The DLA Piper partner who sent emails from his work account describing women as "gash" has escaped punishment after promising he won't do it again.

Nick West's exchanges with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore were leaked to the press by a former law student who worked as Scudamore's PA and who was appalled at the way the pair talked about women. In one, West complains about a demanding FA in-house lawyer: "Have spent all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft. She is terribly relentless isn’t she?!” Scudamore replies, “Terribly! Must keep her off your shaft... graphite, sausage meat or flimsy sponge”. In another the partner tells Scudamore to “save the cash in case you find some gash”.

   

"I'm the DLA partner who you're too scared to mention,
I spend my cash on finding gash and grabbing your attention"*


No doubt West's female colleagues are delighted to be working with someone who likes to refer to them as troublesome "gash".

But the firm seems remarkably unbothered. A spokeswoman said DLA Piper "accepted Mr West's assurances that these emails are not reflective of his beliefs and values and that there will be no recurrence of this behaviour". It even offered some words in his defence, claiming "these were emails exchanged between friends and accessed without permission". Hmmm. Again, they were from his work email account. Presumably any associate who was guilty of such a misdemeanour would also escape ejection, suspension or a course to purge their inner-Bernard Manning.

West said, "I sincerely apologise for my actions. In sending the emails in question I let myself, my firm and its clients down. I have an obligation to uphold the highest professional standards and I give my assurance that this will be the case going forward".

*With apologies to Adam Ant
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Comments

Anonymous 23 May 14 07:27

Leave the guy alone. It was probably schoolboy wordplay, not dissimilar to that displayed in the letters between Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis. Lighten up, for Heaven's sake. I found the language amusing, as it was clearly intended.

Anonymous 23 May 14 08:02

Heh at comparing this joker to Larkin and Amis. Presumably it didn't count if he was shouting 'bantah!' As he was typing it?

Anonymous 23 May 14 09:17

If he'd have been referring to race, sexuality, disability, religion etc in similar terms, his feet wouldn't have touched the ground. Gender discrimination is seemingly no different for DLA. If they were my lawyers, I wouldn't hesitate in dis-instructing them on the back of this.

Roll On Friday 23 May 14 09:21

The most stupid thing he did was to criticise a client to her boss, and do it by email - to boot. Quite apart from the sexism, that shows dreadful judgment and arrogance.

Anonymous 23 May 14 09:35

Stupid and deplorable comments that befit Jeremy Clarkson.
But, let's be careful about the precedent we are setting here, how many of us have said daft/rude/vulgar things via email? Would we want those to be read out in public? Half the associates in London would likely lose their jobs overnight if we had email transparency. And what about adding in texts, comments on RoF and Facebook posts to the censor's purview etc, you get the picture...Just sayin'....

Anonymous 23 May 14 11:11

pretty easy to think before sending an email from your work account.

still, as long as he keeps bringing the money in, thats the main thing isn't it?!

Anonymous 23 May 14 11:50

I have just checked the "urban" meaning of gash. What a sickening and vile term. Sack him and anyone who thinks this acceptable - shame on you - you're supposed to be trusted and highly educated professionals.

Anonymous 23 May 14 12:43

Lets keep this in perspective people. HE WAS A PARTNER IN A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM SPEAKING TO A VERY HIGH PROFILE CLIENT WHO HAD A PA WHO, ERR, PROBABLY READS HIS EMAILS. You deserve greater punishment you stupid bastard

Anonymous 23 May 14 15:19

LOL at the idea that referring to women as gash, fanny, totty or birds is discriminatory.

They're terms of endearment you buffoons.

Anonymous 23 May 14 15:20

You'd think people in the legal sector would be more enlightened. He should have been officially reprimanded, but hopefully now that his female co-workers know what he is really like the daily discomfort he should feel whenever he encounters one of them should be some small justice.

Anonymous 23 May 14 15:26

His mistake was to send this from his work address: he'll be in breach of all sorts of internal procedures as a result, and the firm will have to take action.

And there is real reputational risk for DLA here. Why are they supporting him?

Roll On Friday 23 May 14 15:43

If the emails are private then they even mroe reflect someone's views, not less likely to do so so the tenor of the comments is all the worse. It reveals his true nature and view of women. The sooner law firm partners are 100% female the better.

Roll On Friday 23 May 14 16:37

I work in house for a client of DLA. I can tell the difference between misogyny and playfulness and the language used by West is disturbing and upsetting. He's also also either arrogant or naive enough to put it in a work email. But worse its DLA's "am I bovvered?" response. I've told DLA and my senior manager that this would make me think twice about giving DLA any more work.

Anonymous 23 May 14 17:12

Lighten up people, it's the same words uttered between a lot of men and for that matter a lot of similar derogatory words are spoken between female friends after a few drinks... accepted, sending from a work email is just foolish.

Anonymous 23 May 14 21:54

What's wrong with you all? You all came up the same way in a public school system where you collectively learnt that this type of banter was acceptable. Which university did he go to? This man is a product of his environment and most of you on hear are from the same environment and behave in the same way whenever you get the chance.

Roll On Friday 28 May 14 10:57

Wow, what a pig. The company I work for has instructed DLA for many years. I will push for them to be disinstructed.

Ridiculous.