Two Debevoise & Plimpton lawyers have been sacked from the firm for grossly offensive conversation.

RollOnFriday understands that the two solicitors were caught making inappropriate comments about their colleagues. A source said staff at large are not sure what exactly was uttered, but believe the offending comments were either sexist or racist. The insults must have been weapons-grade. According to a witness, on Monday morning the pair were frogmarched out of the building.

     Bantocalypse Now 

At the time of publication neither lawyer had updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect the fact that they are now seeking new opportunities. Debevoise was more efficient, scrubbing their profiles from its website within hours. 

A spokesman for Debevoise & Plimpton declined to comment, but the firm's intolerance of bad behaviour is timely. It was instructed this week by The Weinstein Company to investigate allegations of misconduct made against the film studio's disgraced founder, Harvey Weinstein.

Meanwhile, Nick West is no longer a partner at DLA Piper.
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Comments

Anonymous 13 October 17 10:32

well done D&P. In the light of his Weinstein scandal I got to thinking of all the horrific stuff that was par for the course in my "leading" law firm. That said, I'm guessing these were associates. No-one frogmarches a partner...

Anonymous 13 October 17 11:18

Difficult to say well done or locker room talk and to really comment on if this was appropriate or not without knowing what was said (which we obviously never will in this sort of situation).

Even in this day and age though I suspect given how it was handled you are right that it's unlikely either was a Partner.

Anonymous 13 October 17 11:49

@10:18, I think the joke you missed is that 'locker room talk' is never an acceptable excuse for behavior.

Anonymous 13 October 17 12:09

Shame to see Top Bants punished in this way.

"Locker room" references are Americanised and stupid. Written by those who haven't been in a changing room since mandatory PE at school.

Anonymous 13 October 17 16:12

They have a huge beast at D&P used to frogmarch people from the building. You’d just run if you saw him!

Anonymous 15 October 17 02:45

You're not really allowed to do dismissals like this, summarily marching people out of the building - not allowed in virtually any circumstances. I expect we shall hear further about this case.

Anonymous 18 October 17 18:11

Anon 15/10 1:45pm : And why not?

There's nothing in the law that prevents an individual suspended or summarily dismissed from being escorted from the premises.

If your contention is they could not have been sacked without due process and investigation, that may well have been the case, but suspension and garden leave are specifically there for this purpose.

Anonymous 19 October 17 16:41

At last - a law firm which is not prepared to tolerate bad behaviour. Thank you D&P for restoring my faith.

Anonymous 20 October 17 10:39

Anon 15/10 1:45pm - If they had been at the firm for under 2 years, they wouldn’t have any unfair dismissal rights anyway, so lack of due process wouldn’t be an issue. If they had been there longer, gross misconduct allows immediate termination.