Top lawyer Ben Aulich fined $20,000 for professional misconduct

One of Canberra’s top lawyers has been fined and publicly reprimanded for professional misconduct, partly over a “bawdy” dance.

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) ordered Benjamin Aulich, who is the founding partner of the firm Aulich, to pay a $20,000 fine as well as the Council of the ACT Law Society’s legal costs in its recently released decision.

Presidential member Geoffrey McCarthy said the council brought two charges against Mr Aulich due to his conduct during a professional development retreat in February 2021, which he had gone to with 13 of his firm’s employees, 11 of whom were women.

On the first night, the team was drinking alcohol and playing a card and drinking game that required a participant to “do something” when a particular card was drawn.

When one card was drawn, it instructed the oldest person at the table to remove their pants, and the oldest person was the then-48-year-old Mr Aulich.

In response to the urging of the others, he pulled off his jeans before one of the others tried to steal them from his arms.

Presidential member McCarthy said he had “placed himself in a circumstance which allowed for accidental exposure of his penis while in the company of staff of the firm”, although he hadn’t actually exposed himself.

Later that same night, Mr Aulich performed a cabaret-style dance in front of the others around a campfire while shirtless, wearing suspenders and holding a rose between his teeth. He behaved in “a bawdy manner” during the dance, the presidential member said.

He also said that the day after, one employee circulated a colouring book with demeaning and sexualised words regarding Mr Aulich and their firm.

While Mr Aulich didn’t create the book, he didn’t confiscate it nor admonish the employee.

Later, in 2021, one of the employees who had attended the event stopped working for Aulich and wrote to the council to express her concerns about Mr Aulich’s behaviour. The Law Society then raised a complaint against Mr Aulich and gave him a copy of the employee’s letter.

“It is, I think, fair to say [Mr Aulich] came out swinging,” presidential member McCarthy said.

“In a 10-page single-spaced letter dated 17 June 2021, he defended every aspect of his conduct and the conduct of the firm.”

For instance, he wrote: “We are unashamedly not like other law firms or public sector workplaces that are often conservative, that frown upon office ‘banter’ and that do not allow swearing or joking around”.

However, in another letter later that year, he said “on reflection” he understood how his first letter had come across and he was “embarrassed and ashamed”.

“On proper reflection, I think I can say that my desire to be an unconventional, fun, non-stuffy and non-conservative law firm and allowing staff to ‘let off steam’ has clouded my judgement as to what is acceptable and what is not, particularly in light of my role as a senior practitioner and partner,” he said.

“This is extraordinarily embarrassing for me … I understand I deserve the embarrassment, and I am an idiot if I don’t see the wake-up call and respond to it.”

In 2022, he wrote to say he had engaged an independent human resources consultancy firm to “overhaul” the culture at Aulich, if that was thought necessary.

Mr Aulich pleaded guilty to both of the council’s charges, agreeing that his conduct constituted professional misconduct and that he should be publicly reprimanded.

He said the colouring book was created by others at the firm without his knowledge and was meant to ridicule rumours about his firm in a satirical way rather than be lewd or vulgar.

He also said the card game was spontaneous and his dance was meant to entertain and make attendees laugh.

Presidential member McCarthy said Mr Aulich was guilty of professional misconduct but was “very unlikely to engage again in such conduct” and was satisfied he had “changed his ways”.