Roll On Friday
A solicitor has been struck off for telling a barrister who was instructed by his firm that he was thinking about her bum, and calling another woman a “cheeky bitch” and telling her he was a “horny bastard”.
Michael Alexander initially sent Person A messages about work after his firm at the time, Russell & Russell, had instructed her on a matter.
But the SRA said Person A grew concerned “when the professional relationship became infiltrated with incredibly inappropriate comments”.
Alexander informed the barrister that he masturbated while thinking about her and “her posterior”, and when she reminded him that she worked for with him and told him to stop “he persisted”.
She left the matter and did not attend court as a result, but despite an investigation by the firm and a referral to the SRA, the solicitor moved on to a barrister’s clerk he ferreted out in LinkedIn.
After suggesting that he could possibly employ the woman, who was out of work at the time, as his PA, Alexander then behaved “even more egregiously and offensively” than he had towards Person A, said the SRA.
After Alexander told Person B she could “trust him because he was a solicitor”, he asked if she was “naked in bed” and informed her that he was a “horny bastard”.
When she told him to keep things professional, he left voicemails and called her a “cheeky bitch”, said the SRA.
The irrepressible charmer carried on even as he was under investigation for his conversations with Person A and Person B, contacting Person C over LinkedIn and asking her out in a lunch date.
When she asked if she knew him, he replied modestly, “no but I am a top lawyer from Manchester”, reported the Law Gazette.
Alexander admitted the allegations on the first day of his hearing, and his solicitor said that he “would like to offer an unreserved apology to Person A, B and C for the distress he caused them. He recognises that his conduct will undermine public trust in the solicitors’ profession and he is ashamed to have acted in such a way”.
“He has reflected on these events, it has not been easy for him”, they added.
But despite having “finally gained insight into the necessity to observe professional boundaries in both professional and private communications”, the SDT ordered him to be struck off and to pay £75,000 costs.
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/solicitor-who-declared-he-was-horny-bastard-struck
