Top City solicitor who groped female colleague and threw up over her shoes after Christmas party is suspended for two years
Share:
A top city solicitor who groped a female colleague before throwing up all over her shoes after a Christmas party has been suspended from practice. Nicholas Williams, a partner at 'Magic Circle' law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, was 'so intoxicated that he could barely stand up' following the festive work bash.
![[The incident happened when Mr Williams had been made a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, pictured]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/12/93351573-0-image-a-2_1734697153643.jpg)
As she tried to help escort him home in the early hours of the morning, he fondled the woman's breast, a disciplinary tribunal heard. After they were dropped off he mauled her and fell on top of her as he tried to put his hand up the junior associate's skirt, following which she shouted 'no absolutely not', told him to get off her and pushed him away.
However, he then pinned her against her wall, groped her breast and under her skirt and tried to kiss her on the mouth. As Mr Williams was unable to tell her where he lived, she called another cab to take them to her home, where her partner was waiting.
It was on arrival that he then 'vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes' and was eventually escorted home in a third taxi. This happened in December 2017, a few months after Mr Williams, then 37, had been made a partner in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
Nicholas Williams, pictured, was 'so intoxicated that he could barely stand up' following the festive work bash. When the incident was investigated he then resigned from Freshfields in 2019. He told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) he had no memory of the events due to his 'extreme intoxication' and insisted the behaviour was 'so out of character' that he stills finds it difficult to believe they occurred as described, but admitted the allegations on the basis of the woman's account.
