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”.
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
Tip Off ROF
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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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'....
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still, as long as he keeps bringing the money in, thats the main thing isn't it?!
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They're terms of endearment you buffoons.
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And there is real reputational risk for DLA here. Why are they supporting him?
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Ridiculous.