The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has found former London head of Baker McKenzie Gary Senior guilty.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has found that Baker McKenzie's former London head Gary Senior committed serious professional misconduct with his actions towards a junior colleague in 2012 and improperly seeking to influence the investigation and its outcome.

A panel of three judges at the U.K. industry disciplinary body delivered their decisions on Friday. The panel ruled that the evidence given in the tribunal proved that he had behaved in an inappropriate manner towards the complainant, Person A, and knew he was in a position of authority.

The judges are set to announce any sanctions later on Friday.

The tribunal had previously heard Senior agree that his behaviour towards the lawyer, including asking her to stay behind in his hotel room, paying her a compliment and moving towards her to kiss her, was "totally inappropriate".

Senior has agreed to pay costs of £40,000 plus VAT to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which brought the case, his QC said.

A spokesperson for Senior provided a statement on his behalf: "I bitterly regret what happened in 2012. The matter was not covered up by the firm in 2012. An investigation was carried out by the firm involving a number of senior partners. At the time I believed I behaved appropriately in that investigation while cooperating with them and no comment to the contrary was made to me by those conducting the process. I cannot make any further comment until I have studied the Tribunal's reasons for deciding as they have, as they did not give any reasons for their decision today."

But others accused in the case were found not guilty of misconduct. The panel found that former Baker McKenzie head of dispute resolution, Tom Cassels, "made errors of judgment" in the manner in which Senior's misconduct was dealt with, but his errors of judgment did not amount to professional misconduct on his part.

The tribunal also found that Martin Blackburn, who was the former head of human resources throughout this incident in 2012, was not a decision-maker in the decisions made in regards to Senior and he had clearly relegated the investigation to Cassels.

Baker McKenzie was cleared of claims that it failed to promptly report Senior's misconduct to the regulator.

In a statement Baker McKenzie said: "The firm has co-operated fully with the SRA throughout this process. We are pleased that no finding of professional misconduct has been made against Baker McKenzie.

"We are a different firm from a decade ago with new leadership, an enhanced purpose and a commitment to diversity and inclusion. This is reflected by the actions we have taken and policies we have introduced that ensure that all of our people, regardless of seniority, feel empowered to call out wrong or inappropriate behaviour. Following this incident, we have also enhanced our internal policies, including around corporate governance. Something like this must never happen again."

The decisions come after a tumultuous hearing, which originally started in December. Senior stood accused of sexual harassment perpetrated on a junior associate in 2012. Baker McKenzie, its former head of dispute resolution Tom Cassels, as well as former head of human resources Martin Blackburn, were all accused of having allegedly mishandled the internal investigation into the matter at the time.

The hearing ended last month with revelations that the Senior matter had previously been reported to the regulator in 2015.

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