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.

The London management committee at the time comprised Gary Senior, Tom Cassels, Peter Strivens and Paul Rawlinson. However, the decison-making process in regards to Person A and Gary Senior also included support from employment partner Sarah Gregory and Person A's manager, referred to as Partner T.

Strivens added that, following an investigation into the handling of the 2012 investigation carried out by the firm's own disciplinary body (the Professional Responsibility and Practice Committee) in 2018, the body "criticised" Strivens and the partner Koen Vanharaents – who coordinated communication between the LLP and the global chair during the 2012 investigation – for not reporting the incident to the general counsel at the time.

It is unclear whether other partners involved in the decision-making process were also criticised by the body.

Strivens said the firm's reminder did not compel members of the LLP to engage with the firm in the process, and that there was "no clear policy" that they needed to report the incident to the GC. But he admitted that he received criticism from the firm for failing to report the incident to the GC.

He later said that, though he does not have a detailed recollection, he thought he might have spoken to Tom Cassels about whether to inform Westwell of the incident or not during the investigation.

He claimed that Cassels thought it would be "inappropriate" to let Westwell know as it was a matter "to be dealt with by partners on the management committee".

Strivens also said it had not occurred to anyone who knew at the time to report Senior's conduct to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In his witness statement, he said: "It did not occur to me that it was a regulatory issue that ought to be reported to the SRA."

It also emerged that former global chairman Eduardo Leite had decided against letting Engstrom know about the issue at the time of the investigation.

Strivens also said Cassels had expressed to him that he was "annoyed" and "irritated" by some of Senior's emails during the investigation process. He added that he believes Cassels was trying to "achieve a fair outcome", and that the investigation was "carried out in good faith" by Cassels and Blackburn.