Ryan Beckwith has maintained that the complainant instigated the physical contact that is the subject of the hearing into the Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner’s alleged sexual misconduct.
Though he accepted his actions had put the firm at “considerable reputational risk”, Beckwith asserted that complainant Person A had made “false allegations” against him, claiming that the physical contact at the centre of the hearing was “a consensual sexual encounter between two adults”, adding that his conduct only fell below the standard expected of a Freshfields partner because he was married, not because he had abused his position of authority.
