Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers is fined £1,500 after she bullied and mocked her junior opponent in court by comparing her to brat Violet Elizabeth Bott from the Just William books
- Althea Brown humiliated her rival during a two day employment tribunal
- Mimicked submissions in ‘noticeably different and disrespectful tone of voice’
- Ms Brown was fined £1,500 and must pay Bar Standards Board costs of £5,820
An experienced barrister at a prestigious law firm once worked at by Sir Keir Starmer has been fined £1,500 after she bullied and mocked her junior opponent in court by comparing her to brat Violet Elizabeth Bott from the Just William books.
Althea Brown humiliated her rival during a two day employment tribunal by calling the female barrister a liar and mimicking her submissions in ‘a noticeably different and disrespectful tone of voice to her usual voice’.
A tribunal of the Bar Standards Board heard she spoke to her more junior opponent – referred to only as Ms C – in a ‘very patronising manner’ and even called her ‘intellectually incapable’.
Ms Brown, of London-based Doughty Street Chambers, then compared Ms C to notoriously insufferable Just William character Violet Elizabeth Bott by suggesting her submissions were akin to her lisping catchphrase ‘I’m going to scream and scream until I’m sick’.
Bott was the spoiled daughter of a local nouveau-riche millionaire in Richmal Crompton’s classic books about scruffy and loveable 11-year-old William Brown, the first of which was published in 1922.
Althea Brown humiliated her rival during a two day employment tribunal by calling the female barrister a liar and mimicking her submissions in ‘a noticeably different and disrespectful tone of voice to her usual voice’
The judge had to ask Ms Brown, who has been a barrister since 1995, to apologise twice to her opponent but adjourned the hearing after Ms C left due to the ‘bullying and insulting behaviour of Ms Brown’.
The tribunal found the comparison to Bott unfairly suggested that Ms C was ‘behaving in a juvenile and/or petulant manner’.
The female judge from the original employment tribunal even ended up abandoning the hearing due to Ms Brown’s behaviour, revoking rulings she had made and rescheduled for a fresh hearing instead.
In the order following the adjournment, she wrote: ‘The hearing was distressing primarily because of the conduct of Ms Brown, she spoke to Ms C in a very patronising manner and at one point called her a liar.
‘She periodically spoke over both Ms C and myself. She mimicked the way Ms C was speaking and tried to make a mockery of her name. She also said at one point that Ms C was intellectually incapable of dealing with the issue.
‘On each occasion, I asked Ms Brown to apologise and informed her that such behaviour was unprofessional and not permitted in my courtroom.
‘Ms Brown apologised on the first day but refused to do so on the second day stating she would ‘reflect on it’.
‘After an adjournment, she did apologise. This was after, however, Ms C had sent myself a note during the adjournment stating that she was not well due to the bullying and insulting behaviour of Ms Brown.’
Ms C told the Bar Standards Board tribunal: ‘I felt I could not continue as I had been subjected to so many nasty comments.’
His Honour Witold Pawlak, chairman of the tribunal, said: ‘We find that in using those words Ms Brown was implying that Ms C was behaving in a childish and petulant way in order to get her own way.
‘Counsel on the opposite side to Ms Brown was so distressed by Ms Brown’s behaviour that she felt unable to continue with the case on the second day. This was actual harm caused by the misconduct.
‘It is noteworthy that Ms Brown’s opponent was 22 years her junior in call. In our judgement Ms Brown… adopted an aggressive and disruptive approach to get the result she wanted for her client, an approach which got out of hand.
‘It was conduct verging on bullying.’
Ms Brown was reprimanded, fined £1,500 and ordered to pay the BSB’s costs of £5,820.
Bonnie Langford as Violent Elizabeth Bott, the spoiled daughter of a local nouveau-riche millionaire in Richmal Crompton’s classic books about scruffy and loveable 11 year old William Brown, the first of which was published in 1922
Doughty Street Chambers is a prestigious law firm based in London’s Doughty Street, with offices also in Manchester.
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who has represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his fight against extradition, is based there.
She is also the co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice with her husband, Academy Award-winning American actor George Clooney.
Sir Kier Starmer was a barrister at the chambers from 1990 onwards, primarily working on human rights issues but also represented Helen Steel and David Morris in the McLibel case in 1997.
He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002, aged 39, and in the same year he became joint head of Doughty Street Chambers.
The chambers was formed in 1990 and is currently headed by Geoffrey Robertson QC and Edward Fitzgerald QC, the latter whose work against the death penalty led him to represent criminals such as Myra Hindley, Mary Bell, Maxine Carr, various IRA prisoners, and Abu Hamza.
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