UK lawyer faces suspension for having sex with junior staff member

DESPITE engaging in sexual activity with a junior lawyer twice on his office desk, a senior partner at a law firm in the UK has been informed he can remain in the profession. He was, however, suspended for two years.

According to a disciplinary tribunal, Jasvinder Gill began flirting with the woman shortly after she joined Hatten Wyatt, which operates across five offices in Kent, The Times reported.

The 50-year-old partner, who is based at the Gravesend office, has been found to have misused his "position of authority and influence" by engaging in sexual relationships with multiple women.

However, instead of striking him off the roll, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal suspended Gill for two years, the report added.

Read: India school bars gang-rape survivor from taking exams, says she would ruin ‘atmosphere’

During the hearing chaired by Alison Banks, the vice-president of the tribunal, it was revealed that Gill instructed female staff that "proper office attire" included "open-toed shoes, stockings (not tights), and short skirts".

The panel slammed Gill for abusing the "power imbalance" between him and the junior staff. It also added that the man's conduct towards four women, who the judgment did not name, made them apprehensive about rejecting him, fearing it could harm their careers.

Read: Bradford man jailed for 13 years for rape, sexual assault

It was reported that between 2015 and 2020, when he was between 41 and 46, Gill behaved inappropriately towards younger colleagues.

It was also revealed that the accused started a sexual relationship with "person A" in 2015 after she joined the firm. He invited her to a pub lunch and subsequently asked her to visit his office, where he kissed her on the lips.

In 2019, shortly after "person B" joined the firm, Gill sent her an invitation to join him in his hotel room for takeaway pizza while he was in Bristol for a work trip. It was reported that he changed into "loungewear," relaxed on the bed, and offered her an alcoholic drink.

In 2019, not long after “person B” joined the firm, Gill invited her to his hotel room for takeaway pizza during a work trip to Bristol. He was said to have changed into “loungewear”, reclined on the bed and offered her an alcoholic drink.

The tribunal also heard testimony that Gill frequently entered the office shared by the two women, stroking person A’s hair and giving her shoulder massages in the presence of person B.

Between 2019 and 2020, Gill was reported to have initiated a sexual relationship with “person C” after her arrival at the firm, engaging in sexual activity with her on his desk on two occasions.

Banks called Gill “an experienced and well-regarded solicitor who had built a thriving business” in the tribunal verdict. She also added that the tribunal had found that he “conducted himself towards more junior staff in a way which was wrong and inappropriate”.

According to Banks, Gill had time and again “used his position of influence and authority in the workplace to create situations in which office relationships, sexual in intent, were initiated and pursued by him", The Times report added.

She further stated that Gill's actions were driven by sexual motives, creating a situation where his employees felt pressured into an "unsettling dilemma," fearing that rejecting him could adversely affect their employment.

Besides suspending him, the tribunal also asked Gill to pay £85,501 costs.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1999.