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Allen & Overy Muzzles Lawyer's Erotic Fiction

One of the world's largest law firms, Allen & Overy, has ordered a senior lawyer in its Moscow office to stop publishing erotic fiction on her personal Web site. A spokesman for the firm told news reporters that the saucy stories written by lawyer Deidre Dare, who is from the United States, violated the firm's strict rules governing employee conduct.

On her Web site, DeidreDare.com, which features the tagline, "Philosophy can be sexy," Dare has been publishing weekly chapters of her serialized novel about living in Moscow, "Expat." Recently, she stopped adding new chapters and posted this explanation: "The Author has been forbidden from publishing further chapters of Expat for the time being. She will resume if and when she is permitted to." Dare's Web site also features her poetry, photographs of her in transparent lingerie, and a page of "philosophy and quotes," which has just two items: "In order to succeed at marriage, you must fail at yourself," and, "You know how they say we only use 10% of our brains? I think people also use only 10% of their lives."

Her novel details its heroine's sexual encounters in Moscow with a series of men of various nationalities. It also describes more routine aspects of living and working in Moscow. The first chapter opens with this bit of provocation: "There is something thrilling about being in bed with a Frenchman, even if he does have a small ... ." Ahem, yes, let me stop there. As if an exercise in parallel structure, chapter three starts similarly: "There is something thrilling about being in bed with a German, even if he does have a tendency to make uninteresting small talk while ... ." Again, this being a family blog, I will stop short.

In addition to censoring Dare's fiction, it appears the firm also put a lid on her firm biography. One news report earlier this week quoted her firm biography's description of her practice: "Deidre is an international finance and projects lawyer who has represented diverse clients involved in financings, equipment leasing and projects around the world." But her biography page now is virtually blank, one of the few without even a photograph. Instead, it instructs anyone wanting her CV to e-mail the Web site's administrator. According to her LinkedIn profile, Dare is a 1989 graduate of Columbia University School of Law.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on January 22, 2009 at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)