Law.com report… Identity of Australian Lawyer Who Harassed Colleague Revealed

Global law firm Allens promoted senior associate Timothy Leschke through its ranks and offered him highly sought-after overseas secondments despite internally disciplining him for sexually harassing a junior lawyer in his team.

Mr Leschke also retained oversight of junior female staff members within his Brisbane-based team after the harassment despite the firm having disciplined him for sexual harassment.

But Allens has stood by its response despite acknowledging its processes for handling such complaints have “evolved significantly” into a “better system” since the incident. Mr Leschke said he deeply regretted his conduct and had changed since.

Fiona Thatcher, who was then a junior lawyer in the same infrastructure projects team as Mr Leschke, said he harassed her late on a Friday night in July 2015 when he sent her a series of text messages suggesting she have sex with him.

He then showed up at her apartment complex and continuously rang her security buzzer for five minutes. The following morning at 11.00am, she got another text making similar suggestions. He had a girlfriend at the time.

Ms Thatcher formally complained to the firm the next Monday, backed up by a statement from her father, who had been at her apartment at the time, identifying Mr Leschke.

While the firm found Mr Leschke had sexually harassed Ms Thatcher as she reported, it accepted his explanation that he was drunk at the time and “formally disciplined” him by giving him a warning and telling him to apologise to her and work from home for a week.

During the two-day investigation, he told the firm he had deleted the texts when drunk, an explanation the firm accepted. While he had also texted her on the Saturday, Ms Thatcher said that her concerns he was lying were dismissed. He denied lying.

He was not required to undertake any form of specialised training and has continued to have oversight of young women in his team – then as an associate, and now as a senior associate – since the incident.

Ms Thatcher was allowed to move to an office that did not directly neighbour his after the incident, but she was required to remain in his team. She left the firm five months later.

Allens also did not report him to the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner, despite sexual harassment breaching solicitors’ legally binding professional obligations to the court. Ms Thatcher reported him last week.

While firms are historically reticent to report high-earning staff to the commissioner, it is not unprecedented. Herbert Smith Freehills reported – and fired – rainmaker partner Peter Paradise, despite his value to the firm, after finding he had sexually harassed staff members.

To Ms Thatcher, the firm’s response revealed a culture that prioritised money over staff wellbeing, tapping into a growing movement of junior staff at corporate law firms who are pushing back on the legal industry’s tough culture.

“The messages that continue to be sent to me, and to other women and to Tim as well, from the firm is that ‘we don’t care about women as much as we care about how much someone bills’,” she said.

“It says that ‘you’re not as valuable as someone who can make us a lot of money, and we will protect them’. Think of what that does to someone’s confidence, think of the harm that causes.”

Cultural problems

Her warning comes after the legal industry was rocked last year by revelations that former High Court justice Dyson Heydon repeatedly harassed female associates while on the bench.

A recent study by the International Bar Association also found 47 per cent of women lawyers in Australian firms had been sexually harassed, outstripping the global average of one third.

“There’s a culture where you basically get abused when you’re in your first, second, third year, with a culture where all that matters is how much you work and how technically proficient you are, and you’re managed by people who are good lawyers but don’t have emotional intelligence,” Ms Thatcher said.

“So it makes this environment where this is a rite of passage and it seems normal that there’s constantly people crying in the women’s bathroom, and if you don’t fit in with that then you are seen as just not being able to hack it.

“It’s just this factory line of high-achieving young men and women who get spat back out broken, and that’s just so sad. Where is the accountability for that?”

Mr Leschke told AFR Weekend he “deeply regretted” his conduct towards Ms Thatcher and “unreservedly apologised” to her.

“No one should have to tolerate conduct of that nature. My actions were inexcusable and well below the standards expected of a decent human being,” he said.

He said he realised the “inexcusable nature” of his conduct immediately after the incident and had sought to hold himself to a higher standard since.

“It is possible for people to make bad mistakes, learn from them and change,” he said, adding that men needed to “take responsibility for addressing this issue”.

The senior associate outed himself on Monday to colleagues in the Brisbane office as the lawyer referred to in an article in The Australian that first mentioned the allegations without identifying him on March 19.

AFR Weekend understands he was greeted with applause but that some female staff members were upset by the response.

Allens managing partner Richard Spurio added that “sexual harassment has no place in any workplace” and the firm had learnt a lot from Ms Thatcher’s case.

“Our internal frameworks and processes for managing allegations and consequences of harassment have evolved significantly since 2015,” he said.

”We want these frameworks to ensure that staff have confidence that they can raise any complaints and that they will be handled appropriately; that there is appropriate transparency regarding the disciplinary measures imposed on those who engage in misconduct; and that we have the right support for victims of misconduct following an event.

“We have learnt from this incident and have incorporated the learnings into what we believe is a better system for managing issues such as this.”

Promotions

Mr Leschke was made senior associate in 2019 despite the substantiated harassment claim against him, and AFR Weekend understands he is currently also under consideration for a promotion to managing associate in its July promotion round.

Allens uses this position to progress senior associates they believe will soon make partner, and Mr Leschke’s promotion would come ahead of the usual rate of progression within the firm.

Mr Leschke has also been offered two highly sought-after secondments to Allens Linklaters offices in New York and Dubai since the harassment.

The firm previously said he was promoted on the basis that his conduct since July 2015 had been “everything the firm expects”, with his performance of “a very high standard”. There have been no complaints made about him since Ms Thatcher’s.

But under its enhanced “consequence management” processes for responding to harassment claims, Allens is looking at how misconduct could contribute to career progression and promotion.