Democratic\u00a0presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris\u00a0<\/a>was pulled Monday into a sexual assault dispute at the Silicon Valley law firm where her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is a partner.<\/p>\n Emhoff works for DLA Piper, where a junior partner named\u00a0Vanina Guerrero\u00a0<\/a>has charged last week in a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that she was sexually assaulted four times by a top deal-maker at the firm, Louis Lehot.<\/p>\n In a letter to Harris\u00a0published on Medium<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, Guerrero\u2019s lawyer, Jeanne Christensen, asked for the California senator\u2019s help in getting her client released from DLA Piper\u2019s mandatory arbitration rules so she can \u201cget her day in court.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting the press coverage of the Guerrero case and the open letter she sent to DLA Piper\u2019s leadership last week, Christensen wrote, \u201cI hope that you either read about the open letter yourself or that your husband Douglas Emhoff, a partner at DLA Piper, shared it with you.\u201d<\/p>\n Christensen wrote that DLA has not yet responded to Guerrero\u2019s request.<\/p>\n \u201cI am sure that you would agree that silencing women though forced arbitration must end,\u201d Christensen wrote. \u201cNo female employee, including a new partner, would knowingly agree to waive her right to our court system for claims involving sexual assault, battery, or rape,\u201d Christensen wrote. \u201cGiven your profile as a candidate for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, you are in a unique position to condemn the actions of DLA Piper and made clear that mandatory arbitration must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, I urge you to support Ms. Guerrero and let DLA Piper know that time is up for its draconian policy that disproportionately protects male predators at the expense of women,\u201d Christensen wrote.<\/p>\n In response to a request for comment, Harris’ communications director, Lily Adams, sent the following statement: “Senator Harris has been and continues to be a staunch advocate for survivors and believes all people must be guaranteed their day in court. She has long opposed forced arbitration agreements and that position has not changed and she does not believe this is any exception.”<\/p>\n In June, Harris and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon to eliminate a forced arbitration clause used in that company\u2019s credit card contracts.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the fundamental principles of our democracy is that everyone should get their day in court,”\u00a0they wrote<\/a>. “Forced arbitration deprives Americans of that basic right.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Los Angeles Time<\/a>s reported in March that the California Department of Justice paid more than $1.1 million to settle claims by workers who said they were sexually harassed or retaliated against by co-workers during Harris’ tenure as state attorney general from 2011 to 2017.<\/p>\n NBC News has also emailed DLA Piper spokesman Josh Epstein, but so far there has been no response.<\/p>\n Also, DLAPiper\u00a0has resisted<\/a>\u00a0calls to get rid of mandatory arbitration.<\/p>\n In her EEOC complaint, Guerrero wrote that Lehot lured her to his law firm with promises of fast advancement and attacked her the first time two weeks after she signed on.<\/p>\n \u201cUnable to take \u2018no\u2019 for an answer, Mr. Lehot sexually assaulted Ms. Guerrero in his hotel room in Shanghai,\u201d the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n Guerrero charged the attacks escalated over the next 10 months and that Lehot began sabotaging her career when she resisted his advances. She said she was too afraid to tell anybody at first.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving moved my two toddlers and husband that I support financially from Hong Kong to California for this job, I was petrified to believe what was happening to me, much less tell anyone,\u201d she wrote in the complaint.<\/p>\n Lehot did not respond to a request for comment when the story first broke last week. He is the co-managing partner at the firm\u2019s Silicon Valley office branch in Palo Alto.<\/p>\n Dubbed a \u201cStar Silicon Valley Lawyer\u201d by\u00a0Bloomberg News<\/a>, Lehot works in an office down the hall from Guerrero.<\/p>\n![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/media3.s-nbcnews.com\/j\/newscms\/2019_40\/3034901\/191002-vanina-guerrero-al-1509_66cc0c81f1f8198ac8f927058b4e1f90.fit-720w.jpg)
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U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California next to her husband, Douglas Emhoff<\/p><\/div>
\nBy\u00a0Corky Siemaszko
\nNBC News<\/p>\n
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