we've decided that as part of the interview process you'll be required
to perform for us sexually (i didn't do this before with the other
girls i hired, now i think i have to because they couldn't handle it).
Because that aspect is an integral part of the job, I think it's
necessary to see if you can do that, because it'll predict future
behavior of you being able to handle it when you have the job.
If you're still okay
with everything, let me know what you're availability is and we can
figure out a time for you to come in and interview. Let me know. Thanks
for your interest.
The applicant complained to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which then opened an investigation. The attorney initially responded that:
it appears that somebody with malice [sic] intentions has used my business information
to post the advertisement on Craigslist. I did not post the
advertisement for a legal secretary...
Subsequently, however, when the attorney was required to give a sworn statement before the Disciplinary Commission, he admitted that he did, in fact, post the Craigslist advertisement and send the follow-up e-mail to the applicant.
I'm pretty much speechless after that, so let's just wrap this up with a montage of Landau's finest "What if I told you" moments on "Entourage" (Rated R):
Posted by Bruce Carton on October 22, 2009 at 11:37 AM | Permalink
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