Decision record
Takeshige Sugimoto
Allegation / charges
Breaches, SRA Overseas Principles
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Takeshige Sugimoto, an unadmitted Registered Foreign Lawyer and partner at Bird & Bird's Brussels branch, pursued a two-month course of inappropriate, sexually motivated conduct towards a junior legal consultant (Person B) who reported directly to him, including hundreds of personal/intimate WhatsApp messages, repeated declarations of feelings, waiting outside her home, and unwanted physical contact (taking her hand and hugging). The Tribunal found Allegations 1.2 and 2 proved on an agreed outcome basis, finding breaches of Overseas Principles 2 and 6, that the conduct was sexually motivated and an abuse of position. No dishonesty was alleged or found (lack of integrity only). The Tribunal imposed a Section 43 order for 5 years and ordered costs of £36,000 (inclusive of VAT, with a VAT refund provision).
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Misconduct was repeated
- Misconduct persisted over a period of two months
- Amounted to an abuse of power and position of authority
- Included a sexual element in view of the sexual motivation
- High culpability - experienced lawyer and partner who exploited an imbalance of power over a junior female consultant
Mitigating factors:
- Respondent's own (non-agreed) mitigation: acting during a time of personal crisis following the death of his father and separation from family, suffering depression
- He believed the relationship was consensual and ceased his conduct once he understood there was no chance of a relationship, taking no retaliation
- Had not worked for an SRA-regulated firm since 23 July 2019 and had not been an RFL since 31 October 2019
- Made admissions to resolve the matter by agreed outcome