Former barrister of the year “failed to act with integrity”, regulator finds
A leading Chancery barrister has been handed a £2,000 fine for making repeated “sexual advances” towards a woman in a posh hotel bar.
John Randall QC — a tenant at Birmingham’s St Philips Chambers — “made sexual advances” towards a woman referred to only as “Ms X” by “repeatedly” touching and stroking her thigh “without her consent”.
According to a bar disciplinary tribunal decision published this week, the incident took place in Highgate House — a luxury hotel in Creaton, Northamptonshire — back in November 2014.
The three-person tribunal found that Randall — who was voted Birmingham Law Society’s ‘Barrister of the Year’ back in 2012 — had “failed to act with integrity” and slapped him with a £2,000 fine. He can appeal the decision.
This news comes in the same week Legal Cheek exclusively revealed a Winckworth Sherwood partner had resigned amid claims he drunkenly groped female employees at the firm’s Christmas bash.
Winckworth Sherwood refused to comment on the accusations made against John Burnand, but did confirm to Legal Cheek that he had “resigned”.