The Clifford Chance partner and the secretary who were caught having sex in the office were regulars, according to RollOnFriday sources.

Last year RollOnFriday revealed that the unnamed partner, 'Wildman', was caught by a trainee romping with a secretary in the filing room in one of the firm's overseas offices. Shortly afterwards, but before the firm was informed of the allegations, the partner moved back to London. A CC spokesman said at the time that the firm had investigated and "taken appropriate steps".

Recently other allegations relating to the incident were shopped around to media outlets, which compelled Clifford Chance to announce that it was running a second probe, as reported by The Lawyer and The Times. RollOnFriday made contact with its own sources with knowledge of the situation. They said that the filing room incident was "not a one off" and that "at one point it was almost a daily occurrence".  Apparently the cleaning staff also walked in on Wildman and the secretary. "Associates would joke that [Wildman] was busy doing some 'filing' when they could not find him", said a source.

 

  The filling room. 


A source said the trainee went to the office's HR "but was discouraged from taking it further". The trainee was not retained on qualification, although it is not known whether there was any causal link between her her complaint and departure. RollOnFriday understands that the HR staff in the office have since left the firm, so it may be impossible to ascertain the sequence of events unless someone hunts for the relevant notes in the filing room. Which no-one wants to do.

A spokesman for Clifford Chance said, "We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and expect all of our people to meet high standards at all times. We take any allegations of this kind extremely seriously and are investigating fully – we have so far found no evidence to support anything in these anonymous claims".

It's still no Wilkie Farr.

Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 20 April 18 09:52

If I was the trainee I wouldn’t have stayed either

“Appropriate action” = telling the tattle tale to STFU and then get rid of them if they do tell