Will this question be on the MPRE? *

ABC's Blotter reports that a legal secretary working for the D.C. law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has been suspended after revealing to the firm that she worked at night for the escort service run by the so-called D.C. Madam, Jeane Palfrey. She apparently worked both as an escort and as a clerical assistant to Palfrey.

The firm has a policy prohibiting full-time employees from holding any other jobs. "She did not seek approval for that particular job and would not have been given it," [Akin Gump chairman R. Bruce] McLean said.

McLean said the woman told the firm she was a government witness in the D.C. Madam case, and the firm was hesitant to dismiss her because of that.

Of course, Palfrey has pleaded not guilty to the sex-for-hire charges, claiming her escort service provided only "legal, fantasy sex." However, if it turns out the service did involve actual prostitution, Akin Gump faces the further vexing question of whether it must report the suspended secretary for the "unauthorized practice of law."

(* Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination)