Darren Shaw

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

Darren Shaw, a Chartered Legal Executive employed as Head of Financial Products at Keller Postman UK Ltd, was found to have behaved inappropriately towards five junior female colleagues at and after the firm's October 2022 annual conference, including sexualised comments, unwanted physical contact, coercion to dance and restricting a wheelchair user's movement. The Tribunal found the allegations proved on the balance of probabilities and that his conduct was sexually motivated, an abuse of position and tantamount to harassment. No express finding of dishonesty was made. The Tribunal made a Section 43 Order requiring SRA consent for any involvement in legal practice and ordered costs of £20,670.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• No taking unfair advantage
• Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
• No unlawful discrimination or harassment
• Act in the client's best interests
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct sexually motivated in some respects
• Abuse of position of seniority over junior colleagues
• Harassment of multiple colleagues
• Power imbalance made it difficult for junior colleagues to object
• Failure to desist when objections made or discomfort apparent
• Targeted more than one colleague showing a pattern of behaviour
• Conduct towards a wheelchair user restricting her autonomy
• No apology, remorse or recognition of seriousness, creating risk of repetition

Mitigating factors:

• Conduct occurred on one evening only
• No previous disciplinary matters