He Doesn't Work Here Anymore / Gracious Retirement

Josh, Do you think my gracious retirement from the firm at this time will help you with this situation? Rich

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Date: June 4, 2021 at 14:23:21 EDT
To: Jen Siegel <jsiegel@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@nathlaw.com>, Richard Litman <rlitman@nathlaw.com>
Subject: RE: An Email I Received This Morning


Dear Jen:

Thank you for your thoughtful email. Please know that I appreciated everything that you did. I did want to put my thoughts on the record should this ever come up again.

I am glad to know that Kim has not had any further involvement in the issue.

I do not think we need to talk now.

Thanks, again!

Martha

Martha Long
Paralegal

NATH, GOLDBERG & MEYER
112 S. West Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 703-548-6284 || 703-486-1000 || Toll Free: 1.800.4.PATENT (1.800.472.8368)
Fax: 703-683-8396 || 703-486-7000 || Toll Free: 1.888.4.PATENT (1.888.472.8368)

mlong@nathlaw.com

________________________________________________________________
The information in this email is confidential and may be subject to the attorney-client privilege. Transmission of this email does not constitute a waiver of any privilege or immunity. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete it and any copies of it. All rights reserved.

From: Jen Siegel <jsiegel@nathlaw.com>
Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 2:17 PM
To: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@Nathlaw.com>; Richard Litman <rlitman@nathlaw.com>
Subject: RE: An Email I Received This Morning

Hi Martha – thanks for your response and thoughts. I understand where you are coming from and I get the frustration. I’ll address a few things below, but bottom line is – why don’t we get on a call together so we can talk through everything? While I feel like we have appropriately addressed the issue that was raised, I understand that there may be some lingering questions and concerns and I would prefer to directly hear them from you vs doing it via email.

For this particular situation, I do believe we addressed it appropriately. You forwarded an email to us, we deemed it inappropriate on a number of levels, and we addressed it directly with Tanya accordingly. We made it as clear to her as we can that any improper behavior she exhibits towards you (or any team member), now or in the future, will not be tolerated. So while there may be other things that have happened in the past, we reacted to the issue at hand and our interpretation of it. A conversation with you may have added more color, but I don’t believe the result would have been different based on the info you added below.

Re: Kim – I know we discussed the perception that she is still involved in HR. As we discussed, this is a much broader issue/perception that needs to be addressed across NGM; this is not specific to this circumstance. Her being cc’d on an email by Tanya, while not proper, doesn’t represent any direct violation, and Kim has not been involved AT ALL in this issue outside of her receiving the initial email. Kim has no idea what we have or have not done. We will address this on a firm-wide scale so that she does not get involved with these types of issues/emails. We want to make clear that, moving forward, nobody should be including Kim on any HR issues that do not directly involve her.

Based on the expectations we’ve laid out for Tanya and communications with her, I fully expect ZERO incidences of this nature in the future, with you or anyone. I believe we’ve been very clear with her what the expectations are for her behavior.

Let me know if you want to connect live – we can find some time early next week.
Jen

Jen Siegel
HR Consultant
Nath, Goldberg & Meyer
jsiegel@nathlaw.com
C: 703-362-8297

From: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 9:29 AM
To: Jen Siegel <jsiegel@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@Nathlaw.com>; Richard Litman <rlitman@nathlaw.com>
Subject: RE: An Email I Received This Morning
Importance: High

Dear Jen,

Thank you very much for your email. While I appreciate the actions taken, I do think it might have been helpful to have a discussion with me first, particularly since this was not the first of such interactions with Tanya. This was not an isolated incident. This was just the last in a line of incidents. It should also be noted that I have rarely had occasion to speak with Tanya, have never worked with her on any client matter and have only communicated with her directly by email on one occasion (see attached). If I have seen her in the office, I have been polite and respectful to her. Unfortunately, she has not been polite or respectful to me.

You noted that Josh suggested ways she could have handled her concerns. What might those be? I would think that the only thing she should have done is speak with her direct supervisor, Josh. I do not think I did anything wrong in the meeting or in other meetings. I have never use the phrase “just to help folks out.” I do have many years of experience working with others, not just my combined 25 years working for LLO and NGM. I have working since 1972 and have never encountered someone who is so hostile to me for no obvious reason.

Some further thoughts from me are noted below.

1. From your email, it sounds as if the only thing wrong was the tone. It seems to me that it was much more than that. Tanya is not my supervisor nor have I ever been asked to do any work directly for her. It seems to me that if she had a concern with me, her first step would be to speak with Josh. This was not an occasion of something improperly handled for a work matter.

1. Did you address the issue of bringing Kim into the discussion? Was this addressed with Kim?

1. This was not the first occasion that Tanya has reprimanded me for nothing. A little over a year ago, just before the lockdown began, she attacked me verbally in the hallway outside her office. I had neither spoken to her nor even looked her way. I went to Josh’s office (for the second time that day) to speak with him before leaving for the day. Nevertheless, she shouted at me to get moving because Jerry would speak to Josh. I stood dumbfounded looking at her, but said nothing. She further shouted that I knew exactly what she was talking about and to just get moving. Needless to say, I left the office in tears. I had done absolutely nothing.

She did approach Josh later that afternoon to say she might have reacted inappropriately to me. But she did not give the complete story. She neglected to point out that I neither looked at her nor spoke to her; I just stopped by Josh’s office twice that day. I know this because Josh told me what he said to her. He essentially told her that everyone was a bit on edge at the time (because of COVID) so she should be patient and give people the benefit of the doubt. This implied that I had done something wrong. I did absolutely nothing wrong.

1. I do not presently have any occasion to work with Tanya on a client matter, I would prefer not to have such an occasion come up. If it does, however, I will, of course, handle it professionally. I am sorry, but based on my past encounters with Tanya, I find it hard to believe that she will act professionally.

Thank you!

Martha

Martha Long
Paralegal

NATH, GOLDBERG & MEYER
112 S. West Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 703-548-6284 || 703-486-1000 || Toll Free: 1.800.4.PATENT (1.800.472.8368)
Fax: 703-683-8396 || 703-486-7000 || Toll Free: 1.888.4.PATENT (1.888.472.8368)
mlong@nathlaw.com

________________________________________________________________
The information in this email is confidential and may be subject to the attorney-client privilege. Transmission of this email does not constitute a waiver of any privilege or immunity. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete it and any copies of it. All rights reserved.

From: Jen Siegel <jsiegel@nathlaw.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 8:08 PM
To: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@Nathlaw.com>; Richard Litman <rlitman@nathlaw.com>
Subject: RE: An Email I Received This Morning

Hi Martha – thank you for forwarding this and apologies for the delay in response. Josh and I have been working together to decide the best course of action to address this, but it took longer than we planned and longer than it normally would.

Josh has directly followed up with Tanya, with a cc to me, with a clear indication of the inappropriateness of the tone of her email, and examples of ways it should have been handled. He also indicated that we are aware that she knows better and that the behavior is inexcusable.

We have also taken the following actions:

* We have responded in writing to Tanya’s email, and both the email and her response will go into the file.
* We are requiring Tanya to confirm that she understands that if this type of inappropriate behavior or communication happens again, we will take more serious action.
* We indicated that we expect that the two of you should have minimal interaction with each other moving forward. If you find that you need to work together, we have instructed Tanya that if she cannot interact with you professionally and respectfully, she will need to meet with Josh.

I expect that this will be the end of these types of interactions between you and Tanya. If you have any further interaction with her that is not professional or appropriate, whether in writing or verbal, please contact me asap so we can address and escalate as appropriate.

Please let me know if you have questions or want to discuss.
Thanks,
Jen

Jen Siegel
HR Consultant
Nath, Goldberg & Meyer
jsiegel@nathlaw.com
C: 703-362-8297

From: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2021 8:15 AM
To: Jen Siegel <jsiegel@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@Nathlaw.com>; Richard Litman <rlitman@nathlaw.com>
Subject: An Email I Received This Morning
Importance: High

Dear Jen:

Please see the email below which I received this morning from Tanya. This is extremely upsetting. I do not know how to handle this.

Thank you!

Martha

Martha Long
Paralegal

NATH, GOLDBERG & MEYER
112 S. West Street | Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 703.486.1000 | Toll Free: 1.800.4.PATENT (1.800.472.8368)
Fax: 703.486.7000 | Toll Free: 1.888.4.PATENT (1.888.472.8368)
mlong@nathlaw.com

________________________________________________________________
The information in this email is confidential and may be subject to the attorney-client privilege. Transmission of this email does not constitute a waiver of any privilege or immunity. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete it and any copies of it. All rights reserved.

From: Tanya Harkins <THarkins@Nathlaw.com>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2021 6:56 AM
To: Martha Long <mlong@nathlaw.com>
Cc: Joshua Goldberg <JGoldberg@Nathlaw.com>; Jerry Meyer <JMeyer@Nathlaw.com>; Kimberly Thompson <kthompson@nathlaw.com>
Subject: Meeting Yesterday

Dear Martha,

I find it necessary to directly point out to you, personally, that your constant reference to "Litman" this and "Richard did this" in firm meetings now outdated and at this point extremely deeply personally insulting. I have watched you for several years in this and it is 100% consistent for you to interrupt and point out how excellent Richard is or raise some other unnecessary point "just to help folks out."

Please stop. You have made work very uncomfortable in this regard. I have worked here 20 years and this is not Litman. I would have never worked for him and he doesn't work here anymore.

Thank you

Tanya