Hearing told lawyer touched interns sexually

A young law student with a summer job at Russell McVeagh said she felt like a field mouse being hunted when a partner at the firm cornered her at a Christmas party in 2015.

The woman, whose name was suppressed when she gave evidence against the lawyer at a professional disciplinary hearing yesterday, said the lawyer put his arm around her in a way she thought was intimate and invasive.

She decided he was drunk, and he was nuzzling in to the side of her face and neck as if he was trying to kiss her, she said.

The man’s lawyer, Julian Long, said the man was apologetic.

The woman told the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in Wellington that she ended up feeling very distressed, scared and trapped.

The lawyer no longer works at Russell McVeagh and he has name suppression, at least until the tribunal gives a decision on the seven charges he faces.

The charges relate to students on summer internships at the firm and incidents alleged to have happened in social settings six years ago.

Opening a lawyers national standards committee case against the lawyer, Tim Bain said power and power imbalance was a theme of the case.

Russell McVeagh held itself out to be a leading law firm to work for and student lawyers on summer internships were effectively on a three-month interview for their dream job, Bain said.

At a Christmas party the lawyer sexually assaulted four students, putting an arm around their waists, touching buttocks, breasts and moving his hands on their bodies while dancing, it was alleged.

He was stopped from getting into a taxi with one of the women after the party.

Not long after, the lawyer invited people to his house for another Christmas party.

A fifth student was in a sauna with him, both were partially clothed and the lawyer kissed and touched her intimately, Bain said.

The lawyer faced an alternative charge that cumulatively his actions amounted to misconduct.

His actions justified a finding that he was not a fit and proper person to be a lawyer, Bain said.

The first witness said what she experienced from the lawyer was not much different to what had happened when she was out clubbing but the fact that it happened in a work setting made it more damaging.

She spoke repeatedly about having seen a psychologist.

The hearing is due to last a week.