Baker McKenzie failed to follow its own code of conduct by not referring Gary Senior's alleged misconduct to the firm's general counsel, it emerged in the disciplinary tribunal into the incident on Wednesday.

Giving evidence as a witness of fact on behalf of Baker McKenzie, Peter Strivens, a consultant at the firm, said the firm had not notified the LLP's general counsel, Jonathan Westwell, nor the global general counsel, Peter Engstrom, of Senior's alleged misconduct at the time.

This was despite the fact that about 10 days before the incident in 2012, London members of the management committee had received a couple of emails from the firm reminding them that "any harassment complaints involving partners must be automatically reported to the general counsel as early as possible", the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.