Complaints: 63 new matters uncovered, says annual report

Eleven solicitors were either reprimanded or warned last year after being found guilty of discrimination, it has emerged.


The annual report on discrimination complaints, presented last week to the Law Society Regulation Board, said there were 63 new matters alleging discrimination in 2005, a small rise on 55 in 2004.


However, they make up a tiny fraction of the complaints received by the Law Society.


Several matters involved multiple allegations, and in total 94 complaints were identified. Almost 60% related to race/ethnicity/colour, 24% to disability and 14% to sex. More than half were closed with no discrimination found, while 21 are ongoing.


Eight of the sanctioned solicitors were all partners in a firm found by an employment tribunal to have discriminated against a female employee by failing to allow her to return to her role as a costs clerk following maternity leave, and victimising her by dismissal and searching her bags at the office. The two partners most closely involved were reprimanded, and the others warned.


The borough solicitor and a manager employed by a local authority were reprimanded, also following a tribunal finding. This concerned the authority and manager discriminating against a solicitor of Sikh origin by failing to treat seriously his complaints of racial discrimination about an opponent in litigation, while the manager was also found to have treated the solicitor less favourably on racial grounds than he treated other members of his team.


The final solicitor warned was an employed lawyer who sent a departmental e-mail containing 'a prurient reference to an individual who was awaiting a sex-change operation'.


Some of the decisions related to complaints lodged in 2004.