London: A lawyer suspended from a UK company for sexual misconduct

London London: An Indian-origin lawyer has been suspended for two years Solicitor has been suspended from practising as a barrister after a disciplinary tribunal concluded that his misconduct of having sexual relations with junior female colleagues at a UK law firm amounted to an abuse of seniority and position of authority.Jaswinder Singh Gill, 50, faced the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last month after the Solicitors Regulation Authority

(SRA) had decided to prosecute after finding a “case worth answering”.

The independent tribunal heard that Gill behaved inappropriately with a number of unnamed female colleagues and had consensual sexual relationships between 2015 and 2020. “His conduct… was inappropriate because, as the respondent [गिल] acknowledge, in treating junior female employees in this manner, whilst there was an inherent power imbalance between them as the firm’s senior partner and the forty-year-old solicitor, and each of them, as more junior and younger colleagues, could have prevented her from engaging with them and/or refusing their requests,” reads last week’s tribunal decision document.

“The respondent had, repeatedly, used his position of influence and authority in the workplace to create conditions in which office relationships with sexual intent were initiated and pursued by him,” it reads. The decision, signed by tribunal chairman A. Banks, said Gill was an “experienced and distinguished barrister who has built up a flourishing practice”, but that he had behaved in a manner which was “wrong and inappropriate” towards more junior staff. “In the light of the factual circumstances in this case and the tribunal’s assessment of the seriousness of the misconduct, a fixed period of suspension was the appropriate punishment and nothing less was required to protect the reputation of the legal profession,” it added.

Under the tribunal’s order, Gill will be suspended from practising as a lawyer for 24 months from May 21 and will also have to pay application costs of GBP 85,501.10. He has the right to apply to the tribunal to vary or cancel these restrictions at any time after the expiry of the 24-month suspension period.