The D.C. Madam's Akin Gump Apprentice: She's No Miss Popularity

In our recent post about an alleged D.C.-madam-in-training — a legal secretary at the powerhouse firm of Akin Gump, who allegedly serviced clients and worked the phones for Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the alleged D.C. madam — we asked you for more information about this hardworking and multitalented young woman.
We are still accepting your tips. We’ll kick things off with this info, from a source who knows the alleged junior madam:

First, she’s not a paralegal. She’s just a legal secretary.

This answers the question we raised yesterday about whether she might be a paralegal rather than a secretary. In one of her emails to Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the Akin Gump employee said it would be easy to balance her work for Palfrey with her “paralegal duties.”
Our tipster continues:

Second, she has the ‘tude in the office that she’s better than the rest. Most people don’t like her.

Third, in terms of her appearance, she has the typical Barbie look: blonde, shapely, busty.

Based on this description, we’re guessing that this individual worked for a high-powered partner at Akin Gump. In our experience, legal secretaries fall into two categories: the total hotties, and the total notties, with precious few in between. They’re straight out of either (1) the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue or (2) a bingo hall.
The top dogs — name partners, major rainmakers, etc. — got the hottie secretaries. Everyone else had to just cross their fingers. So if Palfrey’s right-hand-woman is blonde and busty, she probably had a powerful boss at the firm.
More discussion, after the jump.


We’re speaking here in generalities; we do not intend to offend. We realize that in this day and age, many high-powered Biglaw partners are women, who do not fit the stereotype of lusting after their secretaries. (Not that there would be anything wrong with that, of course; lesbians do not traumatize us.)
Also, a fair number of legal assistants are men. In fact, when we were in private practice, we had an assistant who was male — and had a British accent. Best law firm perk ever: a secretary with a fabulous accent!
P.S. Today’s Washington Post has a profile of Montgomery Blair Sibley, the lawyer representing Deborah Jeane Palfrey. He seems kinda insane.
P.P.S. In looking back at yesterday’s WSJ Law Blog post about this news, we were dismayed to see that the moderators removed two readers comments that, while tasteless and juvenile, caused us to chuckle. They were, from memory:

“Does she take dicktation?”

“No, she prefers briefs.”

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The Colorful Case of A Well-Named Lawyer [Washington Post via WSJ Law Blog]
Akin Gump Suspends Sec’y Who Worked for “D.C. Madam” [WSJ Law Blog]
Earlier: Akin Gump: Truly A ‘Full-Service’ Law Firm

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