Gary Senior is the former London Managing Partner at Baker McKenzie, and he’s embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal. He’s already admitted he acted inappropriately with a junior associate in 2012, but the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is conducting hearings over the alleged sexual harassment investigation.
The prosecution in the case says that in the incident in question, Senior was “seeking to initiate intimate activity” with a junior associate which he was in a position of “authority and responsibility over.” They went on to note Senior “knowingly caused [the junior associate] to be alone with him and told her he was attracted to her” and “attempted to embrace and kiss” her and that Senior “persisted in said conduct despite [the junior associate] indicating that such conduct was not appropriate.”
During testimony this week in the tribunal, Senior was questioned and said that if he wasn’t drinking during on the 2012 night in question, the incident would “probably never have happened.” He also said he “operated in the drinking culture that you find in all big law firms,” and that there are “many examples of partners willing to drink late into the night with all kinds of employees.” He went on, “I have done more of that than I should have done as managing partner and realize that’s an error on my part,” he said, “and the night [of the alleged incident] was an example of that.” And as reported by Law.com, the firm attempted to restrict Senior’s alcohol consumption going forward, though exactly how they did that was unclear.
Baker McKenzie as well as the former head of human resources, Martin Blackburn, and former litigation partner Tom Cassels are alleged to have allowed Senior to exert influence over the firm’s internal investigation. The hearings are ongoing.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).