The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has moved forward with a referral of Nicholas Williams, a former partner at Freshfields, to its Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. This comes amidst allegations of inappropriate and unwanted conduct, which are said to have taken place in December 2017 during his tenure at the firm. According to Law.com International, Williams engaged in conduct towards an individual, identified only as ‘person A’, which the SRA deemed as inappropriate.
The development follows Williams’ departure from Freshfields in 2019 after an internal investigation into his behavior. The allegations at that time were reported as related to the #MeToo movement, which shed light on instances of misconduct directed at women.
In response to the allegations against Williams and other partners, Freshfields implemented new conduct rules for its partners, which include fines amounting to 20% of their profit share, as reported by Law.com International. Despite not being part of the tribunal proceedings, a spokesperson for Freshfields confirmed that the firm conducted a thorough investigation into the claims and took appropriate measures at the time.
For further details on this case, you can refer to the original report by Above the Law.