‘Hero’ Administrative Assistant at Lieff Cabraser Used Safety Training Lessons
A longtime administrative assistant at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein who managed to escort a bomb suspect into a conference room had received safety training just a week before that emphasized staying calm in a crisis.
Today the administrative assistant is getting a massage along with some rest and relaxation, says Kelly Dermody, a partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office. Yesterday, the employee reacted calmly when a man walked into the law firm’s reception area wearing a white device with a blinking light that he described as a bomb.
Dermody tells ABAJournal.com that the employee was in the reception area when he saw the receptionist react to the device-wearing suspect. The unidentified man was unhappy that he had been turned down in an effort to appear on the television game show The Price is Right, as noted in an ABAJournal.com post yesterday.
The administrative assistant knew he needed to get the man out of the reception area so the receptionist could call security, Dermody says. He invited the man into a conference room and offered him coffee, waiting with him until police arrived. In the meantime, the receptionist’s call to security prompted the law firm’s safety team to evacuate the offices within five minutes. Ten other floors of the 30-story building were also evacuated.
Dermody said she could not identify the employee without the permission of the San Francisco police, since he is a witness to a crime.
“This employee is to be absolutely commended for having such a clear head,” Dermody tells ABAJournal.com. He and the receptionist “are both heroes to us.”
The suspect has been identified as Antonio Scardino, 44, the Associated Press reports. He was charged with making criminal threats and intent to frighten the law firm’s employees. The device he was wearing did not contain explosives, police said.
