BOND LEGAL

Bond Legal were appointed to conduct an investigation into allegations, by a number of staff, about the way in which a University had dealt with allegations of bullying and harassment against a senior employee. Those concerns were complex, went back several years and had been the subject of previous unsuccessful attempts at resolution. It was alleged, amongst other things, that the University’s earlier responses to the bullying allegations had been covered up and, as such, amounted to institutional corruption.

We considered large quantity of documentary evidence, interviewed key witnesses and submitted a detailed written report setting out our findings. In considering whether the University’s actions amounted to institutional corruption we had regard to the definition of corruption adopted by report into the inquiry of the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.

In our detailed written report we identified a number of lessons that the University could learn from the events that had led to our investigation. We also made a number of clear and workable recommendations, particularly as to the way in which the University could repair trust between the institution and those staff members who had made allegations against it.