The firm has previously made headlines due to a staff member’s inappropriate behaviour.
In 2021 former partner James Gardner-Hopkins was found guilty of six charges of misconduct.
The case, which revolved around incidents which occurred in the 2015-16 summer, is widely thought to have sparked Aotearoa’s #MeToo movement when it was reported in 2018.
In June 2021 the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal found Gardner-Hopkins’ conduct in all the charges relating to six separate incidents met the test of being regarded as “disgraceful or dishonourable”.
Five of the charges related to his behaviour at the law firm’s Christmas party.
The sixth charge related to his behaviour at another firm function held at his home.
During that hearing, multiple former summer clerks testified that Gardner-Hopkins had touched them inappropriately, with one woman describing that she felt like a “piece of meat”.
One former worker told the tribunal that supporting the interns who accused Gardner-Hopkins of sexual misconduct felt like a “full-time job”.
She said even after complaints had been escalated, he remained working and the women were “petrified” of running into him and “traumatised”.
The woman said she was told by various people in the firm that she was a “troublemaker” and that she was making a “mountain out of a molehill”.
“Gaslighting is probably the best way to describe it.”
The incident where the practitioner touched an intern’s breast in front of others led to charge five, and was “arguably the most serious” according to the ruling.
