Personnel Today report that a solicitor who groped his secretary, told racist jokes and ran through the offices of his employer with a pretend Ku Klux Klan hood has been found guilty of sexual harassment and racist behaviour. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard various pieces of evidence about Samuel Charkham’s conduct, including: (i) repeatedly touching a female colleague’s bottom; (ii) running around the Bloomsbury offices of Simkins calling the woman’s name and shouting “I’ve joined the KKK” while wearing a white A4 envelope on his head; (iii) at a Christmas work party Charkham told a racist joke in front of the woman, who is black; and (iv) that Charkham habitually squeezed his secretary’s buttocks. An accounts manager at the firm also said she had complained when Charkham touched her bottom in 2018. The tribunal was also told that Charkham told antisemitic jokes, despite being Jewish himself. Charkham, who was a partner at Simkins, faces a bill of more than £50,000: a fine of £30,000 and £21,000 in costs.
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