Lewis Brady

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent, a solicitor at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, faced allegations of unwanted, inappropriate and sexually motivated conduct towards two female colleagues. The Tribunal found two of the multiple allegations proved on the balance of probabilities: non-consensual touching of Person A's bottom (20 October 2021) and non-consensual touching of Person B's breast three times during a taxi journey (24-25 March 2022). It found breaches of Principles 2 and 5 (public trust and integrity) but did not find a breach of Code Paragraph 1.2 (abuse of position) as the parties were peers. There was no finding of dishonesty (only lack of integrity). The Tribunal imposed a 12-month suspension. Costs originally fixed at £95,389.92 were varied by consent on appeal to £30,000.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• The misconduct was sexual in nature
• Involved separate complaints from two victims

Mitigating factors:

• Relatively young solicitor
• Worked in a 'work hard, play hard' culture with long hours and heavy drinking where 'pushing of boundaries' was commonly accepted
• Events occurred shortly after the national lockdown, a period of social and psychological adjustment
• Unblemished regulatory record
• Genuine remorse and significant personal impact (acute depression, suicidal thoughts)
• Positive character references