The Akin Gump Escort: You Can Call Her ‘Jennifer’
Earlier this year, we devoted extensive coverage to the Akin Gump Escort. She was the legal secretary at Akin Gump who worked for powerhouse lawyer John Dowd by day, and alleged D.C. madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey by night.
Courtesy of WTOP, we now know more about the close working relationship between the Akin Gump Escort and the D.C. Madam:
“Why did you do this to me? I never did anything to you.”That accusatory two-sentence e-mail from alleged D.C. madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey to an escort she considered her “little sister” and one of her most trusted confidantes came moments after Palfrey realized her assets had been frozen by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“My first thought because of the timing was that (Jennifer) was working with the government,” writes Palfrey, in a series of e-mails to WTOP.
“Jennifer” was the name escort customers knew for a legal secretary at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a prominent D.C. law firm. The woman was fired in May 2007, shortly after revealing to the firm that she had moonlighted for Palfrey’s Pamela Martin & Associates between 2002 and 2006.
Fired? She should have been promoted, due to her intimate knowledge of servicing clients.
More discussion after the jump.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey initially thought that “Jennifer” had ratted her out, but changed her mind:
On Oct. 4, 2006, when Palfrey learned her assets had been frozen and her home searched by federal agents as part of a joint Internal Revenue Service-U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigation, she initially believed “Jennifer” provided the government with the impetus to bring a criminal case against her….“I immediately backed off,” Palfrey writes. “I have continued to maintain she — like the other escorts — probably is a victim.”
So Palfrey is standing by “Jennifer.” But “Jennifer” isn’t going to prison for Palfrey:
WTOP is not identifying “Jennifer” by her given name, as she has not been charged with any crimes. Her lawyer confirms his client has been contacted by the prosecution, and at trial would testify against Palfrey.“If my client is called as a witness, she intends to testify,” says Athan Tsimpedes, attorney for “Jennifer.”
If you’re trying to imagine what “Jennifer” looks like, here’s fodder for your fantasies:
[T]he escort’s phone number appears 1,052 times in Palfrey’s records between April 3, 2002 and May 21, 2006.“She was in her late 20s, a five foot and no inches tall, pretty, busty blonde,” writes Palfrey.
A recent traffic citation lists the former Akin Gump employee as 5 feet tall and 110 pounds.
In her day job, WTOP has learned “Jennifer” was a legal secretary for John M. Dowd, the head of Akin Gump’s criminal litigation group.
(The John Dowd tidbit is nothing new. We reported it back in May.)
On Oct. 2, 2006, two days before Palfrey’s home was searched and her assets frozen, “Jennifer” broached the subject of reuniting. In e-mails from her Akin Gump account obtained by WTOP, she typed, “Just wanted to drop you a line to see if there is another contact number for me to call in case I wanted to pick up a few nights or has everything been shut down?”Palfrey, in Europe at the time, informed “Jennifer” that she’d closed her business in August.
But Palfrey, who even helped buy Jennifer a horse farm, was still looking out for her well-endowed protégé:
Palfrey was willing to consider passing-along her business to Jennifer.“It is plain ‘foolish’ to take a perfectly viable revenue stream (of any kind) and just throw it away, without solid justification,” Palfrey wrote.
From the BLT: “Might not have been a bad option for Jennifer, who now works in debt collection.”
Maybe Akin Gump could hire Jennifer back, and sic her on clients who are dragging their feet on paying their bills? It might be a way for the firm to avoid the spectacle of litigation:
“She was wrongfully fired. Akin Gump did her an injustice. She was imprisoned by her firing. It doesn’t take much to figure out who she was,” [Jennifer’s attorney Athan] Tsimpedes says.
Will “Jennifer” sue Akin Gump for wrongful termination? Stay tuned. It remains to be seen whether this story will have a happy ending.
Update: Our favorite comment thus far:
The 1,052 calls in the phone log don’t necessarily mean 1,052 clients serviced, but [Jennifer] was clearly meeting her billables target. She was in discussion to become an equity partner when the firm dissolved. Is she lateralling to another DC area firm? With her book, I’m sure she could go anywhere.
E-Mails Expose Inner Workings of Palfrey’s Escort Service [WTOP]
The Madam’s Mail [BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
(30) Comments
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Too bad there's no picture. You think you can call someone easy if they sleep around 1,052 times, or do you have to wait for an even 2k?
i propose a poll:
would you rather be:
1. cheap and easy (like Loyola 2L);
2. cheap but not easy (like Lat); or
3. easy but not cheap (like Jennifer)?
Discuss.
He said "happy ending." He he he.
I heard she had a sex change prior to working at Akin. Can anyone confirm that?
10:58, you're setting yourself up to be sued as a "John Doe" defendant.
As the AutoAdmit lawsuit shows, just because you're an anonymous commenter doesn't mean you can't be sued.
I heard you have to have a sex change prior to working at Akin. Can anyone confirm that?
She sounds hot. Anyone know what the going rate was (or is)?
Pro Boner. Nice to see the occassional descent to 8th grade humor.
Can no one find a picture?
11:02, let me guess...you were the law student who used to raise his/her hand more than anyone else in class.
11:02, will you sue me if I call you a tool?
11:02 reminds me of this rising 3L at my LS who got a prosecution internship for the summer. My buddy's interning for the judge who heard her first case, and he watched her call witnesses and object constantly in a battle with a pro se 18yo with no priors over a $30 parking ticket. She won, and then went out and celebrated winning her first case at the bar... with the people who thought she was a total nutjob.
Keep it up 11:02!
What a convenience it must be to have a secreatry that is also a hooker!!! Awesome!
No kidding, 11:40. Now that's a perk!
Yeah JP, because working your hardest and being a zealous advocate is just SO UNKEWL!! yeah.
Pro boner. Le mot juste.
Jennifer, when you are done with the dictation I left for you this morning please see me in regard to another form of Dick-tation I'd like to give you.. :)
According to the article, Jennifer is denying that she was ever involved in prostitution. While she may be able to testify against Palfrey regarding how the business operated, I haven't been able to find anything that makes this girl out to be a true whore. The worst thing people have been able to say about her thus far seems to be that she is a bitch who likes her haute couture. Sounds like half of Washington to me...
11:40: What, and have the secretary charge me extra?
"Jennifer, when you are done with the dictation I left for you this morning please see me in regard to another form of Dick-tation I'd like to give you.. :)"
CONSEQUESNCES:
1. If you are a SA, a post on ATL;
2. If you are an associate, termination;
2. If you are a partner, a $40,000 settlement.
11:45, trying to bury a pro se litigant into the ground over a parking ticket is absolutely ridiculous and embarrasses the legal system. My post wasn't about how it's uncool to try to be a good attorney, it was about how it's uncool to not know when and how it's appropriate to advocate zealously. Not to take anything away from your mAd lawyerz sKillZ: I'm sure you are the coolest, most zealous counsel in the history of coolness, zealousness and counsel.
Have to admit, the "pro boner" graphic made me laugh. K-wality.
I was clearly too late for the pro bonor graphic and feel horribly out of the loop.
The 1,052 calls in the phone log don't necessarily mean 1,052 clients serviced, but she was clearly meeting her billables target. She was in discussion to become an equity partner when the firm dissolved. Is she lateralling to another DC area firm? With her book, I'm sure she could go anywhere.
Does anyone know if Jennifer was attractive?
She must have been quite the secretarty.
Well, a little heavy handed with the spackle, attractive but IMHO nothing spectacular http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/1120509161045234588LnMRJp http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/1120511804045234588juafLv
She uses the name miniwelsh on message boards so if you google that name you will see the type of person she really is.
She went out with a buddy of mine a few times and she seemed like a nice girl. You would never know she was involved in this type of thing. He never made it passed first base. And she's smokin' hot in person. If she testifies she will definitely get the media's attention. I for one can't wait for the trial.
I heard that a London partner of Cravath got in trouble for bringing an escort-type to firm functions. Anyone? The London CSM offices is not that big, folks. Someone must know about this.
Song of Deborah
Song of Deborah
...They chose new gods; then was war in the gates... Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song... the LORD made you have dominion over the mighty... Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty... Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two? So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land rest forty years. Judges 5.
Deborah Palfrey deserves the Pemberton Award for Clean Governance.
Palfrey list is like the Black Book of 1918.
That Trial of the century is deleted from all books.
The list there had 47000 names.
The list here has 46000 phone bills.
The listed are not womenizers, machos or ordinary sinners.
They are power brokers, gay lutheran whock and awe agitators of all wars and all panics.
These wretches are one dirty cover to the real pimps deep underground.
A curse on the kingpins, Justice Charles Darling then and Judge Adolph Kessler now.
Noel Pemberton-Billing
Trial of the Century 1918