The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has banned a senior manager at Manchester personal injury firm Keller Postman from the legal profession following a finding of workplace sexual harassment, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority retaining consent powers over any future re-entry to practice.
Darren Shaw, a chartered legal executive at Keller Postman, made a sexually explicit remark during a firm work dinner on 6 October 2022 after a raffle prize was revealed to be a Virgin Experience Day. The tribunal heard that Shaw told colleagues the winner would spend a night with a junior female colleague, referred to in proceedings as Colleague A and repeated the comment loudly when challenged. The tribunal considered written submissions on his behalf in his absence.
The misconduct did not end at the dinner table. The tribunal heard evidence that Shaw subsequently attempted to coerce two female colleagues to dance with him at a late-night bar, made unsolicited remarks about a colleague’s appearance, put his arm around another without consent, and told a third she was too pretty to be single.
Multiple women made formal complaints to management. One told her employer she had been shocked and had wanted to cry. Shaw was ordered to pay costs exceeding £20,000, and the tribunal ruled that he may only return to any role in the legal profession with the prior written consent of of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
For law firm management, particularly at personal injury practices where large support staff teams and legal executive structures sit alongside qualified solicitors, this decision carries a direct compliance signal. The SRA’s updated supervision guidance, published on 12 June 2026, explicitly addresses firm culture obligations for regulated practices — a framework that applies equally to chartered legal executives operating under the Solicitors Act 1974 and to alternative business structures authorised under the Legal Services Act 2007.
Firms operating PI-heavy models comparable to Keller Postman — a sector that includes practices regulated alongside major defendant insurers such as Aviva, AXA and Allianz face particular scrutiny over social conduct standards.
The SDT’s willingness to impose a profession-wide ban, rather than a firm-level sanction, confirms that regulators treat cultural conduct failures as a matter of professional fitness, not internal HR discretion. Law firm management boards and heads of HR at regulated practices across England and Wales would be prudent to review their social events policies, escalation procedures, and the scope of their mandatory training on sexual harassment in light of this outcome.