'Hu She' & 'Jabba The Hutt' | Solicitor fined for creating crude colleague nicknames & offensive emails

A senior solicitor who referred to colleagues as “Jabba the Hutt”, “Pol Pot” and “The Twittering Fool” has been fined £15,000 by a disciplinary panel for inappropriate and offensive conduct that “harmed the reputation of the profession”.

Leo Benedict Michael Foster, who had worked at BNP Paribas for nearly three decades and headed its London Debt and Equity Markets legal team, admitted using a series of “inappropriate, unprofessional and offensive nicknames” for colleagues, and sending emails peppered with profanities and derogatory remarks over an eight-month period between 2020 and 2021.

For his actions, he will pay a £15k fine plus £16k in costs.

Among the notable examples cited in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) ruling was Foster’s repeated use of the nickname “Hu She” to refer to an East Asian solicitor at the bank. He used the term in emails and video calls at least 12 times. The tribunal heard that he described “Hu She” as one of the “odious acolytes” of “Pol Pot and Audinary”, mocked her as “oleaginous in her flattery” and dubbed her the “Global Head of Bag-carrying”.