Breached SRA principles
An ex-BNP Paribas lawyer has been ordered to pay £31,000 after a disciplinary tribunal found he nicknamed colleagues “the Idiot”, “Pol Pot”, “Jabba the Hutt”, and more.
Benedict Foster, former head of legal for BNP Paribas London’s debt and equity team, faced the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) over his use of “inappropriate, unprofessional and/or offensive nicknames,” which breached SRA principles. The tribunal fined him £15,000 and ordered an additional £16,000 in costs.
Besides the nicknames, Foster was also found to have used “offensive and/or inappropriate language” around the office. This included “c*nts”, “Looks like a bunch of c*ck”, “what the f*ck is this?” and “asking if another individual is autistic”.
The nicknaming emerged during an exit interview, reporting that Foster had called a French colleague “Mad Paul”, used “Hu She” for an Asian female colleague, and named another French co-worker “Biriyani”. Foster also admitted to calling others “the Idiot”, “the Twittering Fool”, “Pol Pot”, and “Jabba the Hutt” while at BNP Paribas from December 2020 to September 2021.
Foster, who trained at Linklaters before moving in-house to the French bank, had been investigated internally following the exit interview report. The bank passed its findings to the regulator in March 2022 and Foster left that month. According to his LinkedIn profile, Foster has been “retired” since then.
Foster denied that the moniker “Mad Paul” referred to his colleague’s qualities as a lawyer, explaining instead that the nickname stemmed from his colleague’s “slightly cavalier approach to timekeeping, attendance at the office and his interpersonal skill”.
Foster admitted that even if his colleagues “shared his humour” that was no excuse. The tribunal determined that Foster had not upheld the standards expected of solicitors, had failed to act with integrity, and did not promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
At his hearing, Foster’s barrister noted the remarks were made during the Covid pandemic, which was a “very stressful time” worsened by working from home with a new IT system.
The barrister said his client “wishes to apologise” because he “never intended any offence” and that “there was never any racist intent whatsoever”.
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