‘Sheer’-man Not So Sterling?
(Or: Where not to take your female summer associates.)
This summer associate (or “vacation schemer”) story comes to us from across the pond. An attorney in the London office of Shearman & Sterling had an interesting take on appropriate summer associate events.
Legal Week reports that a bunch of Shearman partners and attorneys took the “trainees” out to the bars one Friday last month. As the night wound down, one of the attorneys decided to take a female summer to The Windmill (NSFW). Not a wise decision:
Shearman & Sterling has dismissed an associate in its London office after a vacation scheme student made a formal complaint about his behaviour during a night out.The student, who has subsequently accepted a training contract position with another firm, lodged a formal complaint to Shearman alleging that she was taken to Soho strip club The Windmill by the associate last month.
An internal investigation at Shearman has resulted in the associate in question being dismissed for bringing the firm into disrepute.
The attorney in question should have done more to defend himself. He could have cast this as a highly reputable outing… or at least a little bit reputable. The Windmill is not just any old strip club; it’s an historic strip club. From its (NSFW) website:
Great Windmill Street in London’s Soho… where Laura Henderson was to create her world famous theatre staging the first nude stage shows in London in 1931….[A] host of great British comedians began their careers at the Windmill. Among them were Peter Sellers….
[T]he story of Mrs. Henderson has been made into a hugely successful film starring dame Judi Dench, nominated for Hollywood’s presige’s [sic] Oscar.”
We’d think that mentioning the names ‘Peter Sellers’ and ‘dame Judi Dench’ in England would lead to all being forgiven.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to take a male summer, who could have better appreciated the “historic nature” of the club. But hey, you never know. Some female summer associates, far from having a problem with strip clubs, actually enjoy performing at them.
Shearman sacks associate after student strip club complaint [Legal Week]
Earlier: Summer Associate of the Day: Girl Gone Wild
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These pretzels are making me firsty!
I'm offended by the term "sack."
Am I missing something? Did he physically drag this girl to the strip club? Sounds like a woman scorned.
"Shearman sacks associate after student strip club complaint"
So Shearman tea-bagged an associate after going to a strip club?
I need to read these posts more carefully. I misread the sentence as "Legal Week reports that a bunch of Shearman partners and attorneys took the TRANNIES out to the bars one Friday last month."
#4 - well played.
oh hai KASH pls to xcpt EIC position pls k thx bye
Strange how you never heard of male summer associates being taken to gay strip clubs. It's almost like the partners are all straight guys or something.
We should stop using "an" as the article to "historic." "An historic" isn't as easy to say as "a historic." "An historic" sounds too stilted. As Bryan Garner points out -- Mark Twain didn't like it, so neither do I!
You're missing the fact that she didn't know it was a strip club because he didn't tell her, and those of us who don't usually go to strip clubs don't know their names, and this probably wasn't one of those ones with the marquees that says something about "live nude girls!"
12:56 woman scorned after strip club incident? Sure this is S&S and not PH again? Lesson- the firm will buy the woman's story EVERY TIME. Go to a strip club with your friends, not your colleagues.
OOOH A STORY ABOUT SEX.
GET ALL THE VIRGIN DORKS ALL RILED UP.
AND IT'S WRITTEN BY KASHMIR, THE GIR WHO IS JUST UGLY ENOUGH THAT NERDS THINK THEY CAN GET HER.
GOOD JOB! WAY TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY!
This story doesn't make any sense. Are the British as puritanical as this article makes it seem? Was the woman so outraged by the sight of other nude women that she had to file a complaint? Couldn't she simply leave and forget about it?
What disrepute are they referring to? Will clients stay away from a firm where at least one associate goes to Soho clubs? This is absolutely ridiculous.
So this woman basically cost the associate his job and possibly his career because he was trying to entertain her and she didn't like being taken to a strip club? I don't know how she can sleep at night.
are you kidding, my old firm covered our atm receipts from the strip clubs. we took the ladies, they didn't seem to mind so much.
I didn't really WANT to go to the partner's house for dinner with his ugly wife, but I knew it was expected of me. So, yea, when you're asked to go to the strip club, you go, what's the big deal? No one forced them to get lapdances, or have girl on girl action ... did they? DID THEY!?!?!
What a tattle tale! Is she under 16 years old? Just leave the club and tell the associate who brought you to go to hell, if you're really offended. Total ball buster.
Must be a different culture in the UK. When I was a summer we had a female senior associate (now female partner) buying lap dances for the summers at Scores.
Kash is getting better & better. I actually assumed that the post was Lat's until I read the byline after I finished.
"a historic"
WTF is a vacation scheme?
i know of associates who've gone to SC's with female summers, or even other associates. this girl is lame.
17, I agree. I thought it was Lat as well.
Why do so many people (summers and associates alike) have such a hard time understanding that summer events are still WORK events...an extension of a months-long job interview. It's not appropriate to go to a strip club. Sucks that the associate lost his job, but....commen sense for hell's sake.
I think what we need to focus on is the sexual harassment part of the complaint, not the fact that she was taken to a strip club. That's the focus -- the strip club story just sensationalizes it and successfully does so by the looks of all the idiotic comments regarding it on here.
If you take the same amount of time to write these absurd comments and read the entire article, it notes, "The associate is alleged to have begun making sexually suggestive remarks and to have touched her inappropriately."
Who knows if she is lying or what, but that is the issue at hand.
I love how ATL redacts these stories to blow it into something it entirely is not--but I guess that is why this is a gossip blog.
Really ... what on god's green earth is a vacation scheme? Is this some sort of over-seas summer associate position? Are vacation schemers = SAs?
23: thank you for pointing that out to us. In light of this new information, I retract and abjure my previous statement.
(previously posted as number 12)
24:
Apparently. Calling them "vacation schemers" seems far more accurate than "summer associates."
I love how droll the British are: "vacation schemers," "bringing the firm into disrepute."
Thanks 26 - hilarious add on point too!
19/24
vacation schemers = British law students who rotate through many firms during the summer to find a place to do their "training" or "training contract."
I had a partner arrange an outing to the Strip Club during my "Vegas Summer."
The power went out, yet the partner did not want to leave. We stayed while the partner received lap dances by emergency lights.
I didn;t get an offer, the firm broke up and sold their building, and I still feel dirty.
Burlesque is a classical art form. I am surprised people in London would be so shocked by it. Riyadh or Atlanta I'd understand, but I always thought of London as more of a sophisticated crowd.
I don't think strip clubs are a huge deal. I am female and have been to strip clubs with a group of associates after everyone has had too much to drink at the firm holiday party.
That said, I think it shows remarkably poor judgment to take a summer associate to a strip club. Clearly its a situation where someone might be uncomfortable. And it appears that it may only have been one associate and one summer rather than a large group, further racheting up the discomfort.
16 - the associate should have had better judgment, though its not the end of the world. we are assuming that the chick was not forced to go. now that being said i want to know which firm you summered at, i should have been so lucky at my firm.
p.s. was the senior associate (now partner) hot? if yes was, or is, she lawyer hot or real hottie?!
wait, Kash, I think you are confusing me, here. Was this a Trainee or a Summer Vac student? they are 2 different things. One is an undergrad (summer vac), and this type of behavior would seem normal. The other is effectively an apprentice lawyers (trainee), and likely would be a little more careful since getting kicked out in the middle of one of your 4 seats can never look good.
BTW, "Solocitor" is so much sexier than "lawyer"
Good point 23. I didn't see that allegation. But I can't see that the associate would be fired for that without any evidence -- suspended with pay pending investigation possibly. You can however prove strip club attendance fairly easily. So that was clearly the hook used for the firing.
34 - if s/he was a litigator then it woould be barrister
36, not necessarily (its actually a very convoluted system that is likely going to go away soon anyway witht he barrisers kicking and screaming). And that wasn't my question. I was just commenting on the name itself. Which though I couldnt spell right, is still awesome :P
the title of this post is horrendous.
A female associate from a top 3 NY law firm located downtown organized a fieldtrip for a group of male summers to a strip club, called a firm car to escort them there, and billed the whole thing to the firm. The irony is that this associate supposedly left her former firm because she was the victim of sexual harassment.
Wouldn't it be discrimination to organize a field trip just for male summers?
Guys from my high school used to take chicks to the strip club all the time, it was no big deal.
Maybe there's some kind of VIP lounge in this club where overpaid associates can choke on cigars and talk about the parliament? it's the political statements that were offensive No one said she saw titties
Maybe the associate took her to the club to encourage her to pursue an alternative and more lucrative career path. Just think - in a strip club, at least you'll really know when people think you're "Outstanding" or "Above Expectations"
Count the shillings!!
Sounds like there was more going on then we're reading about.
There could have been a lot more happening than just taking a summer to a strip club (as the comments above suggest based on references in the article) and/or this could be the associate's second or third indiscretion involving a female colleague.
We need the nitty gritty.
Vac schemes are for undergraduates going into their final year at Uni (recall that we in the UK don't make you wait until you're a postgrad to study law). This one sounds like a hypersensitive bitch. £10 she's a Tab. Frigid whores...
And 34/37: even when you comment on your previous spelling error (solocitor? please.) you still manage to misspell words in your next comment. Stupid muppet.
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=134072&d=415&h=417&f=416
A little more nitty gritty on what happened in this story... Sounds kinda messy.
Wow, "prestige's"? That's quite a typo.