A legal aid solicitor who made offensive comments about a person in court and showed her a photograph of a sexual nature has been reprimanded.
Geoffrey White, who represented himself, told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal he had apologised to the ‘young lady’ for his conduct, which he described as ‘foolish and not very funny, frankly’.
White, 66, admitted he showed Person A an image on his phone of a naked woman lying on a table with bottles covering her breasts and made a comment to her while in court, but not while court was in session, saying ‘it looks a bit like you’ and/or ‘your hair looks the same’.
He also admitted to making a comment in court, when court was not in session, in which he said Person A ‘knows all about that, standard probation practice’ in relation to a female defendant’s charge of having sex on a train.
White, who set up Geoff White Solicitors of Horley, Surrey, in 2008, admitted the allegations against him, and breaching SRA principles. The tribunal found the allegations proved after a short hearing in which White apologised for his conduct.
He said: ‘I take full and absolute responsibility for what I have done. I apologise to the profession and to the young lady. I have made a huge error, and I am here to face the consequences.
‘If I could turn back time I would but I cannot, and we are here to deal with this in a way that does not hopefully put an end to my career.’
White told the tribunal he was ‘more comfortable in a court room than a social situation these days’. He said: ‘I use humour as a coping mechanism.
‘The last thing I wanted to do was offend the young lady concerned but that is clearly what has happened and I am here to be appropriately sanctioned for upsetting her which was never my intention.
‘The second allegation, the more serious one, it was a foolish and flippant remark which has clearly upset her. It was not my intention.’
Speaking of his legal aid work, White said: ‘I have been physically and verbally abused on an almost daily basis. I deal with it by brushing things off, being frivolous of things [outside of court].
‘I have dedicated my entire life to [my work]. I hope my good record [will] hopefully shine through.
‘I am beyond embarrassed to be here. I try to do things in an honourable and principled way and on this occasion I got it wholly wrong. To get into this situation at this late stage [of my career] is painful.’
SDT chair Edward Nally acknowledged the two separate incidents were ‘isolated’ cases and White ‘did not intend to cause harm’. He added: ‘It was a misplaced and extremely poorly judged attempt at humour.’
In brief remarks, Nally said the tribunal considered White would benefit from equality, diversity and inclusivity training.
He added: ‘The profession has moved on in the intervening years since the respondent qualified. Attitudes have changed, the profession has modernised.’
Sanctioning White, Nally said: ‘Without diminishing the general significance to the profession of the need for people to behave in an equal, diverse and inclusive manner and to avoid these sorts of conduct and behaviour we have heard about, we feel the balance here argues for a reprimand.’
White, admitted to the roll in March 1993, was reprimanded. He must also pay agreed costs of £12,000.
