There’s a guy at work who behaves unpleasantly towards everyone else. He likely has a case of antisocial personality disorder; he’s very impulsive, has mood swings and doesn’t seem to care about the effects of his behavior on others. He’s also one of the partners in the law firm.
He will make inappropriate sexual comments to women in the office, take his shirt off, push others and even mooned someone. Yes, in the law office. To him, this is a way of playing around. Last Friday, he did it to me. I am thinking of sending the following email to him, my boss (the other important partner in the firm) as well as the coworker who was there when it happened.
Here is the body of the email:
On July 22nd 2011, as John MacKenzie and I were in our office, you entered our office as I was exiting it. You pushed me and then placed yourself behind me and placed your arm around my neck. You then pushed me into another room in that position.
This email has for object to eliminate any ambiguity concerning my consent to physical contact with you. There has never been, there isn’t and there never will be.
I should mention that I do not believe talking about it with him and making him understand I dislike this would be effective. Others often make their displeasure known and it is ineffective.
By mentioning physical contact and absence of consent to it, I am hinting at an assault charge the next time he does this.
Unless you’re a partner too, I think you’re essentially screwed. Should you be able to send that email without fear of losing your job? Yes. But you probably will.
Have the higher-ups been alerted to this before, or have people only made their displeasure known to Dickie McDickweed?
How OLD is this guy, anyway? It sounds like he’s not quite right in the head - maybe some type of dementia?
I’m an articling student; it’s like doing your residency for lawyers. I don’t think I would lose my job. It would reflect quite poorly on my articling supervisor from the point of view of the bar.
It’s a small law firm where nearly everyone is a solo (I talked about partners because I wanted to avoid discussing the particulars of the structure but I guess I should have). The guy in question and my articling supervisor are the ones who rent the space and have the most clout. There aren’t higher-ups really, it’s a firm with 6 lawyers.
My articling supervisor is friends with the guy but sees that the ways in which he acts are unpleasant.
The guy is about 40 years old. He’s very good at law and excellent at getting clients.
Does your firm have an HR department? If so, report him. What he’s doing is illegal, and the firm is responsible for doing something about it once reported. If there is no HR department, you should report it to a senior partner.
I know that in California a manager is personally responsible for handling reports of sexual harassment. That is, a manager who ignores such a report may be ordered by a court to pay damages. It’s not clear to me whether this is by Federal law or just California law.
I used to temp at law firms a lot.
I would say easily 30% were certifiably nuts.
I saw one throw a heavy, glass ashtray at his assistant.
I saw one throw a screaming fit, cuss out a client in words that would make a sailor blush, and ignore cases she didn’t like.
There are many more stories, some quite bizarre and some just plain nasty.
You can either suck it up, or write that letter.
Chances are good with the letter than you will get fired, and they will figure out a way to make you a disgruntled employee. Of course, if you got a couple other people to sign that same letter, it might make it more difficult to single you out as a troublemaker.
My advice, however, is to suck it up and get finished what needs to be finished, and then get away from there ASAP.
There is a reason people hate lawyers, and getting to know them personally doesn’t help much in many cases.
No HR department. Just two guys with a lot of clout in the office and well established practices, one lawyer who’s largely independent of them and 3 lawyers who are at the beginning of their careers and dependent on the two seniors.
For more precision, his tone was not hostile. He was trying to get me out of my shell (I am quite reserved around people I don’t feel some connection to). I suspect that to him, this is both horseplay and a way of being a domineering asshole.
Next time he disrespects you, start laughing, walk up to him and strike him on the chin with your elbow. If done correctly, his eyes should roll to the back of his head, his knees will buckle and body should then curmple to the ground. If he’s still on the ground after 5-10 seconds, you will have to render first aid. Remember, you were only defending your self.
I’m not familiar with the concept of an articling student, but how did you come to work at this firm? Was this assignment arranged through your law school or university? If so, contact the people at the school who set you up in the assignment and let them know that the situation is not working well.
Edited to add that if you only expect to be there for two more months, I’d recommend just gritting your teeth and waiting it out. In the meantime, make sure to keep a contemporaneous record of everything that happens and keep it outside the office.
Over here, if you want to be a lawyer, you get a law degree then pass the bar and then do 6 months of articling. After that, you’re a lawyer. I have two months left.
I just saw a posting for an articling position and applied. My articling supervisor took me because he puts a heavy premium on cognitive capacity and I’ve got that, even though I’m meek and mild.
Yeah your right. Sometimes that’s the only language a bully understands. Out smart him somehow. Try to expose him so he has to endure consequences rising from his behavior.
I have no ides what the job entails, but is there any chance you could do it outside of the office? Could you suddenly need to spend your days working at the library, doing “reasearch”? Work from home due to a “sprained ankle”?
Since you are only there temporarily, I think the best strategy is to just tolerate it until you can get out and pity the poor bastards who work there permanently.
It’s not worth risking that there could be some sort of backlash to take a stand when you know your contact with him is coming to an end soon regardless.
I’ve been through bootcamp so I can take some abuse. Nevertheless, I don’t think someone should be able to get away with that. He’s the kind of person I despise and I hate to see behavior like that.
I’m thinking of telling my articling supervisor but I really don’t know how he would react. Two months from now, I won’t be at that firm but my supervisor and the guy are friends and business partners.
Perhaps I could sue him after I’m gone. I’m thinking that not telling my articling supervisor might result in my lawsuit going nowhere because I might have an obligation to tell my employer but if I tell my supervisor, he could take the guy’s side and I could be fucked. I might apply to work at other law firms and they will contact my articling supervisor. If he’s displeased with me, that could seriously affect me.
