The Times - UK (2022-01-19)

the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 21

News

A female civil servant who was photo-
graphed having been bound and gag-
ged by her male colleagues has lost a
£500,000 unfair dismissal claim after a
ruling that the incident was “high jinks”.
A photograph of DeeAnn Fitzpat-
rick, a fisheries officer with Marine
Scotland, tied to the chair went viral in
2018 after she said that she was subject-
ed to the ordeal for blowing the whistle
on misogyny and abuse at the govern-
ment agency’s Scrabster office.
Fitzpatrick, 52, from Thurso, Cait-
ness, was dismissed for gross miscon-

Ali Mitib

Woman loses £500k claim

over being tied to a chair

duct in March last year after Marine

Scotland said she had lied about the

timing and nature of the episode.

Fitzpatrick alleged that Reid Ander-

son and Jody Paske tied her to the chair

in December 2010, three months after

she had complained about an incident

in which a male colleague gestured as if

to throw a punch at a female colleague.

The tribunal found that the chair

picture had been taken in August 2009,

13 months prior to her complaint.

Inverness employment tribunal said

Fitzpatrick’s lies were the sole reason

for her dismissal. But Judge Alexander

Kemp said the photo was “sinister”.

Lawyer sues after

‘intolerable workload

caused breakdown’

as a high-earning City lawyer it was ac-

cepted that Torode, a qualified barris-

ter, would occasionally work long

hours. They have denied that her work-

load was excessive and have told the

court that she was “over-focused on

promotion”. The firm has claimed that

Torode broke down in tears because she

was passed over for promotion.

The court case comes against the

backdrop of a pay war among City law

firms as they battle for recruits. Some

US firms in the Square Mile have in-

creased starting salaries for newly qual-

ified solicitors to more than £150,000,

while the so-called magic circle elite of

English firms are paying freshly quali-

fied recruits about £107,000.

Outlining Torode’s claim in court

papers, her QC, Jeremy Hyam, said that

she started at Ropes & Gray in 2017 as a

specialist in financial crime and

money-laundering regulation. How-

ever, after two-and-a-half months

there was an “exodus” from her team as

colleagues left to join another firm.

It is claimed that their departure left

Torode as the only English-qualified

lawyer in the team and therefore she

faced a “substantially increased work-

load and responsibility”.

He has submitted that her “mental

illness was caused or materially con-

tributed to by the negligence, breach of

contract and/or breach of statutory

duties of the defendant”.

A spokesman for Ropes & Gray said:

“We support anyone who is dealing

with mental health issues. We believe

that this claim is unfounded and we are

defending against it.”

Jonathan Ames Legal Editor

D

espite a plant-

based diet

containing

almost no fat,

pandas never

seem to lose their plump

shape (Kaya Burgess

writes).

Staying “chubby” is

key to their survival and

scientists have figured

out how they do it.

The level of bacteria

in a panda’s gut shifts

with the seasons,

increasing during the

months when bamboo

shoots are available to

help pandas pile on

weight and store fat.

This helps to

compensate for a lack of

nutrition when only

bamboo leaves are

available.

Bamboo shoots, which

are plentiful in late

spring and early

summer, contain higher

amounts of

carbohydrates and

proteins. For the rest of

the year, pandas must

feed on less nutritious

bamboo leaves.

Researchers from the

Institute of Zoology at

the Chinese Academy of

Sciences found pandas

have a higher level of

clostridium butyricum

bacteria in their gut

during the shoot-eating

season. They tested the

effect of the bacteria on

metabolisms by

extracting it from wild

panda faeces and

placing it in mice.

Mice treated with the

bacteria harvested

during shoot-eating

season put on more

weight than those

treated with bacteria

collected during the

leaf-eating season.

The study found that

butyrate, a fatty acid

produced by the

bacteria, can increase

the production and

storage of fats.

The study published in

the journal Cell Reports

noted: “Fat storage is

important for animals

that must regularly

subsist on low-quality

foods.”

‘Seasonal’

gut bacteria

help pandas

stay chubby

A panda’s gut bacteria helps it pile on the pounds when bamboo shoots are available

MARCOS DEL MAZO/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES

A lawyer who “sobbed uncontrollably”
after “intolerable” workloads caused
her to have a mental “meltdown” is
suing a City firm for £200,000 over alle-
gations that it ended her career.
Joanna Torode has claimed that
working conditions at the London
office of Ropes & Gray led to a nervous
breakdown that caused her to burst into
tears at work.
After the departure of colleagues
Torode, 46, claimed to have been left
with an “unrelenting” workload and

was often the last to leave at night, lead-
ing to her emotional collapse from
stress over Christmas 2017.
Torode has said in written submis-
sions to the High Court that she has
been unable to work since being admit-
ted to hospital in 2018. She is suing the
firm, based in the US, for at least
£200,000 in damages for the prema-
ture end to her legal career. The figure
could rise as she is also claiming for the
loss of her “substantial” salary.
The firm, where senior equity part-
ners are calculated to have earned
£2.48 million each last year, denies any
wrongdoing. In the firm’s defence,
senior partners have told the court that

Joanna Torode

said she burst into

tears at work