Lawyer Emmanuel Pierrat was sentenced on Thursday, for suspicion of harassment, to a two-month ban on practicing after a disciplinary hearing with the Paris Bar Council, learned the AFP Tuesday, July 5 from a source familiar with the matter. Contacted, the lawyer did not respond immediately. His counsel, Me Jean-Didier Belot, indicated that he had not received the decision.
Emmanuel Pierrat appeared in a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday June 28. According to the source close to the case, he was found guilty of breaches of the essential principles of the profession and sentenced to a nine-month sentence of temporary ban on exercise, seven of which were suspended. He also does not have the right to stand for ordinal elections for ten years, according to the same source. The president of the lawyers of Paris, Me Julie Couturier, who had requested 24 months of prohibition to practice including 18 firm, “will appeal this decision“, according to the same source. The appeal is suspensive and Me Pierrat may therefore continue to practice pending a final decision.
Core Principles of the Profession
In a survey published by Liberation in February 2021, around twenty people who worked with the lawyer had described a climate of fear, insults and contempt exercised by their boss, and facts that could amount to harassment. In a long right of reply, Me Pierrat had indicated “contest with the greatest firmness the accusations madeby the daily.
A source close to the case told AFP in early 2022 that the order had opened this disciplinary procedure in early November 2021 for suspicion of “shortcomings» from Me Pierrat to «all the essential principles of the profession» but also for a «management style“can”amount to harassment“.
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The lawyer, also a novelist, essayist and art collector, has defended several personalities from the world of culture, including the writers Gabriel Matzneff, accused of pedocrime, and Edouard Louis or the visual artist Claude Lévêque, suspected of rape of minors. He also defended the ex-ecologist Denis Baupin, accused of sexual violence. Two sources familiar with the matter told AFP that the matter was “overwhelming“. According to a survey conducted in 2018 by the Defender of Rights, 72% of women and 47% of men lawyers report having witnessed discrimination against their colleagues.
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