Fieldfisher has been ordered to pay a secretary £20,000 after a tribunal ruled that she had been unfairly dismissed.

The secretary, who was represented by crusading biglaw-botherer Avi Bitton, worked in the firm's Paris office. As revealed by RollOnFriday, she alleged that its managing partner, Bruno Paccioni, bashed her with the loo door when she stopped him and asked to be paid for overtime. She also claimed that Paccioni invited her into the loo and asked her whether she wanted to "hold it" for him. When two trainees agreed to write down what they had seen, she said, a second partner warned them that unless they altered their statements they would be fired and their careers ruined.

  "Okay, I'll say that she offered to hold it"

Having been dismissed, the secretary sued Fieldfisher for unpaid overtime, for her dispute with Paccioni and for being "humiliated" when she was ordered off the premises and found herself standing on the pavement with a box of her belongings. The tribunal agreed that she had been unfairly dismissed, but awarded substantially less than for €120,000 she had been seeking. Instead it ordered Fieldfisher to pay €13,379 in damages, €3,764 in respect of her notice period and €3,260 in costs.

When RollOnFriday first revealed the story, a spokesman for Fieldfisher said the firm would not comment as the case was "still running". Now that it is over, the firm has...declined to comment. Surely not because it lost.

     


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Comments

Anonymous 27 November 15 10:46

Fieldfisher - you deserve it. This firm is only interested in their profits and they don't care about their staff! I am extremely pleased they lost the caseI. Well done secretary for suing them!

Anonymous 27 November 15 10:46

Fieldfisher - you deserve it. This firm is only interested in their profits and they don't care about their staff! I am extremely pleased they lost the caseI. Well done secretary for suing them!

Roll On Friday 27 November 15 21:50

So partners at Fieldfisher face allegations of - hitting a woman, making a sexual pass at a woman, refusing to pay a staff member what they are rightfully owed, and threating staff into silence...and Fieldfisher have 'no comment'. Or is that 'no idea'? Piper gets confused sometimes...

Anonymous 29 November 15 17:09

They should be forced to give her back her job too. Not that she would want to work for such a terrible firm again. Shame this isn't reported in the national press too.