A male solicitor formerly with international firm Taylor Wessing LLP is to face three allegations of misconduct over his behaviour towards an unnamed woman.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority said it had decided to prosecute Daniel Paul Hugh Hutchings over allegations dating from February 2020. The allegations are unproven and subject to a hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. 

It is alleged that Hutchings, admitted in 2010, made inappropriate, unwanted and sexually motivated comments to Person A, and/or touched her waist area without her consent on more than once occasion.

It is also alleged that he approached her on a second occasion, after she had intentionally moved to distance herself, and informed him his attention and comments were inappropriate and unwarranted.

In September, the SRA said that since 2018 it had received 251 reports of alleged sexual misconduct at law firms. The SRA had 117 related ongoing investigations into potential breaches of its code of conduct.