You canNOT be serious – another one!
We checked the SCQ electronic filing records and sure enough, proceedings were commenced a week ago:
5304/11 SADLER -V- THE PARTNERSHIP OF DLA PHILLIPS FOX
The claim is brought by Kathie Sadler, a former special counsel in the DLA Piper Brisbane office, and stems from an ugly spat allegedly involving Martin McEnroe McEniery – one of the firm’s Brisbane-based partners. Ms Sadler alleges Mr McEniery pushed against her in a stairwell, physically threatened her, made derogatory comments about her professional ability and swore at her. Ms Sadler further alleges that when she complained to another partner – Alex Guy – has said she should:
“make a nice morning tea and bring it in to build bridges.”
Ms Sadler was a special counsel within the firm’s corporate and financial business services unit from May 2006 until April this year, when she alleges she was constructively dismissed after years in which she felt threatened, intimidated and verbally and physically abused at work. The claim was filed by Kerin Lawyers and seeks $630,000 in damages against the partnership of DLA Phillips Fox in Queensland. That’s a lot of tennis balls.
Mr Guy, the chap who allegedly thought a nice morning tea would help Ms Sadler build a bridge over verbal threats and intimidation, joined DLA Phillips Fox Brisbane in 2009 and became an equity partner in Jan 2010. This followed a 14 year career in the project finance team at DLA Piper in London. At the time of the move, he told The Lawyer:
“Australia has the feel in terms of PPP that the UK had eight or nine years ago and is about to take off … I’ll be helping to develop their finance and projects expertise generally and raise the firm’s profile in the project finance market.”
But was the Teacup Harassment Bridge the result of a PPP? Query whether Mr Guy has raised DLA Piper’s profile any further than tea and scones.
Meanwhile, Mr McEniery – the fellow accused of pushing and physically threatening Ms Sadler – is a part-time lecturer at QUT, teaching Privacy Law. He once authored a powerpoint presentation (available here) in which he very helpfully observed:
Vicarious Liability
• ‘An employer will be vicariously liable to third parties for tortious acts of the employee
which are impliedly authorised, that is, acts committed while the employee is acting
within the scope of his or her authority and performing the employment duties or acts
incidental to the performance of those duties.’
(Hollis v Vabu Pty Ltd (2001) 207 CLR 21)
• In simple terms: the employer will be vicariously liable if the tortious act is committed
by the employee within the course of his or her employment
This means that if you are at work and you bully or harass someone, your employer might have to stump up damages. And if you are a partner in a law firm facing those allegations and you want to quarantine your earnings, it might be a good time to … defect to Thompson Lawyers. Or listen to The Beatles.
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Firm Spy missed the point that of the large bulk of corporate group partners to defect from DLA Brisbane, Mr McEnirey was not one of them. He did not play well with his fellow corporate partners.
Having worked at DLA Brisbane for 18 months in the corporate team several years ago (before leaving to go to a real law firm that does more than debt collections and 20k equipment financing) I can assure you that Mr McEnirey is the least of that group’s problems. He was one of the very few normal people in that group. Though he does have some real strange people working for him!
As for Ms Sadler, despite her role as special counsel and being on the pay roll, I think I saw her once in 18 months. Your story is wrong – the DLA Brisbane freaks left for Thompsons! The normal people stayed (at least from this perspective). I always found Mr Mcnirey to be a gentleman and very respectful of women. That is why I find this story hard to believe.
The photo in this article which is captioned as being ‘Alex Guy’ is actually a photo of Mr Martin McEniery.
Scuttlebutt, I’m sorry, was it several thousand years ago that you worked at DLA? Did you and your mate “Mr McEiniery [sic]” enjoy dragging your knuckles ’round?
Scuttle please reveal your identity as you may need to be called as a character witness for Macandairey
@Scuttle – please leave it to those with more recent and relevant experience (and their heads not rammed squarely up their own, or perhaps Mr McEniery’s arse) to comment on these matters.
@Scuttle – pretty transparent post there Big Bird. Are your XXXL trousers still held up waaaaaay too high by that big belt, or have you styled up to braces and suspenders at that flash new firm??
Go for it Kathy – I totally and utterly support Kathy Sadler’s move against Martin McEniery – having first hand knowledge of what has gone on behind the scenes to both Kathy and others I am so pleased that at last someone is going to expose him and the firm for the many careers that have suffered as a result of this behaviour.
As for scuttle – obviously soo out of the loop – the good guys left the firm – the ##### is still there and hopefully won’t be able to get a job anywhere else – a sentence he was happy to impose on the many staff who were forced to leave the DLA Phillips Fox because of him.
Ornithologist – sorry buddy but whoever scuttle is, it ain’t me. I didn’t even know about this story until yesterday. This site is funny, but it averages one good story a fortnight, doesn’t require daily reading. Now as I never worked for either of them and nor do I know them well at all, how would I know what is fact or fiction? Word importantly why would I care? But thanks for bringing me into something this interesting.
Hey Big Bird, my best friend, I thought it was you! You can’t throw your best buddy off the scent with your funny alias and forthright denial. We should catch up for beer and scuttles.
Yours forever,
Snuffy
Big Bird – most unconvincing denial since Clinton, B re Blewinsky. Good luck to you and your colossal trousers though.
Ms Sadler, I don’t like your chances of getting what you deserve for being assaulted at work. The firm magnanimously offered me a paltry sum for destroying my life, yet demanded I sign a “no adverse comment” clause in a Deed of Settlement.
Then sacked me while on sick leave from being bullied.
This isn’t an adverse comment, but fair comment. I just wanted to highlight the harassment that I endured there under an incompetent, disingenuous and machiavellian manager.
And when I contacted the Managing Partner to present my “case”, instead of talking to me, he went on the attack… not realising that I know that he has been formally advised by a number of ex-employees about the antics of the person in question.
As for the other partners in my office, great guys for the most part… but I suggest it’s time to get a handle on toxic workplace practices – if you can tell me the turnover rate for employees in my team, I would be v. interested…
Might need to start a support group.