The DLA Piper partner who referred to women as troublesome "gash" in an email to a client is being hauled before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
In 2014 Nick West was involved in a charming email exchange with his client Richard Scudamore, CEO of the Premier League. In it West complains of the supposed unwanted attentions of an in-house lawyer - "have spent all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft. She is terribly relentless isn’t she?!” He also tells Scudamore to “save the cash in case you find some gash”. Ah, the benefits of a classical education*.
Scudamore's PA, a former law student, was appalled by the emails and leaked them to the press. But to the surprise of pretty much everyone DLA Piper stood by its man, arguing that "these were emails exchanged between friends and accessed without permission". Hmmm, maybe, but they were also emails sent from a partner to a client from his work account, and it's clearly not unusual for such correspondence to be read by a PA.
Insiders told RollOnFriday that West made so much money for the firm that he was pretty much untouchable. But DLA Piper's supine reaction clearly failed to impress everyone, as someone grassed West up to the authorities. Last October RoF revealed that the SRA was investigating whether the comments were appropriate, and yesterday it announced that West had a case to answer. He will be appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal at a date to be decided. The first case management conference will take place next month.
The SRA confirmed that the SDT has the power to strike West off, and a spokeswoman for DLA Piper said that the firm had no comment to make.
*Although it is unknown whether West has had any education at all. Because in a rare moment of modesty, DLA Piper has removed pretty much all his details from his online bio.
Tip Off ROF
In 2014 Nick West was involved in a charming email exchange with his client Richard Scudamore, CEO of the Premier League. In it West complains of the supposed unwanted attentions of an in-house lawyer - "have spent all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft. She is terribly relentless isn’t she?!” He also tells Scudamore to “save the cash in case you find some gash”. Ah, the benefits of a classical education*.
Scudamore's PA, a former law student, was appalled by the emails and leaked them to the press. But to the surprise of pretty much everyone DLA Piper stood by its man, arguing that "these were emails exchanged between friends and accessed without permission". Hmmm, maybe, but they were also emails sent from a partner to a client from his work account, and it's clearly not unusual for such correspondence to be read by a PA.
Insiders told RollOnFriday that West made so much money for the firm that he was pretty much untouchable. But DLA Piper's supine reaction clearly failed to impress everyone, as someone grassed West up to the authorities. Last October RoF revealed that the SRA was investigating whether the comments were appropriate, and yesterday it announced that West had a case to answer. He will be appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal at a date to be decided. The first case management conference will take place next month.
The SRA confirmed that the SDT has the power to strike West off, and a spokeswoman for DLA Piper said that the firm had no comment to make.
*Although it is unknown whether West has had any education at all. Because in a rare moment of modesty, DLA Piper has removed pretty much all his details from his online bio.
Comments
233
231
229
216
220
243
233
197
232
223
243
221
SRA hack 2: Yes. I think we should convene a tribunal to analyse the contents of a privileged solicitor/client document.
223
216
Perhaps make him personally pay say £30k to a feminism group and attend a weekend course on women's rights?
229
206
219
246
211
221
203
222
235
211
212
204
What Mr West said was awful (though Piper isn’t sure what you Muggles mean by ‘gash’; the only ‘gashes’ that Piper is aware of are friction burns suffered by over enthusiastic Quidditch players). We are all terribly embarrassed by what he did, though we can assure all the other wizarding schools that Mr West has been severely punished for his actions, and suffers the ignominy of permanent detention from public life by the Headmaster of our illustrious school – Professor Dummblelevine.
The offending wizard has also lost all extra curricula privileges and continues to be under the strict observation of Professor Sandara Walliace the first female Country Managing Professor of Dills Lupsons Alltops school of legal magic, as well as having his graphite shaft, sorry sorry - I mean his wand of course, confiscated indefinitely…