Brit lawyer fired for steamy ‘Sexpat’ blog sues for 3.5m pounds compensation

LONDON - A British lawyer, who was fired after she wrote a thinly disguised erotic novel about her experiences as an expat in Russia, has sued the firm for 3.5 million pounds compensation.

Deidre Clark, 44, who earned 126,000 pounds a year working in the Moscow office of Allen and Overy, the world’s sixth biggest law firm, was accused of “revelling” in her notoriety, the Daily Mail reported.

She had written about “drug taking, heavy drinking and casual sex” in her blog in which she used the real names of colleagues and clients and posed in skimpy lingerie.

A tribunal hearing was told she ignored requests by her bosses to disable her website after she saw its readership soar and was sacked in January 2009 for gross misconduct.

Clark, who allegedly wrote domestic violence is ‘OK as long as a Russian man is hitting you’, retaliated by claiming her bosses were being ’sensational and disrespectful’ by mentioning her ‘creative’ writings.

She insists she was sacked in January 2009 after she suffered ’sexual persecution’ by her former boss, the head of A and O’s Russian office, 60-year-old Tony Humphrey, with whom she claims to once have had a fling.

Her bosses said she has no right to have her claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination heard in the UK, as “her base is not Great Britain”, but Clark said she wanted to set up home in the UK - and this is where she flies to have her facials.

In legal papers submitted on behalf of Allen and Overy, Thomas Linden QC, said Clark was sacked for “gross misconduct” for her writings under the name “Deidre Dare”.

Linden argued that Clark should not bring her case in Britain as she had been based in Moscow during her employment, and had been writing for a Moscow newspaper.

The case continues. (ANI)