Staff told to work from home and student pulled from placement over partner’s ‘appalling conduct’

Struck off

A partner has been struck off after a disciplinary tribunal heard that staff were instructed to work from home due to his “appalling conduct”, which created an “unsafe and toxic” office environment.

Domenico (Dominic) Pisano’s behaviour was so troubling that a university even withdrew a student from their work placement at the firm, which was part of their degree programme.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) found nine proven instances of “offensive, intimidating, and demeaning” behaviour by Pisano, formerly co-director of the London firm Dominic Levent Solicitors, between September 2021 and April 2022.

In one example, Pisano moved his face “inappropriately close” to a female trainee’s face and shouted at her during a virtual meeting with a client of the firm.

On another occasion the partner referred to a former employee as a “gaylord” and “battyman”, before later showing a paralegal an image of a woman’s vagina on his phone. He also told the same woman, “I can’t look at you, you look sexy,” before covering his eyes.

In a further incident noted by the tribunal, Pisano began kneeing the chair of a work-experience student before kicking a bag containing empty bottles and a lunch box, and in doing so, “used such force that his foot connected” with the student’s ankle.

The SDT’s judgment summarises what happened next:

“The Respondent [Pisano] later apologised to [the student]. However, [the student] questioned the sincerity of this apology. They later went for a walk where they discussed several things including the Respondent’s future plans for the Firm and how [the student] fitted into those. [The student] described this as the Respondent’s attempt at ‘power play’ to remind him that he was powerful. After they had returned to the office, a suit that the Respondent had purchased for [the student] arrived at the office. After this the Respondent said something to the effect of ‘obviously this suit is not blackmail as it was ordered before.’”

The partner was also found to have made inappropriate comments to a trainee regarding their religious beliefs, telling them in front of the office that they should “obey and listen to him” and “follow the teachings of the Quran”.

Another witness told the tribunal that he would use vulgar terms such as “being raped” or “fucked in the ass” when discussing a difficult case he was working on.

The tribunal also noted that Pisano’s conduct made the office environment so “unsafe and toxic” that the firm’s co-director had to ask the employees to work from home.

In striking off Pisano, the tribunal said “it should have been obvious to all solicitors, particularly an experienced solicitor in a position of a seniority and authority, that a solicitor that shouts at colleagues, uses unsuitable, insulting and/or homophobic language whilst in the office, shows colleagues pornographic pictures, physically assaults (whether recklessly or intentionally) a member of staff in the office and/or bullies, harasses and demeans colleagues whilst in the office, does not act with integrity”.

Whilst Pisano initially engaged with the regulator in its investigation and attended the first case management hearing, he took no part in the remaining tribunal action and was not present or represented at the hearing.

Along with being struck off, Pisano was ordered to pay just shy of £42,000 in costs.