Social events: Misconduct occurred on consecutive days
A barrister who won a bid to have his disbarment for sexual harassment reconsidered has been disbarred once again.
Robert Michael Kearney, who was called in 1996, admitted to sexually harassing a woman during a mini pupillage and, separately, two pupils at social events.
Last year, the High Court ruled that, while there was no actual bias on the part of the Bar disciplinary panel that disbarred him in 2023, the argument of apparent bias succeeded.
This was after the tribunal hearing on sanction in December 2022 was adjourned because Mr Kearney had Covid.
The same day, the panel chair emailed the chair of the Inns of Court, copied to the director-general of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the registrar of the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS), to complain about a lacuna in the BTAS rules which meant the panel could not impose an interim suspension on Mr Kearney pending his likely disbarment (this has since been closed).
The court held that “a reasonable observer” would conclude that Mr Kearney “would have a justified sense of grievance at having been disbarred by a panel which had already formed such views in private before any evidence and submissions on mitigation had been adduced”.
However, a freshly constituted tribunal has disbarred Mr Kearney again, although its reasons have not yet been published.
The original tribunal heard that he told one pupil that she needed to have sex with senior members of the Bar to be successful and another that she was frigid. Mr Kearney was also found to have engaged in lewd conduct towards a mini-pupil.
The misconduct involving the pupils took place on consecutive days in February 2020, first at a social event organised by his then chambers, Lincoln House Chambers in Manchester, and then at a bar.
The decision followed a six-month suspension in 2021, when he was found to have made crude sexual comments to a woman on a mini-pupillage and told not to take on pupils or mini-pupils in future. The High Court rejected his appeal.
A BSB spokesman said: “Mr Kearney’s actions were unacceptable and repeated and constituted a breach of the BSB Handbook. This conduct is not compatible with the standards expected of the profession and this is reflected in the decision of the tribunal to disbar Mr Kearney.”
The tribunal’s findings remain subject to appeal. The tribunal also ordered that Mr Kearney should not be issued with a practising certificate pending any appeal.
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