The DLA Piper partner who accused colleague and DLA Piper partner Louis Lehot of sexually assaulting her has been placed on leave herself.
The firm said that it was placing Vanina Guerrero on paid leave while it investigates “serious issues” with her conduct that it called unrelated to her accusations against Lehot.
Guerrero had earlier said that partner Lehot (right) sexually assaulted her shortly after she had joined the firm, which has since parted ways with Lehot.
“During the course of our investigation into her claims, serious issues were brought to the firm’s attention,” DLA Piper said Wednesday.
Its statement didn’t say what those alleged issues are, except that they involved Guerrero’s “conduct towards and involving others at the firm,” are unrelated to her claims about Lehot, and “require a separate investigation,” the firm said.
The firm said that Guerroro’s conduct involved harassment of another person at the firm, according to a letter sent to her lawyer and released by Bloomberg Law.
“DLA Piper has taken retaliation against female employees that dare speak out about sexual violence to a new stratosphere,” Guerrero’s lawyer, Jeanne Christensen at Wigdor LLP, said in a email. “DLA Piper has not told me, her lawyer, or Ms. Guerrero what she allegedly did.”
Is that photograph indicative of how Vanina Guerrero dresses for work in a solicitor’s office ?