'I didn't 推定する／予想する to be 解雇する／砲火／射撃d for 令状ing a 調書をとる／予約する': How a high-飛行機で行くing lawyer's life was almost 廃虚d by penning a racy novel based on her time in Moscow

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When high-飛行機で行くing 法人組織の／企業の lawyer Deidre Clark was 地位，任命するd to Moscow, she took to the 国外追放／海外移住 life with gusto, and drew on her experiences for a racy novel which she published online. But a 簡潔な／要約する 遭遇（する） with her boss was to change everything

Four years ago, Deidre Clark’s lifestyle was not unlike something out of a latter-day Tolstoy tome. A successful 法人組織の／企業の lawyer with one of the world’s 最高の，を越す 会社／堅いs, she was seconded to Moscow, where the 受託するd expat experience was one of hard work, 急速な／放蕩な living and bed-hopping hedonism.

Her evenings were spent enjoying £650 dinners at the famously opulent Caf? Pushkin, before moving on to some debauched, シャンペン酒-fuelled party or other, and finally reeling 支援する to her six-bedroom, company-基金d apartment with its ornate, 急に上がるing 天井s, at 夜明け.

Today, she lives in the Hamptons, the picturesque playground of New York’s エリート, two hours’ 運動 from the city, where 豊富な Manhattanites own sprawling second 所有物／資産／財産s. Deidre’s 演説（する）／住所, however, is somewhat 誤って導くing; her ‘home’ is, in fact, a tiny, two-room cabin off a busy 主要道路, which she 株 with Bonnie, a large and 板材ing rottweiler, and rents by the night on a credit card.

She still has some trappings of her glamorous old 存在 in Russia, such as the luxurious furs she wears when walking Bonnie on the nearby beach. But in stark contrast to her lavish lifestyle
in Moscow, she is struggling to make ends 会合，会う. She no longer 作品 as a lawyer; after she turned her escapades ? and those of her 同僚s ? into a novel, Expat (predictably dubbed ‘Sexpat’), she was summarily 解任するd, in a flurry of publicity, for 甚だしい／１２ダース 不品行／姦通.

However, Deidre, an American 国民, is 猛烈に hoping that her story will end in riches not rags; she is 告訴するing her former 雇用者s, the British-owned 法律 会社／堅い Allen & Overy, for $35 million (£22 million) for 性の いやがらせ and 不公平な 解雇／（訴訟の）却下. She was, she believes, 解雇する／砲火／射撃d not for bringing the 会社／堅い into disrepute with her novel, as the company （人命などを）奪う，主張するs, but, in fact, for 拒絶するing the 前進するs of her older, married boss, with whom she had 以前 had a drunken 連絡事務.

And while £22 million might sound a colossal 人物／姿／数字, she 持続するs it is more than fair. ‘I had a lucrative career, and I would have worked for another 20 years,’ she argues. ‘As it is, I will probably never work as a lawyer again. This has 廃虚d me.’

‘I had a lucrative career… I would have worked for another 20 years. I will probably never work as a lawyer again. This has 廃虚d me’

In person, 47-year-old Deidre appears far warmer and more 攻撃を受けやすい than the salacious 報告（する）／憶測s of her 解雇（する）ing, the explicit content of her novel, or the fact of her three previous marriages might 示唆する. Rather than the unrepentant man-eater some have painted her to be, she seems nervy, a little 無謀な, and naively unaware of the trouble her bonkbuster would bring.

‘I would never have imagined th at they would 解雇する／砲火／射撃 someone for 令状ing a 調書をとる／予約する,’ she 主張するs, lighting up the first of many Marlboro Lights. ‘I wouldn’t have told anyone about it if I thought it was going to 原因（となる） trouble.’ As it was, the aspiring writer 公然と 発表するd to her 同僚s that she had 始める，決める up a website, where, under the 指名する of Deidre Dare, she would pen and 地位，任命する a 一時期／支部 a week. ‘Like Dickens,’ she says, perhaps a little overambitiously.

Her racy online romp tells the story of a group of hard-drinking expat oil 労働者s and the protagonist, Dasha, who cheerfully 述べるs herself as ‘part 麻薬 （麻薬）常用者, part アル中患者’. She compares the 性の 業績／成果s of a 回転するing cast of men, snorts copious 量s of コカイン and 定期的に turns up to work with 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうing hangovers after lurid nights spent in （土地などの）細長い一片 clubs.

‘I could understand it if I had written a blog, or I had written about （弁護士の）依頼人s or if the main character was anything like me, but what I wrote was so 明白に fiction,’ she （人命などを）奪う，主張するs.

Deidre arrived in Moscow in March 2008, after almost seven years away from her native USA, working as a lawyer in international 事業／計画（する） 財政／金融 (the 基金ing for building 橋（渡しをする）s, schools, 刑務所，拘置所s or pipelines under the sea) in Sydney, Singapore and London. She was attracted to the adventure that the ロシアの 資本／首都 申し込む／申し出d, 同様に as the 極端に 控訴，上告ing remuneration p ackage.

‘They 申し込む／申し出 people a lot of money to go to Russia because it’s such an incredibly difficult place to live.
The 天候, the 罪，犯罪 率s and the 汚職 are all atrocious, and ロシアのs themselves can be
very 敵意を持った. It’s like the Wild West,’ she says.

On 最高の，を越す of a basic salary of £130,000, Deidre was given 相当な ‘hazard’ 支払う／賃金 and a cost-of-living allowance 量ing to a その上の £20,000 a year. Then there were 年次の 特別手当s of up to £30,000, 加える the 会社／堅い paid the rent for her spacious apartment, which ran to around £4,000 a month.

But apart from the 財政上の 補償（金）, the expat lifestyle encouraged behaviour outside the ordinary. ‘Nothing seemed as if it had any consequences; grown-ups behaved like children,’ she says. And though Deidre 持続するs that Expat is a work of fiction, she does not 否定する that the inspiration for large 列s of the story （機の）カム from her own experiences in Moscow.

‘On the social 前線, the 調書をとる／予約する very closely mirrored my real life in Russia,’ she agrees. ‘It was wild.
As wild as you imagine Moscow to be. People can only really manage a couple of years there before they 燃やす out and have to escape.’?

激しい 消費 of alcohol is the norm, with 解放する／自由な-flowing シャンペン酒 同様に as the 地元の vodka, of course. And while Deidre says she never touched 麻薬s, コカイン is 明確に part of the scene.
Expat life in Moscow is also 高度に sexually 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d. ‘Everyone was utterly promiscuous,’ says Deidre, breezily. ‘The young ロシアの women are so gorgeous, like something out of a James 社債 movie, and they throw themselves at foreign men.’ 一方／合間, the ロシアの men 持つ／拘留する an 控訴，上告 for expat women too. ‘They are わずかに dangerous, but they also know how to 扱う／治療する you 井戸／弁護士席,’ she says. < br />

Deidre was no angel either, she 率直に 収容する／認めるs. In spite of 存在 in a long-distance 関係
with her boyfriend of almost a １０年間, マイク Constable, a 48-year-old New Zealander and former （弁護士の）依頼人 who is based in Singapore, she also began a very public 事件／事情／状勢 with a married ロシアの 12 years her junior. But it was an 恐らく intimate moment with Tony Humphrey, the married 長，率いる of Allen & Overy’s Moscow office, that she believes was her only wrong move.

‘I could understand it if I had written about （弁護士の）依頼人s or if the main character was anything like me, but what I wrote was so 明白に fiction’

によれば Deidre, in July 2008, just four months after she arrived in Moscow, Humphrey, now 62 and retired, made a move on her at a party. Deidre, who had had several drinks, ended up in a drunken 性の 遭遇（する） with him. ‘After that, he became obsessed with me,’ she says 事柄-of-factly. He 断固としてやる tried to engage her in explicit conversation, she （人命などを）奪う，主張するs, and gave her a 調書をとる／予約する about a nymphomaniac, called 自白s of a Bad Girl.

But at the same time, he also began criticising her, 説 her 着せる／賦与するs were too 明らかにする／漏らすing and 告発する／非難するing her of 存在 妊娠している when she was off work ill. Then, in 早期に December 2009, Humphrey called her into his office and told her she was to be 解雇する／砲火／射撃d.

Deidre, shocked but indignant, とじ込み／提出するd a formal （民事の）告訴 of 性の いやがらせ to the HR department in London. But the 会社／堅い 答える／応じるd by taking disciplinary 活動／戦闘 against her for 令状ing 12 weeks’ 価値（がある） of 一時期／支部s of her online novel Expat, and 一時停止するing her from work.

‘The 会社／堅い never told me to take the 調書をとる／予約する 負かす／撃墜する, or asked me to apologise; those were never 選択s,’ says Deidre. Six weeks later, she was 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from Allen & Overy. ‘It was a witch-追跡（する）,’ she 主張するs, as furious now as she was three years ago. ‘It was over for me as soon as I とじ込み／提出するd the （民事の）告訴 of 性の いやがらせ.

Deidre pictured at a hotel 近づく her rented shack in the Hamptons, Long Island

‘And I know it’s 容認できない and un-PC to say this,’ she continues, ‘but if I was a young woman in the workplace today, and I was 存在 sexually 悩ますd, I would think twice before making a （民事の）告訴 about it. Because it will 廃虚 you.’

In a 声明 Allen & Overy said, ‘We have always been 完全に 満足させるd that the termination of Ms Clark’s 雇用 was 正当化するd and lawful. We remain committed to defending Ms Clark’s （人命などを）奪う，主張する vigorously.’

Deidre remained in Russia for another year, 令状ing (rather inadvisably) a saucy 週刊誌 column called Sexpat for the English-language newspaper The Moscow Times. ‘I was meant to be a sort of Moscow 見解／翻訳／版 of Carrie Bradshaw [the 星／主役にする of Sex and the City],’ she says, 明らかに without irony.

結局, though, she decided to 削減（する） her losses and return home to the US. I ask whether she was worried about the 歓迎会 she w ould receive. ‘The 明言する／公表するs is the one place where people don’t care what happened in Russia,’ she laughs.

Deidre was born and brought up in Brooklyn, New York, where her father 足緒 was a professor of sociology at a 地元の community college, and her mother Mary, almost 30 years his junior, was a housewife who raised Deidre and her younger sister. The family was not 井戸／弁護士席 off, but 有望な and 有能な Deidre won a scholarship to Packer, a prestigious 私的な school, then another to
Barnard College, a 自由主義の arts university.

Deidre had always planned to be a social 労働者, but did so 井戸／弁護士席 academically that she was encouraged to 適用する to the prestigious Columbia 法律 School, from where she joined a 最高の，を越す-最高位の
New York 会社／堅い. ‘My father only ever earned a modest salary, and when he discovered what
I was 存在 paid straight out of 法律 school, he couldn’t believe it,’ she says. ‘But it wasn’t just about the money ? we all worked hard and played hard and I loved 存在 a lawyer.’

By the time she 卒業生（する）d from 法律 school, Deidre was also already a divorc?e. She met and married her first husband, Jim Neil, at 19, when they were both still students, and the marriage lasted いっそう少なく than a year. ‘We were just too young,’ she says with a shrug. ‘And I probably did it partly to annoy my father, who was so against my marrying him.’

Her second husband, Whitney Holmes, was a fellow lawyer whom she met when working as a 22-year-old summer 抑留する at a 会社／堅い in New York. After they were married, they moved, albeit
簡潔に, to North Carolina, but Deidre could not adjust to life outside the city. ‘Whitney was only
a couple of years older then me, but he 手配中の，お尋ね者 the white picket 盗品故買者 and kids, and I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 adventure and to travel,’ she says.

The marriage lasted several years before they 分裂（する） 友好的に.

At 33, she met and married Paul Hespel, whom she 言及するs to as ‘the ベルギー. He was from
a very 豊富な family; I spent the 週末s at balls, and had to learn to curtsey,’ she 解任するs. The couple were married for two years, but she was not, it would seem, faithful. ‘ベルギーs don’t really care about that,’ she （人命などを）奪う，主張するs. ‘But they do [care] if you 落ちる in love with someone else.’ Unfortunately, she did, although once again the 関係 didn’t work out.

Deidre never had children, a fact she now 悔いるs. ‘That’s another thing the company took away from me. At 42, before all of this happened, I still had a chance, with IVF or whatever,’ she says. ‘But at 47, there is no chance.’

Soon after she and Hespel were separated, she met マイク Constable, a （弁護士の）依頼人 who worked for a large 工学 会社／堅い. ‘We have been together for over ten years now, which is incredible for me ? as you can tell from my history,’ she says with a wry smile.

Their 関係 is far from 従来の. ‘いつかs we are together in the same place, although these days, that is rare,’ she says. ‘But we Skype twice a day.’

‘I can’t get a 職業 anywhere. People Google me and see all the tabloid stories, making me out to be a slut. No one even wants to rent their 所有物／資産／財産 to me’

And in spite of her three failed marriages, she is undeterred; the couple got engaged six months ago ? the last time they saw each other ? and 計画（する） to marry in 早期に 2014.

The 約束／交戦 and the prospect of an 切迫した visit from her fianc? are the only brigh t 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs in an さもなければ 孤立するd and 荒涼とした-sounding 存在. The US may be tolerant, but she still felt the 十分な 軍隊 of public 不賛成. ‘I can’t get a 職業 anywhere; I 疑問 I could even get a 職業 at McDonald’s now,’ she 収容する／認めるs. And she is unable to find anywhere いっそう少なく transient to live. ‘People Google me and see all the tabloid stories, making me out to be a slut, and no one wants to rent their 所有物／資産／財産 to me,’ she says, before 動議ing to the 巨大（な） canine sleeping soundly on the 床に打ち倒す. ‘Not to について言及する the fact that I have a rottweiler.

‘People steer away from trouble,’ she continues a little sadly. Even her sister, who lives in Virginia, has been いっそう少なく than wholly supportive. ‘We are still の近くに; we just don’t talk about what happened,’ she shrugs. Her parents, who both passed away before she was 30 years old, would have 申し込む／申し出d her their support, she is 確かな . ‘They would have been terrific.’

Relations, even with her fianc?, have been 緊張するd as she 準備するs her multimillion-dollar 訴訟, which she hopes will come to 法廷，裁判所 in いっそう少なく than a year. ‘People, 含むing マイク, ask: “Do you have a 計画（する） B, or a 計画（する） C?” There is no 計画（する） B, there is no 計画（する） C,’ she says, with some exasperation. ‘I really don’t have a 計画（する） should I fail to 勝利，勝つ the 事例／患者, because I am going to [勝利，勝つ it]. It’s just a question of endurance.’