The Swiss bank's handling of the alleged rape of one of its graduates was found lacking by a British judge, in a court ruling the victim successfully fought to have made public.
Zurich-based UBS settled a discrimination and harassment lawsuit with a former graduate of its investment bank in London ten months ago. A two-year-old U.K. court ruling seen by finews.com on Monday raises serious questions about the Swiss bank's handling of the case.
Specifically, the employment court's judge told UBS in the 2019 ruling that UBS shouldn't «cherry-pick» what it shared with the alleged victim following a skirmish over an outside investigation, according to the rulin. The former graduate had spoken to a partner at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in an outside probe of the matter.
Unflattering Light
Four years later after the events, the newly-public ruling casts a questionable light on its handling by UBS: The bank sought to exclude the graduate from seeing the Magic Circle law firm's full report, citing attorney privilege.
The tribunal disagreed, saying Freshfields had been hired to investigate, not to advise UBS. The investment bank was led by Andrea Orcel at the time.
Legal Unclarity
A series of executives and investigators were involved with the matter, including the unit's human resources head Siobhan McDonagh, regional investigator Neil Young, investigations chief at the time Ursula La Roche as well as her successor, Emma Molvidson. The 2019 ruling reveals that Orcel, now CEO of Unicredit, wasn't aware that the chief outside investigator worked for Freshfields.
The Freshfields lawyer, Caroline Stroud, is the subject of a complaint to the British legal overseer, according to the «Financial Times» (behind paywall)» which first reported the ruling. The complaint alleges that Stroud failed to make her role working for UBS clear when she spoke to the graduate.
