Lawyer who launched Claire Swire email keeps job

The man that sparked off the whole Claire Swire email debacle (and whose ejaculate is yum), Bradley Chait, has been formally disciplined but not fired. His company, City law firm Norton Rose, started disciplinary proceedings against Chait and four other employees soon after the extent of the email became clear.

Norton Rose issued a press statement this lunchtime saying it had considered all the evidence and decided dismissal was not appropriate. Bradley and the others were faced with bringing the company name into disrepute and abusing the company's email system. Both of these charges are strictly true, but Chait could never have imagined what would happen once he clicked send.

The release is very vague, talking only of them having been disciplined. We called Norton Rose to ask what exactly this means - suspension? Formal warning? Its spokeswoman told us the company couldn't give us any further details as the disciplined ones still had the option of going to a tribunal to argue that they had been unfairly treated. That seems somewhat unlikely but then you never know what these lawyer types are capable of :-). ®

The press statement is in full below:

PRESS STATEMENT
The disciplinary investigation, which began when Norton Rose became of the circumstances, has now been completed.

Norton Rose has carefully and thoroughly considered all the evidence and the options available to us. The situation is very sensitive and obviously, the issues are not straightforward.

Naturally, we are disappointed in the behaviour of certain employees and concerned about a clear breach of Norton Rose's employment terms and conditions. This is an internal matter but to avoid speculation we would like to state that the employees have been disciplined but not dismissed. Dismissal was considered but not felt appropriate.

The employees concerned are horrified by the consequences of, and genuinely regret, their actions.

The firm regrets any offence caused by these employees, who reacted to a private email originating outside the firm.

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