A partner at a law firm has been forced to pay £45,000 in fines after singing a degrading song to a junior colleague.
The female employee, who cannot be named, had joined the firm just three months before the incident, which took place at its Christmas party in 2017.
She told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that the male partner – who can also not be identified as he submitted an anonymity order on grounds of his health – had sung that her “vagina is lovely”.
The tribunal heard that the partner had sung the song after the female colleague, referred to at the hearing as Person A, urged him to “say something outrageous”.
The partner also moved his fist upwards at the start of the song, cupping his right hand and moving it in front of his genitals. The colleague was “shocked and humiliated” by his actions and the song.
The incident was filmed, and the female colleague made a complaint 18 months later after she was overlooked for a role as a newly qualified solicitor. She said she had delayed reporting the incident because she felt vulnerable as a trainee.
The partner told the tribunal he was “extremely embarrassed” by his actions and “recognised his behaviour was vulgar”.
The tribunal ruled that he had been motivated to behave in such a manner after the invitation from the colleague, saying: “the words used, the gestures that he elected to deploy, the fact that he was a partner, at a work event, with colleagues present and in a public setting represented a grave breach of his position of trust”.
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He was fined £23,000 for misconduct and £22,800 in costs.
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