A senior lawyer has been reprimanded for sharing a sexual photo with a junior female colleague in a courtroom.
Geoffrey White, a criminal defence solicitor, was found to have breached professional standards after making sexually explicit and derogatory comments to a probation officer at Crawley Magistrates’ Court in 2021.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) on Tuesday said that the 66-year-old would benefit from diversity and inclusion training after his inappropriate conduct damaged the public’s trust and confidence in the legal industry.
Judge Edward Nally said: “Attitudes have changed, the profession has modernised.”
The probation officer, referred to as Person A, claimed Mr White showed her a meme on his mobile phone of a naked woman lying down on a table at a barbeque with bottles covering her breasts in May 2021. The naked image had a caption to the effect of “if you have left your wife at the BBQ, please come and get her”, according to legal documents referred to in the hearing and prepared by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which brought the case.
Mr White, who runs his own law firm specialising in legal aid, then told Person A that “it looks a bit like you” and “your hair looks the same”.
The SDT also found that Mr White made further sexual comments about Person A in July 2021, when joking about a female client arrested on suspicion of having sex on a train. Person A overheard Mr White tell a prosecutor that she “knows all about that, standard probation practice”.
The probation officer said that both incidents made her feel uncomfortable and that she continued to feel uneasy when she saw or spoke to him.
Mr White, who has represented 25,000 people across the past three decades, claimed that he was trying to make Person A laugh rather than offend her.
Humour as ‘coping mechanism’
The Sussex-based lawyer said that he wanted to “lighten the mood” and diffuse the tension with the woman, who appeared “nervous and so serious” in her new role in the probation service.
He said: “I got it catastrophically wrong. I misjudged the situation very badly indeed.”
Person A said she did not consider the remarks sexual harassment or sexually motivated, but said Mr White’s sense of humour is not appropriate for the workplace. Both incidents took place when the court was not in session.
Mr White told the tribunal that he uses humour as a “coping mechanism” to deal with his stressful job, which often involves representing criminal defendants who are aggressive, mentally ill or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
He said: “I’ve been physically and mentally abused on a daily basis and I deal with it by brushing it off and being frivolous about things.”
‘It is difficult to defend what is indefensible’
Mr White admitted to the allegations and said he accepted the consequences for his actions. He was ordered to pay £12,000 in court costs.
Mr White, who began his legal career as a court clerk at 16 years old, said: “It is difficult to defend what is indefensible.”
The case is the latest example of a senior lawyer accused of professional misconduct towards vulnerable, junior female colleagues.
High Court judge Sir Marcus Smith last week was reprimanded for “serious misconduct” after writing a love letter to a junior member of staff.
Meanwhile, a Linklaters partner was banned from drinking alcohol at work events after touching the bottom of a female associate during a business trip to Vienna.
Mr White was contacted for comment.
