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“[Person A’s] vagina is lovely. I like it. It likes it up the arse but also in the vag.”
This little ditty from a male partner serenading a female trainee at a pub after a firm Christmas lunch in 2017 resulted in a £23,000 fine and an order to pay associated costs of £22,800 from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Whenever someone complains that people “can’t take a joke” or are “too sensitive” it’s worth remembering that… this is what they’re talking about. Innocent misunderstandings can obviously come up in a work environment, but those also usually get resolved professionally by adults. The “just a joke” crowd are invariably spinning how their latest “harmless” ballad about the summer associate’s genitals didn’t play well with the crowd.
In the partner’s very, very limited defense, the Tribunal concluded that had been “motivated to behave in the manner that he did following an express ‘invitation’” from the trainee. The “invitation” was apparently to say something outrageous, earning the partner something of a Pyrrhic victory vis a vis the challenge. Because there’s some wiggle room for “outrageous” landing between GAAP accounting talk and musing about arse play with a subordinate.
It said: “His misconduct was spontaneous and reactive to the same. However, the words used, the gestures that 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.”
Plus it’s just lyrically trash.
Male law firm partner fined £23k for ‘sexualised’ song towards female trainee [LegalCheek]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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