Lawyer who told colleague speaking to her was better than sex sacked

A law firm boss who routinely badgered a junior female colleague and claimed speaking to her was better than having sex has been banned from the profession for five years. 

Takeshige Sugimoto, a partner at the firm, was sacked after sending the junior legal consultant almost 1,000 messages in two months as he desperately tried to persuade her to start a romantic relationship.

A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard the lawyer bombarded her with inappropriate messages and professed his 'love' for her.

This included telling the junior employee late at night via WhatsApp: 'My meeting with you is far much extremely stronger pleasure for me than having sex with anyone.'

Despite her repeatedly telling him she wasn't interested, he told her he was falling in love with her just days after she'd started working at the firm, and later asked her: 'Do you dislike that I have sex with other girls?'

He has now been banned from working as a lawyer in the UK for five years and ordered to pay costs of £36,000 after the tribunal found that he 'used the imbalance of power created by his seniority to take advantage' of her.

The hearing was told that Mr Sugimoto started work as a manager and partner at Bird and Bird in the UK and Belgium, based in the Brussels branch, on 14 June 2018.

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The junior consultant - identified only as Person B - started working for the firm the following year.

Mr Sugimoto invited her to dinner on her first day, which he told her was a tradition for newcomers, and asked her whether she had a boyfriend.

He then insisted on walking her home despite her telling him multiple times that she preferred to walk alone, and he took her hand which she withdrew.

Over the next two months he would continue his inappropriate behaviour, including organising work meetings in which he talked about personal matters with her - sometimes multiple times a day.

The tribunal heard that Mr Sugimoto's conduct had a 'profound' effect on her.

He sent her 989 messages between January 22 and March 27, 2019 including one saying 'I literally fall in love with you' just five days after she started work.

On February 1, 2019, he sent her WhatsApp messages at 11pm, including: 'I can tell you that spending time with you is the happiest moment for me in my 37 years of my life.'

He added: 'My existence is telling me that you are the person who I have been looking for.'

Further message exchanges show that he would wait outside her home, and beg to accompany her when she was shopping - 'I will act as a shadow which will not stop you', he messaged, then the word 'Please'.

He sent her a Whatsapp message on March 16, 2019 which read 'Do you dislike that I have sex with other girls? Do you see that I have sex with other girls as an indication of that I don't have serious feelings towards you?'.

She replied: 'I don't form opinions about who other people have sex with :)'

The junior employee didn't complain about Sugimoto's behaviour while it was happening because he was a partner in the firm, the panel heard.

Bird and Bird LLP Belgium carried out an internal investigation into Sugimoto's conduct in May 2019 after concerns were raised about his behaviour.

Sugimoto admitted to the tribunal that he had been seeking a romantic relationship with the woman, who later left the firm.

The tribunal said as part of its conclusion: 'Mr Sugimoto's level of culpability was high; he was an experienced lawyer who at the time of the misconduct was a partner at the firm.

'He was in a position of authority and influence and used the imbalance of power created by his seniority to take advantage of a junior female consultant.'

Sugimoto has been ordered to pay £36,000 towards the solicitors regulation authority's application and enquiry costs, and he cannot work as a lawyer in Britain for the next five years.

He now works for a law firm in Japan.