Senior lawyer ‘pulled white envelope over his head and said he had joined the Ku Klux Klan’

A senior lawyer pulled a white envelope over his head and told his black secretary he had joined the Ku Klux Klan, a disciplinary tribunal has heard.  

Samuel Maurice Charkham, 68, allegedly wore the makeshift costume in the central London firm’s offices as the woman was about to take dictation from him.

The woman said he also slapped her bottom on 18 occasions over a three-year period at media and commercial law firm Simkins LLP in Bloomsbury.

The tribunal was told Charkam ran through the corridors calling her name, then approached her desk with the envelope on his head and announced: ‘I have joined the KKK’.

The woman carried on working but then had to go outside and collect herself..

Nimi Bruce, for the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, claims he also told a racist joke involving the word ‘c**n’ at a Christmas Party in a West End bistro in December 2016. 

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, heard the joke and felt ‘extremely uncomfortable’ as colleagues turned to look at her, it was said.

In December 2017, she signed an agreement which closed the matter and included a number of confidentiality clauses, the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal was told.

Giving evidence she said: ‘Every Christmas they have a departmental dinner or event, for the department. 

‘I positioned myself as far away from him as I could and he made a joke which I sort of caught the odd word but I realised it had some racial connotation because everyone at the table instantly starred at me, like I had soup on my face and I just wanted the ground to open really, because here I was again I would rather just be a home.

‘I caught the odd word because I knew it was bad because I heard the word: ”c**n”.’

Recalling when Charkham allegedly made the remark about the KKK, she said: ‘I was poised with my hands on the keyboard and then the respondent came running through the office with a white A4 envelope on his head laughing, joking saying he has joined the Klu Klux Klan ”hahaha”.

‘Well, I was sort of shocked that this has happened. I was going to dictate and I always aim to be very professional and I said to my boss can you dictate the letter very quickly so I can go outside and get myself together.’

Turning to claims he slapped her bottom she said: ‘When you are making a cup of tea his offices are to the back of you.

‘I was making a cup of tea and he just came in.

‘The fridge is underneath the counter, he came in from behind and grabbed both cheeks on my bottom, one hand on each cheek. It is not normal.’ 

Charkham denies touching the woman at all and claims the remarks he made were jokes in bad taste and not designed to offend. 

The lawyer claims it was a ‘manifestation of his playful sense of humour.’ 

He said: ‘I have told racist jokes in the past in a very different political climate to the one we are in now and would never dream of doing it now. I don’t accept that it was directed at her.

‘I accept that it was in bad taste. It was a joke I heard and I just repeated it. As I say, I apologised afterwards and I cannot see the point of any further discussion.

‘What I can say is my understanding of that group now is a lot more detailed and I understand what it is and what it represents now and I wish I knew what it represented then because I would not have dreamed of it.

‘The Black Lives Matter movement did not exist four years ago.’ 

Charkham, who became a solicitor in 1977, has since left the firm and was working for Portner Law Limited, Marylebone at the time the allegations were announced by the SRA.

The solicitor denies all the charges and the hearing continues.