A former solicitor with international firm Gowling WLG will face a tribunal today where he is charged with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct towards three different people.

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Oliver Edward Bretherton is accused by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of being in a position of seniority when he sent messages with inappropriate content and asked a complainant to engage in ‘inappropriate activity’. It is also alleged he touched this complainant in an inappropriate way, was unreasonable and/or controlling to them and then asked them not to disclose his conduct.

The SRA alleges this conduct was sexualised and/or sexually motivated and amounted to an abuse of his position.

In separate charges relating to a different complainant, Bretherton is alleged to have used inappropriate words and sent e-messages which were ‘inappropriate in both volume and/or content’. This conduct was also said to be sexually motivated and amounted to an abuse of his position.

A third complainant alleges that he behaved inappropriately towards her in a sexualised manner and abused his position.

The alleged misconduct happened during the period between March 2017 and January 2019 and in some cases the dates of the charges overlap with each other.

The allegations are subject to a hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and are unproven. Bretherton is expected to deny the charges and the hearing is listed to last until 10 March. 

Bretherton, admitted as a solicitor in 2007, is now a banking and finance partner with virtual firm gunnercooke, advising on complex structured and secured real estate finance transactions. Before joining Gowling, he worked for Bird & Bird and Macfarlanes. He graduated through the University of Exeter and BPP Law School.