Defendants' Statement of Undisputed Facts

							                                Defendants’ Statement of Undisputed Facts


                              IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                             FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF EREWHON

Civil Action No. 00-1001

PATRICIA STRONG,

Plaintiff,

v.

HEALTHY, WEALTHY & WISE LLP and NAUGHTSO WISE, an individual,

Defendants.
_____________________________________________________________________________

                     DEFENDANTS' STATEMENT OF UNDISPUTED FACTS
_____________________________________________________________________________

          Defendants Healthy, Wealthy & Wise LLP and Naughtso Wise, by and through their

attorneys Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, hereby submit this statement of undisputed facts:

          1.      Plaintiff Patricia Strong graduated with honors from Harvard in 1992

with a joint JD/MBA degree.

          2.      Following graduation, Ms. Strong accepted an associate position with

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise's Chicago, Illinois office.

          3.      One factor motivating Ms. Strong's decision to accept Healthy, Wealthy

& Wise's offer of employment was the fact that it recently had opened an office in
London, England. Ms. Strong had long desired to live and work in London.

          4.      During her first five years with Healthy, Wealthy & Wise, Ms. Strong

repeatedly expressed interest in transferring to Healthy, Wealthy & Wise's London

office.

          5.      Nevertheless, she continued to work in Chicago, billing an average of

2300 hours per year in each of her first three years with the firm.

          6.      In 1996, Ms. Strong's billable hours declined from 2300 to 2000. In

addition, some partners, including Defendant Naughtso Wise, expressed concerns to

Ms. Strong during her performance review that she had not been sufficiently
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                              Defendants’ Statement of Undisputed Facts


decisive and assertive in dealing with a complex matter for which she had been

responsible that year.

         7.       In early 1997, the firm's managing partner, Mr. Wealthy, had several

conversations with Mr. Wise on the subject of Ms. Strong's declining attention to

firm matters. Ms. Strong was orally counseled about the decline in her time

commitment to the firm.

         8.       In the spring of 1997, Healthy, Wealthy & Wise finally agreed to allow

Ms. Strong to transfer to the London office. Mr. Wealthy and Mr. Wise have testified

that they hoped the change might restore Ms. Strong's previous fine performance.

         9.       However, several of the firm's U.S.-based junior partners and senior

associates warned Ms. Strong that "out of sight might be out of mind" with regard to

partnership, for which she would be considered with the rest of her class in the fall

of 1999.

         10.      Reginald Duckworth, an associate in Ms. Strong's class who graduated

from Yale Law School in 1992 and clerked for Justice Worthy of the United States

Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, for two years before joining Healthy, Wealthy &

Wise, told Ms. Strong that he thought she would be foolish to transfer to London at

that time.

         11.      Ms. Strong nevertheless accepted the transfer to London, where her

billable hours continued to decline. In 1997 and 1998, she billed just 1800 hours.

In 1999, Ms. Strong's hours dropped to an unacceptable (extrapolated) rate of 1600.

         12.      In this same period, Mr. Duckworth maintained an average of 2100

billable hours per year and had significant successes as second chair counsel in a

series of complex oil and gas cases.

         13.      On July 4, 1999, Healthy, Wealthy & Wise celebrated Independence Day

at Quaglino's in London. Following the celebrations, Ms. Strong agreed to allow Mr.

Wise to accompany her to her flat.

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                             Defendants’ Statement of Undisputed Facts


         14.      Mr. Wise was somewhat under the influence of alcohol and admits to

embracing and kissing Ms. Strong. Mr. Wise testified that the embracing and

kissing were mutual, but acknowledges that Ms. Strong did ask him to leave. Ms.

Strong claims that Mr. Wise requested "sexual favors" and, when she refused,

shouted that she would be "very, very sorry."

         15.      The next day, Mr. Wise attempted to telephone Ms. Strong before his

return to the United States. Ms. Strong referred to Mr. Wise as "that monster" to her

assistant, and did not return his calls.

         16.      Healthy, Wealthy & Wise had a standard sexual harassment policy in

place in 1999, which was published internally to all lawyers and staff and provided

multiple avenues of complaint and an assurance of non-retaliation.

         17.      Ms. Strong made no attempt to avail herself of the protection afforded

by the policy. She did not discuss the July 4, 1999 incident with any of the firm's

40 partners, including its five female partners.

         18.      In the fall of 1999, Ms. Strong and Mr. Duckworth were considered for

partnership along with the rest of their class.

         19.      During the partnership consideration process, Mr. Duckworth told

Mr. Wise that Ms. Strong had said, in Mr. Duckworth's presence, that she had made

a "killing" in pork bellies in 1998 and that she would not need to work for the firm

more than another year if her day trading success continued.

         20.      Mr. Wise shared this reported statement during the partnership

evaluation discussions with his partners, who had long been concerned that

Ms. Strong was spending an inappropriate amount of time on outside interests

during her time in London and particularly that she was spending increasing time

day trading in the commodities markets.




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                             Defendants’ Statement of Undisputed Facts


         21.      Nevertheless, Mr. Wise, who had told no one about the July 4, 1998

incident in London, abstained from the partnership vote, as corroborated by

contemporaneous firm records.

         22.      In November 1999, the new partners of Healthy, Wealthy & Wise were

announced. Mr. Duckworth was among them. Ms. Strong was not.

         23.      Ms. Strong was told by Mr. Wealthy that the firm intended to review her

record again in 2000 with the expectation that renewed commitment and fine effort

on her part would produce a more satisfactory result.

         24.      Ms. Strong resigned from Healthy, Wealthy & Wise and commenced this

action.

         Dated: June 28, 2000

                                                    Respectfully submitted,



                                                    DAVID A. CATHCART
                                                    JESSICA LEE
                                                    GIBSON DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP
                                                    333 South Grand Avenue, Suite 4600
                                                    Los Angeles, CA 90071-3197
                                                    (213) 229-7000

                                                    Attorneys for Defendants HEALTHY,
                                                    WEALTHY & WISE LLP and NAUGHTSO
                                                    WISE




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