A solicitor has been publicly rebuked after being filmed making a rude gesture at an office Christmas party – more than five years ago.
Samuel Thorne, who worked for London firm Russell-Cooke at the time, made what the Solicitors Regulation Authority called a ‘lewd gesture’ to his colleague in front of other members of staff at the firm’s Christmas party in December 2017. The act was captured on video footage.
In a decision notice, the regulator said Thorne acted with a lack of integrity, damaged the trust placed in the provision of legal services and caused harm and distress.
The SRA deemed his conduct according to its enforcement strategy, adding: ‘It demonstrated a lack of integrity on his part; he caused harm and distress to the recipient, failed to treat a fellow professional with respect and dignity and the gesture was sexual in nature.’
Thorne, now an in-house solicitor, had been admitted to the roll in September 2016. He was rebuked and ordered to pay £600 for being in breach of three SRA principles.
Coincidentally, a year after the incident Russell-Cooke published a blog entitled ‘The perils of office Christmas parties’. The article noted that ‘whilst the vast majority of these events pass without incident, there are occasions when things go wrong’.
A spokesperson for the firm said: ‘Samuel Thorne left the firm in 2018. We were made aware of the incident in question in 2019, and promptly launched an investigation. We take any allegations of possible professional misconduct, whether inside or outside of the office, extremely seriously. Had the individual still been employed by the firm he would have been subject to our robust disciplinary process.’
