Leo Foster was ordered to pay a total of £31,000 by the UK Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
The use of rude nicknames for colleagues has resulted in ex-BNP Paribas in-house solicitor Leo Foster being ordered to pay a total of £31,000 by the UK Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, reported the Law Society Gazette.
Foster’s conduct first came to light when former colleague Person A raised the issue during an exit interview. A disciplinary meeting was held, and while Foster kept his job, the Solicitors Regulation Authority took notice of him in January 2022 after a CityAM article was published about Foster’s nickname use.
The in-house lawyer gave his teammates monikers like “Mad Paul,” “The idiot,” “Pol Pot,” “Jabba the Hutt,” and “The Twittering Fool.” But the nickname that landed him in hot water was “Hu She,” bestowed on an East Asian solicitor with whom he worked and who pronounced her name as “Who-ee.” Foster said that the nickname was inspired by Private Eye magazine’s “Who he” joke; he reportedly used the moniker on a minimum of 12 different occasions.
He also sent internal emails referring to senior colleagues in derogatory terms and using crude language.
Foster negotiated his departure from BNP Paribas after Person A, the bank, and a member of the public reported his conduct following the CityAM article’s publication. He retired in 2022.
Appearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Foster admitted to using the inappropriate and unprofessional nicknames on several occasions over many months. He also conceded that the individuals in questions had not consented to him using these nicknames. While he claimed that there was no racist intent behind the “Hu She” nickname, he accepted that it could be taken as mockery of a Chinese name.
Foster’s lawyer told the tribunal that Foster was sorry about his conduct and had not intended to offend; he had displayed such behavior while stressed. The tribunal accepted that Foster struggled with management changes at his workplace at the time, but pointed out in a statement published by the Gazette that he “failed to handle this with the standards expected of a solicitor of his experience and standing,” considering he was admitted in 1988.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal set a £15,000 fine and ordered Foster to also pay £16,000 in costs.
The SRA had warned solicitors against using derogatory, puerile or inappropriate language in correspondence, including internal communications, in 2019.
