THE Supreme Court has suspended a senior partner in a law firm for sexually harassing a junior associate lawyer.
In a decision promulgated on April 12, 2023, the High Court imposed the penalty of “two-year suspension from the practice of law” against the senior partner.
The SC did not disclose the names of the senior partner and the complainant.
The victim filed an administrative complaint with the SC and charged her superior with committing “sexually-laced acts ranging from dirty jokes, innuendos, inappropriate personal intimate questions about her romantic relationships and sharing extramarital sexual conquests.”
According to the SC, the senior partner also made actual sexual advances on the junior associate, even to the point of confessing that “he would have fallen for her had they been within the same age-range.”
In imposing the penalty, the SC did not consider the apology issued by the senior partner because of the nature and character of the complained acts, the frequency throughout the two-year period he worked with the complainant, the degree of moral influence and ascendancy, and the effect of his acts on her.
“As a senior partner in a law firm, respondent ought to know that junior associates, whose legal careers are just starting, would naturally look up to him. They would place their trust in him by seeking mentorship and professional growth under his wing,” part of the ruling penned by Associate Justice Antonio Kho Jr. said.
“The respondent breached such trust by exhibiting reprehensible conduct constituting sexual harassment, and even tried to exculpate himself from administrative liability by claiming that he was just ‘misinterpreted’ and or ‘taken out of context,” the SC added.
Furthermore, the High Court said the respondent’s inappropriate behavior created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment for the complainant, so much so that it necessitated her seeking psychotherapy treatment as a consequence.
The SC has yet to release a copy of the full ruling.
