Legal Ethics

Senior Attorney Harasses Associates With Nudes, Nazi Definitions

Some things you just don't do at work!

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Angry mean caucasian boss shouting scolding frustrated african american employee

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The practice of law hinges on established lawyers sharing with their junior associates. Tips, templates, you need those things to stand on the shoulders of giants. But there are some things that you really should keep to yourself —  kicks, nudes, and one’s interest in sharing Nazi lore ranking highly on that list. Law360 has coverage:

A solicitor bullied junior colleagues in profanity-laced rants and showed a paralegal pornographic pictures on his phone, the Solicitors Regulation Authority told a tribunal Monday.

Domenico Pisano “abused his authority” as a director in Dominic Levent Solicitors Ltd. to harass and abuse six junior members of staff at the London law firm, counsel for the SRA told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Given the amount of time nonsense like this happens, a good heuristic moving forward for anyone in a senior position to ask themselves is: “Does what I’m about to have a junior associate do actually pertain to the job at hand?” Such guided questioning could have prevented this from happening:

Pisano ordered the younger man to sit on a chair and read the definition of “the Night of the Long Knives” on a browser — a reference to Adolf Hitler consolidating his power in the 1934 killing of other Nazi leaders, including Ernst Röhm, the head of the SA, the party’s original paramilitary wing.

“Whilst sitting in the respondent’s chair, the respondent began shouting at Mr. Briggs, who describes him being so close in his personal space, that his saliva was projected on to his face,” Edwards said.

Pisano kept shoving the chair on which Briggs was sitting toward the wall, making the other man fearful he would be physically assaulted, Edwards added. The solicitor then kicked a bag on the floor with such force that his foot connected with Briggs’ ankle, leaving him “on the verge of tears.”

This is an easy case of “I’m just a law clerk” if I’ve ever seen one. Dominic Levent offers a range of services that could help you with civil litigation, debt recovery, or business matters. Not sure how learning about “The Night of Long Knives” relates to any of those areas of practice. It shouldn’t be that hard to expect your seniors to keep their demands to billable matters.

Foul-Mouthed Lawyer Showed Junior Colleague Lewd Pix [Law360]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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