Shearman associate sacked after alleged sex harassment
Shearman & Sterling has sacked an associate after a vacation student claimed he sexually harassed her in a West End strip club.
Shearman & Sterling has sacked one of its associates after a vacation student claimed that he sexually harassed her after taking her to a West End strip club.
Shearmans has apologised to the student after conducting an internal investigation which resulted in the sacking of the associate, but the firm denies liability for the alleged harrassment.
In a letter to the vacation student dated 1 August, the firm wrote: “We apologise for the experience that you had at Shearman & Sterling and wish you well […]
“Although we accept that the conduct displayed by the associate in taking you to The Windmill Club was deeply inappropriate, it was not a Shearman & Sterling organised event and we therefore accept no liability for what may have occurred.”
The vacation student alleged that she was taken to a strip club on Friday 18 July by the Shearman associate after drinks in the Light Bar, Liverpool St, which is close to Shearman’s London office.
A spokesman for the firm confirmed that at least one partner was present at these drinks.
It is understood that at around 10pm, the group moved on to the Chinawhite club in Piccadilly, where a guest list reservation had been made.
However, the associate and the vacation student separated from the group and went to the Windmill strip club in Soho.
The vacation student claimed that she did not realise she was entering a strip club and that she told the associate that she should leave, but that he responded that he had already paid for the entrance fee and they should stay a while longer.
The firm confirmed that the associate paid for the entrance fee to the strip club on the firm’s credit card.
“This guy’s an associate and I’m an intern,” the vacation student told The Lawyer, “I didn’t want to p*ss him off.”
The associate is alleged to have begun making sexually suggestive remarks and to have touched her inappropriately.
The vacation student said that she left the club in tears and hired a taxi home shortly afterwards. She filed a complaint with Shearman’s HR department the week after, on 24 July, because she said that she wanted to finish the last week of her vacation placement before an internal investigation began.
A Shearman & Sterling statement said: “A student on our UK summer vacation scheme lodged a complaint regarding the conduct of one of the firm’s associates during an informal social evening outside the offices.
“Shearman & Sterling takes such matters very seriously and, following a full investigation in accordance with internal disciplinary procedures, the associate has now left the firm.”
The vacation student has accepted a training contract at another firm and is considering the options that are open to her in pursuing this matter.
The former associate could not be reached for comment.
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Readers' comments (88)
anon | 4-Aug-2008 3:12 pm
bare minimum
Sacking him is the very least they should be doing...
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smarter | 4-Aug-2008 3:25 pm
genius
What a brilliant move by him to pay for the club on the corporate credit card.
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Dr Gonzo | 4-Aug-2008 3:36 pm
Where?
The Windmill Club? Not heard of that one - where's that?
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A. Shole | 4-Aug-2008 3:50 pm
dirty business
Stop press, shock horror: associate behaves like overpaid, undersexed adolescent. What else is new?
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Anon. | 4-Aug-2008 4:09 pm
Macho law firms
Macho law firms where people works a million hours a week and sell their youth to try and be a milionairres are magnets for people with a weird attitude to life. That this young go-getter had a naive attitude to sexual relations too, as alleged, shouldn't be a massive surprise.
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Anonymous | 4-Aug-2008 4:11 pm
Disgusting
That is disgusting. Really, really shocking. I mean who in this day and age actually thinks its OK to go to Chinawhite?
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attorney at law | 4-Aug-2008 4:51 pm
lawyer
From the facts in the article it sounds like prima facie she would have an ET claim... I wonder why they did not settle.
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associate | 4-Aug-2008 5:14 pm
work life balance
I applaud Shearman for sacking him but the problem is that this kind of stuff still goes on in the City every night.
I think it is a woeful state of affairs and one that firms do hardly anything about - partly because everybody works so hard they feel like they can't criticise them for what they get up to in 'private'.
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Anna | 4-Aug-2008 5:17 pm
Back to the dark ages
In the last couple of years we took some serious steps forward in taking the sexism out of the City but now strip clubs are on every street corner and are being seen as completely acceptable and harmless entertainment for males (and women who don't want to go being seen as prudes).
There is clearly a resurgence in sexism on the cards.
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Anonymous | 4-Aug-2008 5:24 pm
Shearman
Presumably Shearman briefed the press about this in order to demonstrate a zero tolerance attitude. That in itself is a move on from the 90's. But what were the rest of the party doing? Did no-one notice and wonder whether they shouldn't whisk her away from someone who was (very probably, er... allegedly) a macho s**thead?
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