Senior associate at Linklaters' alliance firm outs himself for sexually harassing colleague

^{"No way this will come back to haunt us."}

A senior associate at Allens, the Australian firm in a global alliance with Linklaters, has outed himself as having sexually harassed a colleague. She has expressed outrage that he is now being considered for promotion.

Fiona Thatcher was a junior lawyer in Timothy Leschke's infrastructure projects team when, she said, late on Friday night in July 2015 he sent her a string of texts suggesting sex.

Leschke, who was an associate, then appeared at her apartment complex and rang her security buzzer for 5 minutes, reported the Australia Financial Review, and sent her a similarly suggestive text the following morning.

Thatcher made a formal complaint to Allens the next week, backed up by her father who had been visiting her and who identified Leschke.

Allens' two-day investigation concluded that Leschke had sexually harassed her, but accepted his excuse that he had been drunk. It gave him a warning, told him to apologise to Thatcher, and ordered him to work from home for a week.

Thatcher was permitted to move from her office adjacent to Leschke's, but was not allowed to swap to a different team, and Leschke continued to work in the same team as Thatcher until she left Allens five months later.

Leschke, according to AFR, outed himself on Monday to his colleagues in Allens' Brisbane office after a story about the episode which did not name him appeared in the Australian press. His admission was apparently greeted with applause, which is understood to have upset some female staff.

Thatcher told RollOnFriday of her frustration at the rise of Leschke in Allens' ranks, where he is understood to be on the partnership track.

”Despite privately apologising to me and admitting certain failings, their continued support of him speaks volumes”, she said.

“Allens' response to what Leschke did, both then and now, sends a chilling message to all current and former employees that we should stay silent. My inbox is full of messages from Allens alumni with their own stories of abuse”.

”The weak, cowardly, harmful position Allens has taken makes you wonder what else they have to hide”, she said.

Thatcher told AFR there was a culture at the firm "where all that matters is how much you work and how technically proficient you are, and you’re managed by people who are good lawyers but don’t have emotional intelligence”.

That environment meant “it seems normal that there’s constantly people crying in the women’s bathroom”, she said. “It’s just this factory line of high-achieving young men and women who get spat back out broken, and that’s just so sad. Where is the accountability for that?”

Leschke told AFR he “deeply regretted” his conduct towards Thatcher and “unreservedly apologised” to her.

“No one should have to tolerate conduct of that nature. My actions were inexcusable and well below the standards expected of a decent human being”, he said.

Leschke said he had sought to hold himself to a higher standard since. “It is possible for people to make bad mistakes, learn from them and change,” he said, adding that men needed to “take responsibility for addressing this issue”.

Note: The AFR story originally stated that the texts sent by Leschke “aggressively” demanded sex and that he rang Thatcher’s buzzer for 15 minutes, not 5. AFR subsequently amended its story, and references to its account have been updated.

Comments

Anonymous 13 April 21 11:21

Textbook misandry Gaia.

Misogyny Misandry

Rape / Gang Rape Says something that hurts his feelings

Revenge Porn

Sexualising young female bodies

Cat calling

Shaming women for their sexual pasts

In fairness, both 'cat calling' and 'shaming women for their sexual pasts' are just synonyms for 'saying something that hurts someone's feelings'.

Although of course none of the examples of misogyny you provide are relevant to this article Gaia.

It sounds as if you don't see misandry as a bad thing.

Here's a helpful guide ot what constitutes sexual harassment.

https://youtu.be/TMfStd3v330

Ex Allens Brisbane 13th @ 9:56:

"Don't think the 25 hours was a mistake.

Have you reported instances of it?"

I've never seen 25 hours claimed for one day.

"I suspect the power imbalance between the two may have resulted in him pressuring her into sex. And that's why she ended up in a taxi. But it's hypothetical - we will never know.

There was another ocassion at a Xmas party when a junior in a Santa's helper outfit also needed the taxi option. I dont recall if the same or different lawyer involved."

Power imbalance is complex and works in more than ine direction. Its hard to see what leverage the partner would have to 'pressurise' anyone into sex. Without knowing whether the second example involved the same lawyer or a different one its difficult to comment, but it doesn't seem any juniors 'needed' a taxi but rather someone wanted to prevent the partner and junior spending the night together, either to protect one or the other from doing something it was felt they might regret, or out of some form of disapproval.

Not that I'm stupid enough to watch the telly but downunder we are literally being drenched in "wimmens are victims" garbage 24/7 at the moment.

Arthur Miller wrote a play about believing hysterical young attention seeking women but apparently no one has seen it (or the awful movie version, which I can forgive tbth).

How upsetting for this girl not to get her imagined revenge against him by blabbing to the media 6 years after the non-event. It's not what she imagined after seeing the celebrity victims being celebrated continually for the last few months.

Don't worry Abusrdiness.

You're an unthreatening beta male who is tailor-made for the friend-zone. As long as you behave you'll be safe.

I love the replies from men. It reminds me of the Orwell quote from 1984.

The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

These people want us to pretend that sexual harassment doesn't exist despite it being the daily experience of almost every woman and girl over the age of 13. For many it begins younger than that.

The good news is that it is the reminder many women need, that as with all other discriminations and prejudices that benefit the oppressor, they will never stop.

They will never give this up voluntarily. They will lie, they will pretend, they will gaslight, they will tell you that everything you are, you know, you experience is wrong.

Because they benefit from it.

The oppressor will never take his knee off your neck. So stand up. Take control of your own life. Focus on your career. Buy your house. Make your friends. Live your life. And leave these people behind.

@7.05 - could you please summarise it in 100 words or less.

@11.21 - what is the 'friend zone'?

Anonymous 15 April 21 13:37

@11.21 - what is the 'friend zone'?

Don't you worry your little bobble head about that. Friends won't be an issue for you.

Gaia 13 April 21 07:39

This thread really does sum up patriarchy.

When it comes down to it, the root of the patriarchy is men doing everything they can to rob women of sexual and reproductive autonomy.

Brilliant. Sums the whole thing up.

And I'm loving seeing the incoherent mewling of the men pretending that sexism, abuse and harassment don't exist. It means they're frightened because they've been found out.

Decent men aren't bothered by posts like this because they know that it's true and they try to be different. Those that object to statements like the one in italics only want to deny it so that they can continue doing it.