The lawyer displayed a pattern of propositioning female colleagues in taxis after work events
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has slapped a senior lawyer with a 20-month suspension for sexual harassment.
The NZ Herald reported that the lawyer, whose name has been suppressed in the interim, was charged with misconduct in the wake of three drunken incidents involving two of the lawyer’s female colleagues. The lawyer, who was referred to as “Mr Q”, confessed to the charges at a hearing earlier this year.
The initial incident involving Mr Q took place in 2018 following a work function. A female colleague claimed that he tried to touch her inappropriately after she was left alone with him in a taxi. The second incident occurred 18 months later in 2019, when Mr Q attempted again to inappropriately touch the same colleague while in a taxi with her on the day of the firm’s Christmas function.
The third incident took place during yet another taxi ride Mr Q was in with a female legal executive he worked with. In addition to propositioning the woman and attempts to touch her inappropriately, he also made inappropriate sexual comments towards her.
“[Mr Q’s] victim was trapped in an enclosed space. It was opportunistic. No contextual basis supports any thought his actions might be welcome”, the tribunal said in its decision, describing the lawyer’s actions as “an awful breach of the trust” his colleague was “entitled to have in her employer”.
The tribunal noted that Mr Q’s behaviour suggested “a pattern of disrespect for sexual boundaries of employees”, and said that his attempts at disguising the inappropriate touches towards the first victim as light-hearted moments increased the seriousness of his offence.
In addition to issuing the suspension, the tribunal also slapped Mr Q with a $10,000 payout to be made to one of the victims. Moreover, he was ordered to pay the Law Society legal costs amounting to $40,000.
According to the Herald, in determining Mr Q’s punishment, the tribunal looked to a similar case decided last week. In that case, senior lawyer Dean Palmer was suspended for 18 months in a decision released by the tribunal last week.
Palmer was charged with misconduct after allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour were made by five people who had worked with him at Anderson Lloyd and Duncan Cotterill. In addition to the suspension, the tribunal ordered him to pay legal costs amounting to $38,000 and Law Society costs of $26,000.
The matter of James Gardner-Hopkins, who was charged with offences against five interns during his time at Russell McVeagh, also served as a strong basis for the tribunals ruling in Mr Q’s case.
The tribunal indicated that power imbalance factored into Mr Q’s behaviour against his victims, since he was a senior partner.
“They relied on their employment. If they quit on bad terms, their ability to find work in the same area in their locality might have been compromised”, the tribunal said.
In four weeks, Mr Q will be able to appeal the tribunal’s order when his interim name suppression lifts.
