LONDON: An Indian-origin lawyer has been suspended from practising as a solicitor for two years after a disciplinary tribunal concluded that his misconduct of pursuing sexual relations with junior female colleagues at a UK law firm amounted to an abuse of a position of seniority and authority. Jasvinder Singh Gill, 50, faced the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last month after the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) decided to prosecute after finding a “case to answer”.
The independent tribunal heard that Gill behaved inappropriately with a number of unnamed female colleagues and initiated consensual sexual relationships between 2015 and 2020.
“His conduct… was inappropriate because, as the Respondent [Gill] accepts, behaving in this way to junior female employees, when there was an inherent power imbalance between himself, as the senior partner of the Firm and a solicitor in his forties, and each of them, as more junior and younger colleagues, may have prevented them from refusing to engage with him and/or from refusing his requests,” reads the tribunal judgment document from last week.
“The Respondent had, on repeated occasions, used his position of influence and authority in the workplace to create situations in which office relationships, sexual in intent, were initiated and pursued by him,” it reads.
The judgment, signed off by the chair of the tribunal A. Banks, notes that Gill is an “experienced and well-regarded solicitor who had built a thriving business”, but that he had conducted himself towards more junior staff in a way which was “wrong and inappropriate”.
“The factual circumstances in this case and the tribunal’s assessment of the seriousness of the misconduct required that a fixed term of suspension was the appropriate sanction in this case and that nothing less was needed to protect the reputation of the legal profession,” it added.
Under the tribunal order, Gill will be suspended from practising as a solicitor for 24 months starting May 21 and is also required to pay the application costs of GBP 85,501.10.
There is a right to apply to the tribunal to vary or rescind these restrictions at any time after the expiry of the 24-month suspension period.
The independent tribunal heard that Gill behaved inappropriately with a number of unnamed female colleagues and initiated consensual sexual relationships between 2015 and 2020.
“His conduct… was inappropriate because, as the Respondent [Gill] accepts, behaving in this way to junior female employees, when there was an inherent power imbalance between himself, as the senior partner of the Firm and a solicitor in his forties, and each of them, as more junior and younger colleagues, may have prevented them from refusing to engage with him and/or from refusing his requests,” reads the tribunal judgment document from last week.
“The Respondent had, on repeated occasions, used his position of influence and authority in the workplace to create situations in which office relationships, sexual in intent, were initiated and pursued by him,” it reads.
The judgment, signed off by the chair of the tribunal A. Banks, notes that Gill is an “experienced and well-regarded solicitor who had built a thriving business”, but that he had conducted himself towards more junior staff in a way which was “wrong and inappropriate”.
“The factual circumstances in this case and the tribunal’s assessment of the seriousness of the misconduct required that a fixed term of suspension was the appropriate sanction in this case and that nothing less was needed to protect the reputation of the legal profession,” it added.
Under the tribunal order, Gill will be suspended from practising as a solicitor for 24 months starting May 21 and is also required to pay the application costs of GBP 85,501.10.
There is a right to apply to the tribunal to vary or rescind these restrictions at any time after the expiry of the 24-month suspension period.