Lawyer Fired After Sending BDSM Sex Contract To Junior Employee. Naturally He Sues.

He asserts the BDSM relationship was consensual.

No, despite the content of this article, it has not been ripped from the pages of Penthouse magazine or a wannabe E.L. James. No, this story is real life.

Here’s what we know: Robert Jones was a senior lawyer at London law firm LexLaw. He engaged in a spanking session with a “very junior employee.” He spanked the subordinate over the desk of a partner who was in court at the time. Jones exchanged messages with this employee that discussed details of a BDSM sex contract — including bondage preferences, safe words, and agreed limits. Jones no longer works at LexLaw. These are the facts that don’t even seem to be contested by either side.

The stories do diverge when it comes to the exact reasons why Jones no longer works at the big firm. He claims there were compensation negotiations that went awry, and he put in his notice. In his version of events, only after he was already out the door did his BDSM relationship with a junior employee become an issue, and it was orchestrated to avoid paying him after he’d put in his notice. He’s also filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office alleging his personal messages were accessed in violation of the Data Protection Act.

Jones’s statement, as per Roll On Friday, insists he engaged in a consensual relationship with the other employee and this is mere retaliation for leaving the firm:

“I had a consensual BDSM relationship with another employee, which included one brief incident in private on work premises several months before the disciplinary proceedings,” he added.

“I believe that the disciplinary proceedings were brought against me as retaliation for my having handed in notice following a disagreement over salary and not as a result of the much earlier incident.”

That’s quite the pivot. But I guess once you get caught spanking a junior employee in a partner’s office, the best defense is a good offense.

LexLaw’s stance, as one might imagine, is very different. They focus on, you know, the wildly inappropriate behavior that took place in their office. Roll On Friday has their statement:

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“We can confirm that inappropriate workplace activities took place last year when a senior barrister sent a sexual contract to a very junior employee.

“In order to avoid damaging the reputations of these former members of staff we decline to make any comment other than to state that the activities that took place are as unacceptable in our workplace as they would no doubt be in any workplace.”

The hearings over the Jones’s privacy allegations are ongoing. Which is a lot more anticlimactic than the way Christian Gray’s story ended.


headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. 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).

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