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.
Readers' comments (88)
Matthew Connacher | 5-Aug-2008 1:33 pm
re: China
Apologies I seem to have got confused.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 1:48 pm
It's like the difference between Radio Times and TV Times
The comment sections on Lawyer and Legal Week are a great read. The Lawyer readers back for the most support the student. Legal Week's readers almost all back the associate. If I were Mazda I'd start a huge marketing campaign for the MX5 aimed at desperate single men who read Legal Week. With free bluetooth earpiece for the cell phone.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 2:29 pm
not so naive
i very much doubt it is just desperate single men who backed the associate. as a young married female associate i think the behaviour of the student is embarrassing for women and only serves to suggest that women cannot hold their own in male-dominated environments. So two adults went to a club, he tried to pull her and she felt uncomfortable. the guy does not deserve to lose his job over what may have been a silly drunken fumble.
I hope the student is suitably mortifed. From what i see, some vac students actively throw themselves at associates in a bid to win them over so they are not all as naive as is suggested here.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
don giovanni | 5-Aug-2008 2:52 pm
can of worms...
Anonymous@14:29,
You do have a point - some vac students probably wouldn't mind bagging themselves a rich lawyer after some drunken fumblings - after all, most are probably still in the university student mindset.
But what people often forget is that it is the balance of power at firms that make behaviour as it is described in the article particularly unacceptable.
If a senior associate or a partner tries to 'pull' or seduce a vacation student or a trainee by touching them inappropriately, they will know that their odds of succeeding increase by virtue of the position they hold over their 'victim'.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 3:01 pm
Not so naive ha
I disagree with your comments re the student's behaviour,.the associate showed bad taste/judgment in attempting to pull a woman the way he did.
The student may not be qualified yet, she does not deserve to be taken to a strip club under the umbrella of a business get together by a male who has a hidden agenda to pull her. I will not consider it a drunken fumble either. it reminds me of the saying '' you can read all the books in the world but you cannot read commonsence.''
to all other clueless male associates out there, there is nothing better than this .. be nice and pleasant to your intended pull, subtely make your intentions known and wait for the green light Not amber before you make your move.
As they ''a woman who wants to know will not complain or give excuse''.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 3:44 pm
.
After a night of drinking, a rich male associate separates you from the rest of the group and tells you that no one else, just the two of you, are going to go somewhere else, presumably another bar. Honestly, you don't get suspicious of his motives for the end of the night? Just a tiny, tiny bit suspicious?!?
I really wonder how this girl even got an internship with Shearman and Sterling in the first place.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 3:48 pm
Clever lawyer strikes again?
This is not by chance the same guy who a few years back sent around an email bragging about his previous night's conquest and lost his job at Norton Rose as a result?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 3:56 pm
Another agenda
I imagine there was history here. Even if he wasn't a drunken sexist berk on other occasions, you've got to wonder whether Shearman used this as the reason to get rid of someone they didn't want.
Either because he was, well, a berk or because he was an underperformer. BIG mistake by Cadwalader cancelling their summer party: They could have sacked 10 drunken associates and saved money on redundancies.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 5-Aug-2008 4:17 pm
Another Agenda..
I can't believe somebody hired this summer student. She went for a job in a city firm, went out for too many drinks, voluntarily went to a strip club with one male, and then was surprised that he tried to pull? Heavens, must have been a huge surprise!
She must accept some responsibility for this mess that has cost an associate his career - she could have stayed with everybody else, she could have refused to go to the strip club, she could left when she wanted, she have just said no when he came onto her.
The associate may have been stupid given the circumstances, but coming onto somebody and getting knocked back is hardly a sackable offence.
And I'm not a single desperate male - i'm a mid 30's happily engaged female, who is wondering if equal opps have gone too far.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
city girl | 5-Aug-2008 4:20 pm
pathetic
as in Sherman's reaction to a pathetic claim by a pathetic little girl...... so if noone else but Shearmans offered her a job, she would have let it past? or would she have complained all the same (yeah, WHATEVER)
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment